Conserving the Sacred: Socially Innovative Efforts in the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio Forest in Kenya

Abstract

Indigenous Communities residing inside or next to autochthonal forests conserved them through governance frameworks that invoked traditional sacral law and reverence for their resource commons. More recently, however, the link between communities and forest conservation has been mired by dynamics of dispossession and displacement. Through a qualitative case study approach, using key informant interviews, transect walks, focus groups, and interviews, the researchers explore the conservation dynamics in Loita, in the South of Kenya, specifically looking at the sacred Enaimina Enkiyio forest. The study evaluated how the Loita community has challenged two state initiatives predicating conservation efforts and mobilised the sacred to conserve their resource commons. It combines a social-ecological approach with social innovation theory, spiritual geography, cultural studies and literature on indigenous knowledge systems, looking at, among others, sacred values attributed to places, nature–culture relationships, and value and belief systems and rituals. The findings point to the embeddedness of the forest resource in the way of life of the Loita Maasai and the appropriation of the ritual/sacred element as a framework to negotiate and mediate access, use, and conservation outcomes. The Loita community is grappling with and responding to the pressures exerted by various forces on the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio in socially innovative ways, as exemplified in the conservation efforts by the Ilkimpa Community Conservation Association (ICCA). It leverages aspects of the sacred in negotiating its claims over the Enaimina Enkiyio forest, showing that community-driven initiatives present alternative approaches capable of maintaining the connection between communities and their resource commons by integrating the sacred in this connection.

1. Introduction

Several studies, using varying lenses, have considered approaches towards conserving resource commons such as landscapes, hills, mountains, forests, water bodies, or pastures. One school of thought explores externally driven conservation initiatives that view resource territories as wilderness enclaves surrounded by Indigenous Communities prohibited from their use [1]. This approach, however, disregards the inextricable relationship between Indigenous Communities and their sacred lands. The view disclaims collocated communities’ rights to these resources [2] and ignores traditional knowledge systems informed by belief systems that influenced their governance, land use management, and conservation [2,3].

Another school advances an alternate view, premised on the age-old practice and active role of Indigenous Communities residing inside or next to such resource commons in their conservation. Proponents of this school point to the intersection of community and nature and refer to a cosmo-vision that does not separate human beings from nature but believes in their entanglement. Consequently, this approach places the community at the centre of resource management and conservation [4]. Often, such societies, whilst invoking pre-emptive rights to register their ownership claims over their territory and embedded resources, likewise rely on sacrality and sacral law as a collective framework. The framework is critical for negotiating and mediating the use, management, development and conservation of their territory [5]. Girão Rodríguez de Mello et al. and Miller [6,7] explore the place of local actors and agencies in the global conservation discourse and advocate a framework where local communities occupy their sacred lands as an expression of their spiritual and cultural identity. Their interaction with nature is shaped and mediated by a mutually reciprocal relationship with their sacred landscapes and embedded resources. This paper aligns with the second school as explored through the specific case of the Loita Maasai of southern Kenya and their resource commons, including the Enaimina Enkiyio forest. We consider how this community has invoked the concept of pre-emptive rights to lay claim to the forest common. We do this by questioning how the Loita community has mobilised the sacred value to negotiate and mediate access and use rights, ultimately engendering the desired conservation outcomes. The objective is to evaluate how the Loita community has mobilised the sacred in the conservation of their resource commons.

The paper uses a qualitative case study approach and explores the research question in four episodes. The first sets the scene by looking at the embeddedness of the forest resource in the way of life of the Loita Maasai. In this episode, we also explore the appropriation of the ritual/sacred element as a framework to negotiate and mediate the access, use, and conservation of forest resources [8,9]. The second episode elaborates on how Loita has challenged two initiatives predicating their conservation effort on value systems other than the sacred, particularly invoking ecological and market values. The initiatives include an attempt by the Narok Council, currently the Narok County Government, to gazette the sacred forest as a Nature reserve and the proposed Loita Integrated Conservation and Management project funded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) [10,11,12]. The community rebuffed both initiatives. The third considers the State’s interest in the forest, citing its significance as a critical regional water tower. The episode also highlights the ongoing land adjudication initiative that targets the privatization of Loita land by conferring individual ownership on historical communal lands. In this framework, the forest will remain as an unalienated community common. In the fourth episode, we look at how the community is grappling with and responding to the pressures exerted by various forces on the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio through Social Innovation, as exemplified in the conservation efforts by the Ilkimpa Community Conservation Association (ICCA). The article seeks to enrich the social-ecological framework [13] and Social Innovation theory [14,15] using the sacred lens. We analyze the function of community action in mediating societal needs amidst changing realities and the role of the sacred in influencing conservation outcomes. Indigenous Peoples the world over are custodians of biologically diverse territories. The article contributes to the discourse on sacred landscapes which form the foundation of cultural resilience for Indigenous People and points to the need for a holistic approach to conservation.

2. Theoretical Framework

2.1. Sacrality, Spiritual Geographies, and Ecological Conservation

In this study, we deploy two theories that underpin the discourse on community stewardship of resource commons (see Figure 1 below). The first conceptualises resource commons (landscapes, rangelands, forests, and waterscapes) as social-ecological systems. These are depicted explicitly as constituting the spiritual geographies of collocated communities or those residing in next to them. Here, spiritual values are expressed socially and grounded spatially. Sacred invocations reinforce Indigenous knowledge, which provides a traditional framework to negotiate access and mediate the use, development, and conservation of such resource commons. The second uses Social Innovation theory to explain how these communities are mobilising the sacred innovatively to meet their neglected needs. They do so through new forms of contestation and collaboration in resource access and use. Traditional frameworks are struggling to guarantee the desired conservation outcomes.

