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Page updated on:
29 September 2006
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Affiliated Organisations
The Haller Foundation
www.thehallerfoundation.com
Is committed to sustainable ecosystem
thinking. Its primary objective is to raise money to support and promote
the pioneering work and principles of Dr Rene Haller. The foundation aims
to set up training and education programmes demonstrating how wildlife
conservation, sustainable agriculture and wildlife conservation can be
effective and commercially viable.
Bamburi Cement Company
www.bamburicement.com
Under the management of
pioneering industrialist, Dr. Felix Mandel, the Bamburi Cement Factory
started production in 1954. Using the extensive coral deposits along the
Kenyan coast and new techniques for cement production, the factory has
since become the largest manufacturing export earner in Kenya, producing
1.3 million tons of cement a year.
Through a series of acquisitions,
Lafarge, the second largest materials group in the world, became the main
shareholder and currently provides technical management and support, for
the enterprise. It was Dr. Mandel who initiated the Agriculture and
Garden Department at Bamburi, and employed Dr. Haller to run it.
Dr. Haller then extended his role and
started experimenting on how to rehabilitate the quarries that had been
mined by the cement factory. He retired from the company at the turn
of the Millennium but continues to be involved in an advisory capacity and
through the Baobab Trust. Bamburi's rehabilitation programme is now run by
Baobab Farm (see below), but in some parts of the site this has been
stalled or hampered by conflicting policy priorities. The Haller
Foundation hope to be able to get it back on track so that it can be used
as a Centre of Excellence for Mining Rehabilitation.
Baobab Farm Ltd. (now Lafarge Eco
Systems)
In his capacity of 'Head of the Garden Department' at Bamburi, Dr.
Haller, started producing vegetables, then ventured into poultry, sheep,
goats and dairy. By 1977 the 'Garden Department' had become an
economically viable and self-sustaining and so was spun off as a separate
enterprise - Baobab Farm. Dr. Haller expanded the farm to include
guinea fowl, quail, ostriches, crocodiles and tilapia fish, all of which
were available, as fresh produce, from the Baobab Farm Shop. Today,
Baobab Farm is managed as a unit of Bamburi Cement Ltd. Some of its activities have been
transferred to Baobab Trust (see below) but the main current ones are:
Tourism: The reclaimed quarries of Bamburi have nearly 100,000 visitors a
year, enjoying the wildlife of Haller Park, the guided tours, lectures,
films, restaurant and bar, as well as the nature and cycle trails.
Crocodile Farm: 6000 crocodile eggs are hatched annually from both the
farm's own breeding adults and from eggs collected from the Tana River
area. A community programme, set up in this area, encourages locals
to conserve the crocodiles by rewarding them for hatchlings, as well as
running a crocodile breeding programme. Apart from being a tourist
attraction, the crocodiles are sold for their meat and skins both locally
and for export.
Shimba Hills Association
For many years the
Shimba Hills National Reserve has suffered from declining gate revenues,
which have impacted the ability to manage wildlife and to maintain its
infrastructure. An support group comprising of interested members of the
public has been set up which has the following objectives
- To enhance wildlife
and habitat conservation in the reserve
- To assist in fund
raising
- To promote a diverse
pool of expertise which can be tapped in to to help in the management
of the reserve.
To create public
awareness and win local support.
Baobab Trust makes an active contribution to the Shimba Support Group
offering expertise on wildlife issues, use of its premises, assistance in
building projects and the promotion of tourism.
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