The Hirola Enterprise
The Hirola Enterprise is a profit social enterprise fully owned by the Hirola Conservation Programme (HCP), established to implement scalable nature-based enterprises that deliver shared benefits for biodiversity conservation and local communities.
Our initiative works with local women and youth groups to explore Nature based enterprises such as:
Offset your carbon to protect the Hirola. Support the conservation of Hirola and reticulated giraffes by offsetting your carbon emissions. By purchasing biodiversity credits, your company can restore critical rangelands, safeguard endangered wildlife, and empower local communities.
Conservation Incentives: We offer incentives to farmers and landowners in exchange for managing their land to provide vital ecological services.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): We enable voluntary business actions that reduce ecological footprints and foster long-term sustainability.
We are working towards developing the conservancy’s specific businesses (such as tourism) by building commercial capacity within the conservancies, attracting investors and facilitating agreements with commercial operators.
We work with the local Somali pastoralists to develop culturally related enterprises such as the Herio as part of the long-term tourism development plan.
The majority of the locals in our region are pastoralists who keep large herds of livestock. However, in recent years this practice has become unsustainable particularly with recurrent droughts taking a toll on the herds and leading to losses of unknown magnitude. As a result, and besides having alternative livelihood sources, we are partnering with the local Somalis to seek livestock markets during prolonged droughts that will allow them to destock to a manageable size and restock when necessary during the long rainy seasons as a way to cushion them from repetitive drought-related losses.
Stay overnight at our upcoming Tsavo camp to encounter hirola, or visit our Garissa camp to get close to eticulated giraffes, explore nearby farms, and enjoy the cool Tana River breeze.
Purchase T-shirts, traditional Somali items like coolant bottles, swords, kikoi, coffee cups, and dirac clothes. Every purchase helps restore degraded rangelands and put food back on the table for hirola.