People engage with the environment in various ways, formally through organisation structures or legislation and informally through day-to-day interactions. In every human–nature interaction, culture represents a key component in shaping and reshaping a cultural landscape and the dynamics that form it. The relationship between culture and nature is particularly evident in sacred landscapes, where natural elements and specific ecosystems are assigned importance [21]. The sacred is inherent in Indigenous epistemology, recognising that “all life has spirit and is sacred” [31]. It combines the animate, inanimate, the individual, and the community and locates them in time and space [32,33] as part of an overarching cosmic order. Indigenous Communities are, therefore, at the centre of the discussion about the relationship between nature, culture, and spirituality [20,21]. In this framework, sacred spaces are vital in biodiversity conservation [34,35]. The knowledge of self for Indigenous Communities extends to their respective resource territories. This is evident from the values, beliefs, and practices that mediate the relationship between communities and the natural environment. Consequently, the relationship between nature and culture in sacred indigenous locations provides a frame for environmental protection through spiritual practices (e.g., rituals and taboos). In turn, these conserve ecological quality and richness in the landscapes [36,37].

To further conceptualise the sacred, the study borrowed from diverse sources, including but not limited to spiritual geography, cultural studies, and indigenous knowledge systems. Sacred space is “… a portion of earth’s surface recognised by individuals or groups as worthy of devotion, loyalty or esteem” [29]. Sacred landscapes are “sites with strong religious leaning and influenced by traditional local beliefs” [5]. For Indigenous Communities, sacred landscapes are a matter of survival. They offer support through a range of ecosystem services (both social and ecological) essential for the communities’ well-being [38]. Communities linked to different sacred elements in the landscapes take different approaches and motivations in the qualification of their land, forests, groves, trees, burial sites, etc., thereby manifesting cultural diversity. The sacrality of a site is derived from cultural practices undertaken within the area. Reverence accorded to the site and negotiations over time ascribe value to it. An interrogation of culture and value systems provides the opportunity to understand social aspects of community life as informed by history, economy, politics, and religion [39]. Communities ascribe value to nature and landscape over time and pass on these values from one generation to the next. This approach has allowed generations of Indigenous Communities to adapt to their changing environments based on traditional ecological knowledge, interweaving information from social and environmental systems [16,22]. Over time, the practices take root as traditional settings, norms, and values, which acquire a certain degree of acceptance, evolving into a structured framework that superintends human/nature relations.

Through culture and experience, the community defines and characterises a site’s sanctity [29], which becomes embedded in the community’s psyche. In “The Perception of the Sacred Place”, Jackson and Henrie [29] note that sacred places can invoke feelings (of devotion, reverence, patriotism, respect, etc.), and the spectrum of sanctity could vary from acknowledgement to intense reverence. Sacred landscapes are associated with historical events or activities that, in some instances, could still be ongoing and have an impact at different scales (global or local). The permanence and extent of the site could also be influential in determining how the sacred landscape/site is mobilised [29,40]. Clark [41] summarises this in four broad categories. The first considers the sacred a place to commune with a higher being. The second looks at the sacred as a place where one experiences transcendence, and which is spiritually renewed (no religious connotation). The third looks at the sacred as a place with associated sacredness linked to ritual sites, burial, religious grounds, etc., and finally, sites with intrinsic sacredness. Viewing sacred places within their social-ecological context helps us understand local sacralised human-nature relations.

The study of social-ecological systems takes different dimensions, varying from stewardship, resilience assessment, adaptive governance, transformations, regime shifts, and ecosystem services [16,23,24,25,26,42]. Ostrom developed the social-ecological systems framework [43], describing them as complex adaptive systems in which humans are embedded in nature. She notes that many variables affect patterns of interactions and outcomes in social-ecological systems. The social component is used in reference to human activities, whereas the ecological component refers to the biosphere. For instance, one must appreciate the underlying subsystems in documenting the relationship between communities and the natural environment within a system. The subsystems and internal variables within it are analogous to organisms consisting of organs, organs of tissues, tissues of cells, cells of proteins, etc. [27,28]. Within each system, social, economic, ecological, cultural, political, spiritual, and many other components interact on different spatial and temporal scales [44]. As with any other part of a social-ecological system, spirituality can be affected by external factors and pressures that jeopardise communities’ abilities and interests in conserving their natural surroundings. Traditional practices and value systems are subject to change and can transform as they interact with new ecological and socioeconomic elements. In the same way, environmental changes influence the social, cultural, and spiritual dynamics of the communities living in the affected landscape. Ultimately, changes within the system can alter the spiritual connection between communities and the landscape, interrupting related traditional conservation practices and potentially resulting in cultural and environmental loss and degradation.

Integrating cultural and spiritual values in sacred forest conservation, as alluded to by Clark and Roux et al. [41,45], therefore calls for new holistic approaches to heritage and environmental protection. Insights shared by Berkes and Folke [2] point out that even under rapidly changing conditions, social practices and norms are developed to meet local needs, resulting in the evolution of ecological and social systems.

2.2. Mobilising the Sacred in Contemporary Socially Innovative Responses

Proponents of Social Innovation (SI) theory have linked Social Innovation and community development to social-ecological concerns through adaptive change and novelty from the community to counter the effects of changes within a social-ecological system [46,47,48]. Therefore, the theoretical underpinning for this study first places the sacred within the broader social-ecological context. Then, it uses Social Innovation theory to study how local communities are mobilising the sacred in tackling environmental changes in a culturally transforming context to reach conservation outcomes (summarised in Figure 2 below). Social Innovation has been used to refer to initiatives, processes, programs, or even products known to change routines, resources, authority flows, or beliefs of any social system [49,50]. Social Innovation responds to complex societal challenges [50]. It provides an alternative and persuasive narrative against the collapse of ecosystems and the rapidly changing identities and loss of socio-cultural diversity [51]. In conservation practice, Social Innovation is a push towards meeting neglected community needs [17] and building solidarity between critical actors. The SI framework illuminates individuals or social groups who jointly control, organise and govern their lives. SI points to an ethic of collective action that is socially sustainable and respectful of nature and cultural entanglements [18].

Social Innovation births new forms of collaboration that restructure extant power relationships with predominantly positive societal outcomes [52]. Social Innovation also recognises transformations in social relations, political systems, and governance frameworks that improve interactions within the social-ecological system [42]. Through the dynamics of institutions, we see social regulations of practices [47]. Social Innovation is instrumental in nurturing institutional and political transformation. Moulaert [53] highlights the community’s significant role in accessing rights in social life, advocating against the exclusion of communities through collective action. Van Dyck and Van den Broeck [54] reiterate this by emphasising the significance of grassroots democracy and empowerment of local communities in fighting social exclusion towards meeting the needs of the locals more effectively than the market forces creed. Social Innovation refers to processes and outcomes that challenge neoliberal social order or lean towards innovation with possibilities for progressive transformation. It highlights the transformative capacity of innovative social practice separate from the state while still recognising the institutionalising power of the state [48].

