veryone has heard of East Africa’s outstanding national parks such as the Masai Mara and the Serengeti. But you may not be as familiar with the concept of conservancies – designated protected areas sprinkled throughout Kenya and Tanzania.
These too are spaces where the land and wildlife are carefully sheltered from the onslaught of development and modern life. One major difference between these spaces is that the parks are owned and maintained by their respective national service while conservancies are owned and managed by the indigenous people of the area
Both ventures exist to nurture wildlife in the most natural setting possible while providing opportunities for safari-goers to explore and get close to the animals.
So What’s the Difference?
Being organized and run by a large bureaucracy, the national parks have some strict rules by which the guides and their guest must abide. Park hours are regulated which usually means they are only open from sunrise to sunset. If you were hoping to go on a night game drive, they are prohibited in most national parks.
Also, off-road driving is not allowed in the parks; one must stick to the allocated roads, although these are usually extensive.
The parks generally do not limit the number of visitors, nor the number of vehicles near an animal sighting. Sometimes this can lead to excessive numbers of safari-goers gathered in a particular area.
On the other hand, the parks are often well-situated to afford views of events not available in the conservancies. For instance, from July through October, one can only view the spectacle of thousands of wildebeests flooding over the Mara River in the Masai Mara National Reserve giving giving some limitations to the parks.