Milgis Trust

The Milgis Trust is a community-run conservation organisation protecting wildlife and pastoralist lands across the Matthews Range and Ndoto Mountains of northern Kenya. The Milgis Trust hosts camel-supported walking safaris, territory that climbs to almost 9,000 feet out of semi-arid country and is home to Samburu and Rendille pastoralist communities. The Trust is based at Lkanto hill, where the Laana Nikan and Parsaloi luggas meet to form the Milgis Lugga, a seasonal underground river that sustains people and wildlife across the region, and conservationist Helen Douglas-Dufresne, known locally as Mama Helen, has led walking safaris here for more than three decades.

A camel safari involves walking on foot with a Samburu crew, camels carrying the supplies, through country with no roads or lodges and a real chance of encountering elephant or Grevy's zebra. The Trust employs 29 uniformed scouts and 32 local informers recruited from surrounding communities to monitor poaching and illegal logging, work funded by the safaris, alongside water projects and schools for the families who share this land with the wildlife.