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Research Design and Strategy

This study used a qualitative case study approach to expound on conservation dynamics related to stewardship and transformations within a social-ecological system. The knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of community members were crucial concerns. Consequently, the approach seeks to access and understand the meanings attached to places (ritual sites), objects (ritual paraphernalia), and events (mundane occurrences as interpreted through ritual lenses). This type of information does not require statistical validation through a large sample. Instead, triangulation and corroboration of subjective responses of a small group of trusted key informants suffice to validate them, thereby ascertaining the credibility and validity of research findings and their relevance to the study’s conceptual framework, which is based on an extensive literature review.

In view of the foregoing, the ensuing analytical frame deploys a constructivist/interpretive lens, which, according to Leitch et al. [55], investigates social reality through a methodological perspective that incorporates theoretical and philosophical assumptions that can be applied to a case study as a complex, multidimensional, and layered phenomenon. In addition, the ontological and epistemological assumptions shape the research questions. In this study, this lens will be instrumental in revealing the underlying belief systems and explaining the dynamics that influence conservation practice and outcomes in Loita. The approach embraces the realities of Loita with its complexity, allowing us to explore the problems elaborated in the first section more holistically by closely interacting with the Loita community and interpreting their perceptions [55]. The use of thick descriptions [56] is geared towards deriving inferences from, among others, a collective of subjective explanations and meanings provided by the people engaged in the research process. It is instrumental in explaining the interactions between the social and ecological systems, focusing on making sense of the experiences of individual key informants rather than generalising results to a sizeable sample of the collocated community. This approach accommodated progressive changes in the research and allowed for modifications where necessary.

3.2. The Case Study

The process of selecting a case first involved mapping all forests in Kenya and then classifying them as natural or planted. From the natural forests, we identified indigenous forests whose governance framework is premised on ritual, sacrality, and sacral law. Three forests, Ramogi Forest, Kaya Kinondo, and Loita Enaimina Enkiyio, stood out due to the inextricable link between the forests and the collocated communities. Of the three, we selected the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio forest as it represents a unique mosaic of ceremonial sites, biomes of cultural relevance, settlements, forest, pastoral ranges, wildlife habitat and water catchment on the verge of change [57].

The Loita Enaimina Enkiyio is a 300 km2 forest enclave in the South of Kenya. Pastoral rangelands surround the hill range forest. The Loita hills rise from 2200 to 2600 m above sea level. The climate is semiarid with a mean annual rainfall of 600–2000 mm and temperatures ranging from 17 to 20 °C in the wooded and forested areas and 20 to 22 °C in the lowlands. The natural vegetation in the site includes an upland forest, bushland, thickets, and wooded midland grassland. The forest constitutes part of the ancestral territory of the Loita Maasai, one amongst sixteen independent territorial groups (Iloshon) of the Maasai of East Africa found in Kenya and Tanzania [58]. The region is officially designated as community land held in trust by the County Government. The Loita Maasai are predominantly nomadic pastoralists, although they are rapidly moving towards sedentarisation and embracing crop-based agricultural practices.

The Loita community highly depends on the existing woodlands and forests for medicinal plants, wood fuel, and pasture [59]. The relationship between the Loita Maasai and the Enaimina Enkiyio Forest is mediated and superintended by an intricate governance structure incorporating cultural leaders, the Oloiboni, and community elders. The Oloiboni (singular) and Iloibonok (plural) are ritual experts [60]. Fratkin [61] points out that the name is from the Maasai verb a-ibon, which means to predict events. The Oloiboni, the Maasai’s seer, is the forest’s unchallenged and revered custodian. The sub-clan of seers, including men, women, and children, is referred to as Inkidong’i and is part of the larger Illaiserr clan. A clan is a close-knit group of interrelated families. The male members of the Inkidong’i are thought to receive mystic powers at birth [62]. Over time, the boys receive training from their elders through apprenticeship to hone the craft of seeing the past, present, and future through visions and divination objects. Loita’s Enaimina Enkiyio is essential to this process as the resources used in manufacturing medicine (used for sorcery and ritual materials) are derived from the forest. Their powers are known as enkidong’ (derived from the enkidong’ (singular), inkidongi (plural), a container of divination objects) and entasim, the substance employed in sorcery and healing rites [62] (See [63] for further elaboration).

Studies on Loita have been extensive and have touched on the ecology, soil, and climate, with the first report commissioned by the Government of Kenya in 1966. Subsequent articles have emphasised flora and fauna, including the ethnobotanical profile [59,64] and wildlife documentation [65]. The studies touched on the forest’s medicinal, spiritual, and biological diversity, the value of the forest and resource commons to the Loita Maasai community, and sacred sites for various Maasai rituals and ceremonies. Other articles have emphasised the need to protect and conserve medicinal plant knowledge by encouraging the sustainability of the local cultural heritage. Knowledge and practice of medicinal plant use are embedded in the Maasai culture and passed on across generations [59]. We also noted a pattern of contestation, with the first documented encounter being between a Loita Maasai and a colonial commissioner over livestock. Post-independence, there has been continued contestation over land and forest in the struggle for Loita Maasai self-governance. Zaal and Adano [10] discuss resource conflict, governance, and ethnicity. Garcia [12] uses the political ecology lens to understand the contestation and intimates that rather than viewing the conflicts as being between a local community and powerful outsiders, “they result from different crystallizations of coalitions between locals and outside actors running along a longstanding cleavage in the Loita’s leadership”.

More recently, the midlands and lowlands around the forest range have been undergoing a land adjudication process to ascertain and register individual interests and claims on the land. The ensuing re-territorialisation puts in question the relationship between the community and their resource common and casts doubts on the future sustainability of the forest ecosystem. This, coupled with postcolonial incursions and emerging conservation paradigms that have sought to restructure traditional power configurations, has necessitated new governance structures [63]. As such, the study explores the new forms and emergent community-driven socially responsive initiatives in the contemporary context. Of interest is the extent to which such invoke the forest’s historically and culturally ascribed sacred values in shaping conservation outcomes in the present.

