Eramatare is a word in the Maa language of the Maasai. It means stewardship, the inherited duty of care that binds people, livestock and land as one responsibility.
Supported so far by Selina Wamucii, the purpose of the Eramatare initiative is to restore degraded ecosystems in indigenous communities using traditional knowledge and cultural heritage. Elders teach what they know about healing their own land, young people and women are trained to carry out the work, and a share of the income from sustainable tourism pays for it. The project runs today with the Maasai, Turkana and Samburu communities in Kenya.
Extreme climate effects such as extreme heat, recurring drought and deforestation are thinning the pastures, shrinking the water and taking with them the livelihoods these lands have always carried. The knowledge of how to bring such land back has not disappeared. It rests with the elders, who learned it over lifetimes on the same ground.
Eramatare returns that knowledge to use. Elders identify what restores their particular landscape and teach it as paid custodians of the knowledge. Young people and women are trained as Stewards, learning the traditional practice of restoration alongside professional hospitality, and they lead the work on the ground. Host households welcome the travellers who come to these recovering lands.
Ecosystems that degraded recover, and the communities benefit. Each community measures the recovery of its own land and keeps its own records of the practices it applies, so what the elders know moves into a form that will outlast them.
The knowledge that restores these places has always belonged to the people who live in them. Eramatare puts it into use as a resource that catalyzes restoration.
For organizations that would like to support this initiative, kindly get in touch via our contacts page and we are very grateful to work with you.