From 14th to 18th August 2013 the BEST team carried out a follow-up series of engagement visits to local communities in the Maasai Mara and Samburu regions of Kenya and northern Tanzania in order to present the project's results and seek feedback on our findings.

• Field itinerary
• Photographs of community engagement visits

The project's closing workshop for policy-makers, practitioners, community users and researchers was hosted by ATPS and held at ILRI's Nairobi offices on 13th August, 2013:

• List of participants
• Workshop programme
• Presentations:
• Ongoing studies framing BEST:
• Pastoralism, Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (Dr. Philip Osano, McGill)
• Wildlife conservancies and pastoral livelihoods in the Maasai Mara, Kenya (Claire Bedelian, UCL; presented by Prof. Katherine Homewood, UCL)
• Political and community context (Dickson Ole Kaelo, University of Nairobi & Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association)
• Conservation and wildlife in Kenya (Dr. Mohammed Said, ILRI)
• The BEST approach (Dr. Marcus Rowcliffe, ZSL)
• Project findings and future potential (Dr. Aidan Keane, Imperial College London)
• Summaries of breakout group discussions:
• "Policy-maker" group
• "Community" group
• "Researcher" group

Dr. Aidan Keane presented a summary of work carried out by the BEST team which used experimental games to explore the livelihood decision-making of Maasai pastoralists at the International Congress for Conservation Biology in Baltimore on 22nd July

• Understanding drivers of illegal grazing in Kenya's Maasai Mara (Dr. Aidan Keane, Imperial College London)

Dr. Mohammed Said gave a talk summarising BEST's work to the ESPA Researchers and Stakeholders Workshop held in Mombassa, Kenya on 11th June 2013

• Biodiversity, ecosystem services, social sustainability and tipping points in East African rangelands (Dr. Mohammed Said, ILRI)

From 16th February to 2nd March 2012 the BEST team carried out a series of engagement visits to local communities in the Maasai Mara and Samburu regions of Kenya and northern Tanzania.

• Field itinerary
• Photographs of community engagement visits

A stakeholder engagment workshop was held at ILRI's Nairobi offices on 14th February, 2012:

• List of participants
• Workshop programme
• Presentations:
• Policies and priorities in East African rangelands (Prof. Katherine Homewood, UCL)
• Policies for rangelands in Kenya: Emerging opportunities and challenges (Michael Odhiambo, RECONCILE)
• Conservancies and tipping points in East African drylands (Dr. Jan de Leeuw & Mohammed Said, ILRI)
• Biodiversity, ecosystem services, social sustainability and tipping points in East African rangelands (BEST) (Prof. Katherine Homewood, UCL; Dr. Marcus Rowcliffe, ZSL; Dr. Aidan Keane, UCL & ZSL)
• Summary of breakout group discussions

Dr. Aidan Keane presented an overview of the project at the ESPA Annual Conference in London on 26th August 2011

• Biodiversity, ecosystem services, social sustainability and tipping points in East African rangelands (Dr. Aidan Keane, UCL & ZSL)

Prof. Katherine Homewood presented an outline of the project at the ESPA Workshop in 2010

• Biodiversity, ecosystem services, social sustainability and tipping points in East African rangelands (BEST) (Prof. Katherine Homewood, UCL)

Interim progress reports submitted to the ESPA directorate:

• Report, August 2011
• Report, March 2012

A list of acronyms used throughout this site and the project materials:

• List of acronyms