For this latter dimension, the study will explore the conservation initiative of the Ilkimpa Community Conservation Association (ICCA), a community initiative explicitly selected for its efforts in grappling with and responding to the conservation needs of the Loita through socially innovative practices. Ilkimpa is plural for Olkimpai, the Maasai name for the tse tse fly. The tse tse fly is a vector for trypanosomosis, a debilitating and potentially lethal illness afflicting livestock and humans. The tse tse fly’s inhabitation of tropical forests is a major deterrent to human inhabitation of these forests. The ICCA’s adoption of the term Ilkimpa equates the contemporary role of forest rangers to the natural one of the tse tse fly and therefore bears resonance with members of the Loita community.

3.3. Sampling and Data Collection

In October 2020, the researchers (first and third author) held the first key informant interviews with the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) officials. The officials, who included the former museum’s Narok County curator and a museum educator specialising in indigenous heritage sites, had previously concluded an exercise in the gazettement of sacred sites in Loita. The purpose of this visit was to access this catalogue of sites, and gain familiarity regarding their spatial embeddedness within the context of Enaimina Enkiyio forest. It also aimed to gain understanding, through the NMK’s lens, of the ritual element and sacrality thereof, and how they impact the Loita community.

A site visit followed this in February 2021 to corroborate the data accessed in the NMK visit and served as a confirmatory mapping exercise. During this initial visit, the researchers employed a transect walk, a participatory research method [66,67], to study culture, people, and history to understand local technology and practices. The method is used to obtain a broad brush view of the site and its resources [68] by gathering initial data on the context of the site and community [12,56,58,59,60,62,63,64,65]. It involves walking through specified sites on random or scheduled routes. The walks are also a collaborative endeavour between the researchers and participants from the locality and are often used to undertake detailed community mapping [68]. The method is suitable for both qualitative and quantitative data and was also valuable in understanding agro-climatic and ecological zone data from a cross-sectional perspective [69]. Transect walks are ideal for verifying spatial data on land use, topography, biodiversity, and social factors [70], establishing the context in collaboration with the community, mapping out issues, and informing context-specific interventions. The researchers also used this method to triangulate secondary data [68], gaining access to the community non-intrusively through the participants.

The transect method proved integral in building relationships with participants and creating opportunities for members of the Loita community to share local knowledge during the research. More than two but fewer than four elders from Loita were required at any given time to enhance the discussion and to enable the researchers to keep track of the conversations [66]. The researchers introduced the focus and used the walks to obtain first impressions, building the first relationship with the site. Three elders from Loita helped in planning the routes shown on the map that covered three local settlements (Entasekera, Olorte, and Mausa) on the fringe of Loita Enaimina Enkiyio and two others (Ilkerin and Olmesutyie) a few kilometres from the forest. It is important to note that there are no settlements within the forest. In the transect highlighted in Figure 3, the researchers used the main access routes and focused on settlement areas on the forest fringe. The second less structured route (not mapped) targeted the sacred sites. During the walks, the researchers inquired about the community’s relationship with the forest, the cultural attachments and ceremonies, the significance of the sacred sites and how this impacted conservation.

Initial insights from the visit enabled the researchers to appreciate the social structure of the Loita Maasai and subsequently aided in mapping out the critical stakeholders in the territory. These include the ritual leader, age-set leaders (male), women group leaders, government officials, leaders of advocacy groups, and representatives of community-based and non-governmental organizations (as further specified below depending on the research phase). Over the research period, seventy semi-structured interviews were administered to select members of Loita. The participants were selected through snowball sampling, which Noy [71] points out as suitable for communities or people on the move and relies on connections made through existing social networks.

After processing the data, forty-eight complete entries were analysed from thirty-one male and seventeen female respondents. The interview questions focused on the individual’s relationship with the forest, benefits derived from the forest, their knowledge of ceremonial practices and the significance of the sacred in influencing their relationship with nature. Perspectives and insights from the interviews were supplemented by six focus group discussions with 6–15 representatives of each group (women, youth, elders (men), and community scout rangers), meeting independently. During this period, a meeting was held with the Oloiboni, the Maasai’s seer, and the Enaimina Enkiyio forest’s unchallenged and revered custodian. The discussion addressed various questions, including the role of the sacred in influencing conservation outcomes, the sacred elements, and their use in the protection of the forest, the community’s attachment to the forest, the community’s right to access and use the shared resource commons, collaboration with NMK in securing sacred sites and the impact of the land adjudication process on conservation.

In February 2022, semi-structured interviews were administered on representatives from the County Government of Narok, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning, which are in charge of the land adjudication process, and the World Wildlife Fund. These entities are currently developing partnerships with the Loita community on conservation for the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio forest. Content analysis was instrumental in examining transcriptions from the focus group discussions and interviews. The researchers identified key patterns and themes using NVivo, a qualitative analysis software. These were further analysed using the analytical framework elaborated in the previous section. In November 2022, fieldwork focused on the Ilkimpa Community Conservation Association (ICCA). The researchers interviewed the directors, focusing on the activities of the association. We explored their mandate, the community’s involvement in the conservation efforts, and the challenges the community has encountered concerning their resource commons. With the scouts, a focus group discussion was instrumental in understanding their day-to-day activities and the contribution the scouts were making in securing Enaimina Enkiyio from poaching activities through surveillance. The researchers also joined the scouts in a patrol through the forest and attended a GIS training session for recruits.

The researchers combined both primary data collected through the methods highlighted above and secondary data from different publications, newspaper articles, government and judicial records, and legal frameworks to elaborate on how the Loita have mobilised the sacred.

4. Results

4.1. Episode 1—On the Loita, Sacrality and Enaimina Enkiyio Forest

This study set out to explore and illustrate the relationship between the Loita people of Southern Kenya and their resource common. The embeddedness of the forest resource is evident from the findings of the transect walk and interviews, which point to the influence of the sacred in the way of life of the Loita Maasai. Ritual and sacred elements influence how forest resource access, use, and conservation are negotiated and mediated.

