Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary

Mwaluganje was created in the 1990s when about two hundred local landowners pooled their plots to form a corridor allowing elephants to move between the Shimba Hills and the Mwaluganje forest, land they had been farming with constant crop losses to the same animals. Shareholders receive dividends from the sanctuary's income, and the scheme is one of the earlier examples in Kenya of paying communities to keep land as wildlife habitat. The result is a narrow reserve of baobabs, cycads and rocky hills carrying elephants in good numbers, along with baboons, bushbuck and birds. The elephants here are often visible along the tracks and around the waterholes. There is a small lodge and campsite, and the sanctuary is usually combined with Shimba Hills on the same day trip from the coast.

What you actually see

• The elephant corridor - the strip of land linking two forest blocks.
• Elephants - regularly seen along tracks and at waterholes.
• Baobabs and cycads - the distinctive vegetation of the corridor.
• Community ownership - land pooled by shareholders who receive the income.

When to go

Dry seasons for tracks and for elephants concentrating at water. Mornings and late afternoons are the active hours. It is small enough to cover in a few hours alongside Shimba Hills.

Honest expectations

The sanctuary is narrow and the game list short beyond elephants. Tracks are rough. Facilities are limited to a small lodge and campsite. Elephant numbers vary with movement between the two forest blocks, so sightings are likely but not certain.

Nearby

Shimba Hills reserve adjoins; Diani and the coast lie east.