Everyone loves a dramatic wildlife rescue.
But the biggest rescue mission in Naboisho doesn’t unfold in front of cameras — it happens quietly beneath our feet, where entire landscapes, wildlife populations, and community livelihoods are either saved or lost.
And the invisible predator behind so much damage? Erosion.
It strips grasslands bare, cuts deep wounds across the plains, drains away water and nutrients, and weakens the ground both wildlife and herders depend on.
Naboisho’s team is taking it head-on — a tough battle to bring dead land back to life.
Phase 1 began at Paiya in 2023 in cooperation with Basecamp Explorer Foundation. Paiya was one of the worst-hit areas where erosion gullies had carved up to 1.5 km through the landscape and sunk more than 2 metres below the topsoil horizon, funnelling dangerous volumes of water toward neighbouring communities.
The team moved fast:
• 612 tons of quarry rock were placed strategically inside gullies to slow runoff and trap soil.
• A grader cut 275 acres of swales across the slopes above, stopping sheet erosion before it entered the gullies.
The results?
One storm alone showed what was being saved: in places, gullies trapped half a metre of soil after just 64 mm of rain. Within one-month, new grasses, including species missing for years, began re-establishing. Swales reduced runoff into the gullies by up to 90%, retaining an estimated 12 million litres of water in the soil during a single 50 mm storm.
This is restoration at its purest: fast, practical, and transformative — a rescue mission measured not in drama, but in the quiet rebuilding of an entire ecosystem.
The heavy machinery, rock deliveries, and swale-digging initially caused concern among landowners. A sensitization programme was launched. Once landowners saw the restored soil, the returning grasses, and the improved grazing conditions, they became the project’s strongest defenders and the driving force behind expanding restoration across the conservancy.
Every restored patch of land is a rescue mission for wildlife, for cattle, for families.
Join us, fuel the restoration that keeps Naboisho alive.