For Loita, the resource commons are critical for the community’s survival. The Loita Maasai are nomadic pastoralists. The variability in season determined where the community settled in the dry and wet seasons. They occupied the rangeland in the wet season and moved to the highlands and forest in the dry season. Changing land dynamics in Loita have resulted in a transition towards a hybrid agro-pastoralist system, increasing the community’s dependence on the forests and triggering a two-fold threat to the sacred forest: external threats targeting wildlife through poaching, illegal logging, and internal pressure to meet the demand for pasture, timber, and other non-timber forest products for domestic use.

The forest is an integral part of the Loita community. When we protect it, it provides for us. We get medicine from the plants, and the animals get water and pasture from the forest during the dry season. We also rely on it to get supplies for the different ceremonies. But specific sites within the forest and outskirts are revered and set apart—interview quote.

The research also confirmed that no clear separation exists between the Loita community, forest, land, and cultural identity. Berkes and Folke [2] refer to social-ecological systems as linked systems of people and nature. The Enaimina Enkiyio forest has been instrumental in bringing the community together for cultural and ritual practices. The Loita Maasai have a self-regulating mechanism that includes rules built into their culture that inform resource use [72]. Such customary systems and institutions are instrumental in mediating nature and culture relationships and influencing resource use outside the statutory legal framework. This system was negotiated and has evolved over time. Where such social regulation failed, biological processes like calamities played a role in controlling population growth for people and their herds. This system intricately intertwined social and ecological systems in fostering positive outcomes for conservation [73]. Through customary law, unwritten rules are legitimised through tradition, mediated nature, and culture relations.

Taking care of the forest is taking care of land and family. When the environment is destroyed or mismanaged, the quality of life for Loita is equally undermined—interview quote.

During the transect walk to the sacred sites, the elders elaborated on the significance of institutions within Loita mediating the relationship between the community and the forest. For Loita, the regulations on resource use were fostered through traditional leadership hierarchies, with the Oloiboni at the helm serving the function of the uncontested custodian of the Enaimina Enkiyio in addition to his role as a seer. This hierarchical structure assessed community needs and allocated limited rights to harvest trees and clear land for agriculture, among other activities. This system has, however, been undermined over the years due to various challenges. One elder alludes to the challenge when asked about regulating timber harvesting.

The forest committees were important in regulating the use of forest resources. Unfortunately, the committees are inactive despite the growing demand for timber among the Loita. How can you refuse your brother’s household shelter—interview quote.

The Loita Maasai have an elaborate system of knowing, teaching, and learning associated with their ritual/sacred practices. These systems have been passed on from generation to generation through stories and everyday activities. The rites of passage ceremonies are carried out in specified sacred sites. The interaction with the forest also goes beyond ceremonial practices to day-to-day activities. For instance, the children learn about plants and their medicinal value for people and animals. Using traditional names, they identify various plants in the forest and within households and the ailments they treat. During a focus group discussion with students in one of the local high schools, a student elaborates on how they learned about the trees and shrubs.

We learn about plants and their uses daily, in the household, at school, and while grazing the animals. There is no formal class. When you have a headache, your father, mother, or sibling will point out which plant to pick and how to use it. This knowledge is built over the years—focus group.

4.2. Episode 2—Alternative Conservation Paradigms Tensions and Contestation

The law of Kenya entrusts the local government as stewards of all communal land in their jurisdiction. However, communities grapple with modernisation, which drives the existing statutory land framework to privatise and individualise land tenure [74]. Despite legal protection of trust land by law, the state and local governments have appropriated and transferred high-value essential resources in rangelands to external actors over the years. Local governments find loopholes in the legal framework to influence outcomes. A case in point is the provision for setting apart public land for private use by exercising the power of eminent domain under the Trust Land Act 1939 Chapter 288 [75]. The compulsory acquisition of Maasai land between 1940 and 1960 resulted in the establishment of Mara National Reserve from the Purko Maasai rangeland (1951), Maasai Amboseli Game Reserve (1948), and the protected areas around Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha and Lake Bogoria in the Rift Valley. The territories in question were integral in maintaining their pastoral way of life, and their excision grossly limited access, diminishing their pastures. After 1963, Kenya obtained independence. The same approach to conservation persisted with the allocation of land held in trust for the Maasai reserve to private owners and the conversion of other parcels to group ranches before being privatised over the years [76,77]. The ever-changing rules of access driven by market forces often result in exclusion, prioritising conservation at the expense of communities.

Explicit action by the Narok Council was first documented in 1971 when the council took a section of Loita Enaimina Enkiyio forest, which was later sold to foreigners [8]. In 1992/3, the Loita opposed the Narok Council’s intention to gazette the Enaimina Enkiyio Forest as a Nature reserve. This plan would primarily alleviate pressure on the Maasai Mara National Game Reserve by supporting tourism. Loita lies on the fringe of the Mara Serengeti ecosystem. As wildlife migrates from the Serengeti to the Mara and vice versa, the springs and rivers in Loita Enaimina Enkiyio have been integral to their survival during the dry season (see Figure 4 below). The Maasai pastoral lifestyle over the years also ensured a peaceful coexistence with wildlife [73]. As anticipated by the local government, the number of tourists visiting the Mara has increased significantly since 1992, with 291,017 visitors recorded in 2018 [78].

In 2004, a proposal to extend forest protection was developed with funding from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The so-called “Loita Integrated Conservation and Management project” was to be executed in phases to establish a participatory management planning process for Enaimina Enkiyio. Despite the project getting support from some Loita members, distrust patterns were drawn from an IUCN project in the Ngorongoro conservation area in Tanzania, where the local community was inadvertently displaced. The concerns triggered protests from members of the Loita community. These two initiatives in Loita were interpreted as direct threats to the community’s access and use rights to their sacred forest [12], pointing to the diverging views on conservation among the Loita and other stakeholders.

