Mau Forest (Kenya)


		The Ogiek Peoples and the Mau Complex, Kenya

This page was
last updated on:
May 15, 2011

See the Process

	Territorial Negotiations and Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation in Kenya

1:10,000 scale (1.5 x vertical exaggeration) model of The Mau Complex, Nakuru and Narok Districts, Kenya, (August 2006).

Note: The model (52,800 ha or 528 km²) is the first Participatory 3D model constructed in Africa.

Depicted data reflect the mental maps of approximately 120 Ogiek Peoples from the 21 clans. Elders populated the model with their memories dating back to 1925 and reconstructed the landscape as it was at that time. The model displayed 64 data layers including different types of areas, points and lines.

The blank model has been constructed by 30 students and 5 teachers from the Nessuit School and with the assistance of a total of facilitators and trainees

In 2007 the model was expanded to include additional 290 km²and specifically portions of the Njoro Watershed.

Image by Giacomo Rambaldi/CTA ©

Recommended readings:

Giacomo Rambaldi, Julius Muchemi, Nigel Crawhall and Laura Monaci. 2007. Through the Eyes of Hunter-gatherers: Participatory 3D Modelling among Ogiek Indigenous Peoples in Kenya. Information Development, Vol. 23, No. 2-3, 113-128 (free copy available from Information Development Journal)

Giacomo Rambaldi, Julius Muchemi, Nigel Crawhall y Laura Monaci. 2007. A Través de los Ojos de los Cazadores-Recolectores: Modelado participativo tridimensional entre los pueblos indígenas Ogiek en Kenya. Information Development, Vol. 23, Nos 2/3, - Translated with permission by CTA

Watch voiced PowerPoint presented at the SfAA 2008 in Memphis, USA on 28 March 2008.

Francis M. Nkako HSC, Christian Lambrechts, Michael Gachanja, Bongo Woodley. 2005. Maasai Mau Forest Status Report 2005, Ewaso Ngiro South Development Authority, Kenya

Mau Complex Under Siege: Continuous destruction of Kenya’s largest forest, UNEP, 2005

Ogiek elders offer conservation skills, Daily Nation, 28 July 2009

Restoration of the Mau Forest ecosystem web site

	Method/tools: P3DM and GIS
	Trainees' and facilitators' contacts:
	Details on the exercise:
	Highest elevation on the model: 3,020 m a.s.l. (20 m contours)
	The map key (legend) displays 67 different features identified by the villagers.
	Photo documentation of the exercise
	Tips for practitioners

Process documentation
[ PDF: 1.4 MB | 66 pages ].
To read, you need Adobe Acrobat.

Interview with Dr. Nigel Crawhall, IPACC Director

Interview with Julius Muchemi, Director, ERMIS Africa

Three years after the completion of a Participatory 3D model in Nessuit Kenya, head teacher Julius Sangogo recalls the uses of the model by local, national and international agencies and more importantly by the pupils of the local primary school.

The exercise – which has been a step in a long lasting process initiated by the Ogiek Peoples to regain their cultural identity and lost ancestral territories (see case) – has stimulated community cohesion, surfaced lost memories on the environment and traditional ways of living as hunter-gatherers, facilitated inter-generational knowledge exchange and raised awareness on the critical status of the entire Mau Complex in terms of depleted forest cover and affected watershed functions. The elders concluded that they have now a more holistic understanding of their social, cultural and bio-physical environments. They will confer among themselves to define the best way forward in terms of improving the safeguarding of their traditional knowledge, the sustainable management of natural resources and advocacy actions aimed at regaining recognitions of their ancestral rights.


The exercise has been made possible by the coordinated effort made by the Ogiek Peoples, ERMIS-Africa, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC), the Gaia Foundation-UK and the Nessuit Primary School.

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