Lucy Waruingi is the Executive Director of the African Conservation Centre (ACC) a Kenyan-based NGO working in East Africa with programs across themes of conservation science, integrated approaches to land governance, community based conservation, and supporting initiatives that enhance local livelihoods in rich biodiversity areas especially in Kenya and Tanzania. Lucy has experience and a long interest and experience in conservation planning, with special focus on mainstreaming science and biodiversity knowledge to influence planning and decision making and action at local, national, and global level, while integrating local knowledge and innovative approaches.
The African Conservation Centre, has a long-term programme on woodland and grassland restoration in community group ranches in the southern rangelands of Kenya and they are working with partners to:
- Equip landowners to scale up the restoration efforts by integrating local knowledge and practice,
- Strengthen local governance frameworks and
- Ensure the improved rangelands offer livelihood opportunities through enterprises that support pastoral women.
ACC together with the Amboseli Conservation Program (ACP) has over 20+ years developed monitoring tools to track the rangeland health and impact of the restoration initiatives on the livestock and milk value chains. The tools are deployed on simple smart phones and data collected by local youth – community resource assessors from the same landscape.