Despite both initiatives pursuing conservation outcomes, the proposed changes in status would inadvertently impact the community’s relationship with the forest, as witnessed on other former Trust lands. In each instance, the community mobilises the sacred by using environmental activism, relying on legislation reinforcing the rights of Indigenous People and local communities to launch opposition to the proposed projects. First, through a protracted court case against the Narok Council, an injunction was issued, and the role of the community and Oloiboni as custodians of the forest was reinforced [8]. The elders at a focus group discussion in Ilkerin elaborated on the efforts by the community, which involved the incorporation of the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio Conservation Trust Company spearheaded by the Oloiboni with support from the community to challenge the Narok Council proposal. The Oloiboni and the elders rallied support through the media, giving press statements and publishing articles protesting the gazettement, including petitions to the president of Kenya. When the lobbying failed, a court case was launched in Constitutional court, resulting in an injunction reinforcing the community’s right to manage the forest. The second was through protests and activism by community members, resulting in the IUCN cancelling their funding [12]. The first initiative focused on a market-driven approach, and the second focused on ecological outcomes. These two initiatives did not adequately address the nature–culture relationship between the Loita community and their forest. The Loita rely on their sacred forest for their ritual practices and ceremonies, medicinal plants, and pasture for their herds during the dry season, among other uses. The sacred value ascribed to the forest is critical in mediating between the social and ecological systems. When the IUCN project and the Narok Council undermined the value systems embedded in the nature culture relationship, a rift between the actors emerged, despite the shared vision of reaching a conservation outcome.

4.3. Episode 3—State Interest in Loita

The national government has also positioned itself as a critical stakeholder in pursuing conservation outcomes in Loita. The Loita Enaimina Enkiyio forest is a water catchment area. It supports various river systems, including the rivers flowing into Lake Magadi and tributaries of Ewaso Ngiro, including River Kiilweni, Oloitokitok, and Oloiragai. The springs and rivers of Loita Enaimina Enkiyio are essential for the region. They support wildlife as the animals disperse from the Serengeti and Mara ecosystems during the dry season. They also provide water for vast herds of cattle from Loita and neighbouring Maa-speaking communities, including those domiciled in Northern Tanzania. During the transect walk in the forest, we crossed various natural springs and the Empurpurtia wetland with signage earmarking them as water catchment areas. The Water Act 2016 [79] elaborates on water resource ownership, use and management. It also established the Water Resource Authority (WRA), tasked with regulating the management and use of water resources. The act acknowledges that water resources are vested in and held by the national government in trust for the people of Kenya. It protects catchment areas as recommended by the WRA through an Order published in the Gazette declaring a catchment area as a protected area. The act provides the framework for imposing restrictions on the land use on resource commons identified as water catchment areas, working with Catchment Area Advisory Committees (CAAC) as regional bodies and Water Resource User Associations (WRUAs) as local representatives. The provision for collaboration with the community has not been fully operationalised in Loita except in Olorte, where a WRUA has been registered.

The Loita engaged the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) to gazette the most vulnerable cultural sacred sites in anticipation of the land adjudication process in Loita. Gazetting is publishing legal notices of protected areas in the official Kenya Gazette. The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) is an institution whose mandate includes the stewardship and protection of Kenya’s heritage. This process is entrenched in law through the National Museums and Heritage Act 2006 [80]. The gazettement process involves identifying a site with significant cultural heritage by the NMK. The site is then recommended for protection to the Minister of Culture and Heritage, who then signs the notice of gazettement and sends it to the Attorney general for publication in the Kenya Gazette. The public can object to the gazettement.

Through the Oloiboni, the board of Loita Cultural Centre and the Loita Council of Elders, the community invited a team from the National Museums of Kenya to Loita before the land adjudication process commenced and suggested the gazettement of Loita cultural sites within the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio Forest rather than installing the water catchment area as a protected site. The gazettement process was elaborated on during the interviews with the former Narok Museum’s curator and the Museums educator. The collaborative approach resulted in the identification of three sacred sites, including Emururwai, Ole Ntarakwai, and Naibala. The locations and their characteristics are elaborated in a report on the “Biocultural mapping of ceremonial sites in Loita division in Narok County”, commissioned by the Loita community and NMK (2014). We inquired about the motivation for the gazettement process.

The land adjudication process is imminent, and the individual interest will likely precede the community interest. We needed to secure the most vulnerable sacred sites before we opened our land and exposed our forest. This process will open the land to outsiders who will not have the same values or reverence for the forest and sacred sites—focus group.

4.4. Episode 4—Ilkimpa Community Conservation Association: A Community’s Socially Innovative Approach to Conserving the Sacred

As we have elucidated in the previous episode, the Loita region and community are undergoing transformations that have far-reaching consequences for the future sustainability of the Enaimina Enkiyio resource common. The region is subject to changing global climatic dynamics, exemplified by rising temperatures, resulting in prolonged droughts and unpredictable and erratic weather patterns. On the other hand, the ensuing land adjudication process is bound to bring about transformations in the land ownership structure, land use, and social relations. Essentially, this would commence a process by which the Loita way of life would be significantly altered from what was previously known and practised. Such changes would most certainly be accompanied by alterations in the social-ecological framework that hitherto has served as the template that has preserved the ecological integrity of the Enaimina Enkiyio forest. Diminished pastures resulting from parcellation and fencing have increasingly caused pastoralists to rely on the forest for their cattle. This has occasioned competition for forest resources but has likewise seen the intensification of human-wildlife conflicts. Increased human presence in the forest has also led to a rise in incidences of poaching.

In 2017, as a reaction to the consistent poaching and killing of elephants in the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio forest, a group of Loita Maasai from the Inkidongi clan [63] registered a community-based organisation called the Ilkimpa Community Conservation Association (ICCA). In a key informant interview, one of the association’s directors reiterated that following the poaching incidences, there was a pressing need for increased surveillance within the forest. The association takes a bottom-up, community-based approach to managing the resource commons. It focuses on ensuring wildlife protection within Loita with increased efforts in the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio forest. The initiative has since been scaled up, bringing together community members from nine villages on the fringe of the Enaimina Enkiyio forest to focus on the threat to wildlife. The association relied on community members’ collective action to ensure favourable outcomes. The association’s structure included a resource defence council that oversees decision-making in matters relating to the association’s activities. It relies on the traditional leadership structure incorporating the Oloiboni as the council patron and other age group leadership. Besides the cultural leaders, the council has also included government officials (the area chief) and women representatives who, in the past, did not play a significant role in leadership. This approach to association leadership has been integral in fostering social relations with the community. There are concerted efforts in bringing together the Loita towards collective management of the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio forest with partnership from the state and other actors. These factors motivated the selection of ICCA as a case, explicitly focusing on local community-driven conservation efforts.

