The LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy (simply called Lumo Conservancy) is located in the Tsavo eco-system, in Taita Taveta County in Southern Kenya. The conservancy is an innovative community-run wildlife sanctuary formed from three community-owned ranches (Lualenyi, Mramba and Oza whose first letters form the word LUMO). It is partly funded by the EU and involves local people at every stage of the project, from the park rangers to senior management.
LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy is wedged between Tsavo East, Tsavo West National Parks and Taita Hills Game Sanctuary - approximately 220 kilometers (three and a half hours drive) away from Mombasa and covers an area of 41,613 (657 square Kilometers)
Lumo Community Wildlife Conservancy is a vital wildlife migration corridor between Tsavo East and Tsavo West, a link to the Taita Ranches and Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania. It is an ancient elephant migratory route, and an important breeding site for lions and is the oldest and most promising conservancy in the Tsavo Conservation Area (TCA).
LUMO membership is solely drawn from the Taita Ethnic Community. Organizational structure consist of the Board of Trustees comprised of nine members. Others employees of the conservancy include a manager, accounts clerk and game scouts professionally trained by KWS at Manyani field training school.
The conservancy is home to 61 large mammals and over 350 bird species. The land is mainly rolling Savannah and the stunning views from Lion Bluff Lodge stretch to Tanzania’s Pare Mountains and the legendary Mount Kilimanjaro.
The Conservancy benefits the local Taita community by offering employment, bursaries, improvement of infrastructure, education and health facilities.
The initial development of Lumo has been possible due to funding from two donors. The European Union, through the Biodiversity Conservation program (BCP) has financed LUMO for developing of the Conservancy’s infrastructure, while USAID through the Conservation Of Resources through Enterprise (CORE) program to develop a tented lodge which they now have leased to a private investor at a fee. African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) participated in the completion of the lodge (Lions Bluff) and is the development partner.
LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy hosts cape buffalo, elephant, leopard, masai lion, masai giraffe, zebra, hartebeast, impala, waterbuck, Thomson's gazelle, lesser kudu, dik-dik, and other smaller animals, including a great diversity of birdlife.
The sanctuary has one community-owned tourist lodge, the Lion's Bluff Lodge.