The association directors manage the day-to-day activities, collaborating with other stakeholders to enhance wildlife security through surveillance. Currently, the association has partnered with different stakeholders in their quest to increase surveillance in Enaimina Enkiyio. One such partnership is through the TenBoma initiative. This initiative uses surveillance technology in the detection of poaching networks and poaching activities, collaborating with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) with funding support from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) [81,82]. The initiative brings the community and other collaborators/allies to pursue conservation outcomes by building social relations through collective action [83]. The TenBoma approach relied heavily on the community structure as it exists. They incorporate the Oloiboni as the spiritual leader and custodian of the forest and the age-set leadership in the organization. The initiative also leans on traditional gender roles by mobilising women who traditionally spend considerable time in the forest to enhance surveillance within the forest. As women go about caring for their households, they transverse sections of the forest to fetch water for domestic use and collect firewood. The project provided the women volunteers in the empowerment group Nkonyek Oolkimpa with cameras to facilitate the documentation of wildlife and plants, including endangered species within the forest. The women have also been integral in documenting threats like illegal logging, poaching, forest fires, etc. This information is processed by ICCA and used in determining areas that require more vigilance through surveillance.

The association has recruited and trained community youth as scouts (Figure 5: Community scouts after a training session), incorporating GIS technology in their day-to-day activities. During a focus group discussion, the scouts elaborate on their roles, including mapping out wildlife migration routes, human-wildlife conflict areas, sites where poaching occurs, etc., allowing for deeper community involvement in generating geolocated spatial data to enhance conservation outcomes [84]. The scouts are currently undergoing GIS and remote sensing training to support their efforts in using the data collected in decision-making. The team of scouts are paid monthly for their services through funding support from partners like IFAW and the Kenya Forest Service between 2021 and 2022 during the COVID-19 period.

Traditionally, the morans (the young men after circumcision) provided security for the community, safeguarding the territory and resources therein [61,62]. The community scouts pointed out the weak ties related to the practice, with more young people opting to study and pursue their interests away from the community. Within the association, young women and men undergo training as community scouts partnering with IFAW and the Kenya Wildlife Service to provide skill training and funding. There is a willingness to collaborate on the associations’ part, strengthening their socio-political position [85]. Through the initiative, the association and community members track threats to the forest and wildlife, working with government agencies with the enforcement mandate in cases where arrests or fines are necessary. This results in what Ayob et al. [52] refer to as new forms of collaboration that give community agency in conservation and restructure extant power relationships while respecting community values.

We monitor the wildlife corridors through the community scouts and ensure they are clear. We also monitor the extraction of timber and non-timber forest products. Interview, Director ICCA

The scouts are also instrumental in identifying sites where human and wildlife conflicts are rampant. The community members from the nine villages also rely on the community scouts to secure their farmlands from wild animals and, in turn, ensure farming is restricted to settlement areas. The project also monitors logging activities and acts in place of the defunct forest committees in monitoring community needs for timber. The ICCA approach to conservation demonstrates how community control and collective access mobilising the sacred can support social regulations [47], with direct benefits to the community. It is important to note that the association’s success relies heavily on the proximity of the leadership, as part of the Inkidongi clan, to the traditional institutions and, specifically, goodwill from the Oloiboni. However, the direct and immediate benefits are centred around the nine villages through direct employment opportunities for young people as scouts and the revenue generated through tourist homestays. The initiative relies on the sourced funding for training, payment of monthly stipend to the rangers, and overhead costs. Efforts by ICCA are yet to be scaled up to be self-sustaining.

5. Discussion

Using the framework elaborated on in Section 2, conceptualising the sacred enriches social-ecological and Social Innovation theory. This paper explored how Indigenous Loita Maasai in the south of Kenya are mobilising the notion of the sacred in negotiating alternative conservation outcomes. We conceptualise the sacred Loita Enaimina Enkiyio forest as a social-ecological system under pressure similar to other sacred landscapes contending with various factors [86,87]. This is, e.g., reiterated in Ethiopia’s Sidama Sacred Natural sites case by Doffana [88], who notes that changing attitudes and orientations significantly affect the social-ecological balance of sacred sites. Through reading the embeddedness of the Loita way of life, we see the relationship between social and ecological systems, as highlighted in Figure 6, and the local challenges and solutions within the complexity of their context. Social systems, including the institution of the Oloiboni, individual actors, government agencies, and community-based organisations, all interact within Loita to influence how the ecological system is utilised. Nature, community, land dynamics, culture, and governance in Enaimina Enkiyio are constantly interacting and co-evolving [57] to meet pressing community needs in the sacred forest as they move towards a sedentary agro-pastoralist lifestyle. Interests from different stakeholders ranging from state institutions, local governments, non-governmental institutions and individuals also emerge, resulting in negotiations of social relationships within the social-ecological system [3,38,89]. Evaluating the role of the sacred showed various episodes where different value systems are mobilised to reach conservation outcomes.

The Loita Enaimina Enkiyio forest is a critical social-ecological system in Southern Kenya. The Loita ecological system has a high conservation value, supporting many plants and animals. For the Loita, the ecosystem supports the semi-nomadic lifestyle that demands the migration of herds of cattle and people due to variability in season. The rivers and springs of Enaimina Enkiyio also provide water for communities further downstream. Beyond the immediate uses of the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio, we also understand the significance of the forest as a sacred site. The Maa-speaking communities of Kenya and Tanzania respect and revere the forest. Loita Enaimina Enkiyio is integral for conducting ritual and cultural activities. The impact of the sacred forest transcends relic preservation, where cultural sites with sacred value are preserved by freezing them in time, excluding communities, and developing formal landscape patterns as part of an important forest ecosystem. The sacred sites of Loita are associated with cultural Maasai events and other initiation rites and rituals that persist today. The ritual practices have ensured the protection of the forest thus far, with the Oloiboni at the helm supported by the Loita Council of Elders. This categorisation of the sacred as a site for ritual practice, set aside or consecrated by a community of believers with shared cultural values, is instrumental in understanding the social systems [90,91,92] of Loita Enaimina Enkiyio. The transcendental dimensions related to the spiritual realm that cannot be understood by ordinary reasoning presented by the forest’s sacrality and the community’s positionality when determining forest conservation outcomes are vital in reading the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio forest social-ecological system.

The embeddedness of the forest in the Loita way of life is seen through the influence of the sacred on the individual and the community. The sacred logic is instrumental in conserving the forest and relies on traditional knowledge and ritual practices. The forests support Indigenous Communities and their culture. We see this through the continued use of medicinal plants for both domestic animals and people, reliance on the forest for materials for ritual activities, and support of livelihoods by providing dry-season pasture for the herds. Social systems are driven by a value system embedded within the community’s psyche. The spiritual dimension has ensured the survival of the resource commons. The Oloiboni, as the custodian of the sacred, has been instrumental in protecting the forest by restricting access to outsiders using charms and rituals. The sacred has been instrumental in prescribing a code of conduct that has managed to forestall the destruction of the forest. Despite the robust safety measures provided by the social systems, Loita has unmet needs. The community continually grapples with the need to expand settlements to support agro-pastoralism and protect wildlife in the territory and the water catchment area within the Enaimina Enkiyio forest while providing for their families. This is coupled with the need to conserve the forest by protecting biodiversity amidst the changing cultural attachments. We see this as the community moves towards a more sedentary lifestyle away from pastoralism. These changes create greater demand for the shared resource commons and introduce conflict with wildlife. Young people also spend significant time away from Loita, impacting the transmission of traditional knowledge systems. The land adjudication process elaborated in Nyagwalla et al. [63] introduces the market dynamics as another layer of complexity in the nature-culture nexus in Loita.

Through the initiatives highlighted, we see the diversity of actors and the different value systems mobilised in the quest for conservation. The local governments’ exploration of the Enaimina Enkiyio’s potential for tourism within the larger Serengeti Mara circuit was driven by market value. On the other hand, the IUCN project focused on ecological outcomes and the state interest motivated by the need to protect a significant water resource region by recognising Enaimina Enkiyio as an integral water catchment provided for in the Water Act [79]. The framework mobilised in these two instances subsumes functions under community stewardship, relying on support from the legal framework and the policing power of the state at the expense of the traditional system.

For sacred landscapes, value systems are essential in mediating the interaction between the community and nature. We see this through the National Museums of Kenya’s approach to conservation in Loita. The agency recognises the community’s significance and value systems in reaching conservation outcomes. As a result, the resistance against the local government through a protracted court case [10,12,93] and activism against the IUCN-funded project paved the way for a more collaborative process. The community-centred approach between the Loita community and the National Museums of Kenya resulted in the gazettement of the sacred cultural sites through the provisions made in the National Museums and Heritage Act of 2006 [80], ensuring successful conservation and support of livelihoods.

Grassroots mobilisation has been vital in how the Loita Community navigates the vested interests of actors driven by ecological outcomes or market values, seemingly more dominant than the sacred. The community relies on social systems driven by its core values to challenge the prevailing conservation order. The sacred forest and the rituals associated with it have reinforced the Loita forest community’s claim to their resource commons, influencing power dynamics and governance despite attempts by strategic actors like the state, local government, and other organisations who often, as Agrawal and Gibson [4] describe, “… make attempts to bypass the constraints of existing institutions and create new institutions that match their interests”. In mobilising the sacred, the community relies on traditional institutional dynamics, which prioritise community interests, often overlooked by formal legislative and institutional frameworks. Kunwar [94] points out the significance of the human cultural dimension in the elaboration of policy instruments for Indigenous Communities in reference to Nepal’s Kailash sacred landscape. The sacred is codified based on/subject to its custodianship or stewardship. Therefore, the care for Loita Enaimina Enkiyio could be reinforced culturally and by law, as seen in the convergence of community and state through the different legislation and statutes pointing to a nuanced, holistic approach to conservation through bottom-up community-based initiatives. Social Innovation develops over time as a response to unmet needs and processes of alienation and exclusion. The arguments presented in this paper attempt to interrogate the place of spirituality in a modernising world. We reflect on the role of the sacred today as an opportunity to support Indigenous Communities through innovation grounded in the nature-culture nexus. This approach acknowledges, as Bhagwat and Rutte [95] point out, that the rationale for the conservation of sacred landscapes is different from other conservation areas, necessitating an alternative approach.

Doffana [88] suggests an approach that allows for the coalescing of cultural traits within modern practices. This allows for communities to be engaged actively in the re-invention of the sacred to address the progressive loss of traditional practices. We see both community activism and collaborative efforts in establishing new partnerships with like-minded stakeholders as Social Innovation supporting initiatives of resistance which mobilise the sacred to stop top-down approaches. The ICCA builds on existing community structures like the institution of the Oloiboni and the elders and reinforces societal value systems ensuring the community’s ability to mobilise to meet present-day challenges. Such initiatives allow for transformation that supports changing social relations through collaboration with other state and non-state actors towards reaching conservation outcomes.

6. Conclusions

The sacred value attributed to the Enaimina Enkiyio sacred forest has been codified and embedded in the community psyche, building solidarity in land and conservation matters for the Loita community. We see this in the stewardship informed by a cosmovision that demands extended care to the environment regulated through ritual practices and codes of conduct embedded in the culture. We emphasise the critical role of maintaining the connection between the community and their resource commons through stewardship. Habitat protection through local belief systems supported by traditional institutions, social norms, and taboos are integral components in the conservation success of the Loita despite the changing cultural relationships. However, it is necessary to rethink and reimagine sacred landscapes to allow communities to meet their modern day needs. Community-driven initiatives present alternative approaches that maintain the connection between the community and their resource commons in the pursuit of conservation outcomes. Through Social Innovation, the significant role of community and traditional institutions can be reinforced by exploring new forms of collaboration that also recognise the institutionalising power of the state. We, therefore, suggest the exploration of governance of sacred landscapes embedded within indigenous resource commons as a potential area for further study of the subject.