Eco-Jipe Program

Eco-Jipe Program We work with local communities, government bodies, and international partners.

About Us

Welcome to Eco Jipe Program, an NGO dedicated to environmental conservation, sustainable development, and community empowerment in Kenya’s Taita-Taveta region.

13/05/2026

The lake is provides. The lake sustains. The lake is home🌊🎣

Cover photo : .scott
Video: || Eco Jipe Program

We took Lake Jipe to Germany. 🌍Three days. Generations of changemakers. Conversations that will travel back to the shore...
11/05/2026

We took Lake Jipe to Germany. 🌍

Three days. Generations of changemakers. Conversations that will travel back to the shores of Lake Jipe and live there long after the summit ended.

Here is what we brought home:

📍 Day 1 - Seek advice from as many people as you need. But the decision between A and B? You make that alone. If you are more right than wrong , you become successful. ~Old Källenius

Stay curious, ambitious, and fail fast.~ Brittany Seeger

Read the room. But still , the business of business is the business.

📍 Day 2
What you've built up in the past stays relevant, and you carry it into the future.~ Mathias Geisen

A good idea doesn't care who had it. ~ Ian Calvert

Growth is relative to your organisation. Scale is relative to the problem.

📍 Day 3
It is not magic. It is decisions.

Only 0.76% of global philanthropy goes toward climate mitigation. An even smaller slice reaches youth-led solutions. That number lit a fire.

Eco Jipe came to BeVisioneers Global Summit 2026 with a story.
We leave with a network, a fire, and a lake worth fighting for.

He came to cool off. He stayed for the roots.Look at him. A large bull elephant ,belly deep in Lake Jipe, quietly feedin...
07/05/2026

He came to cool off. He stayed for the roots.

Look at him. A large bull elephant ,belly deep in Lake Jipe, quietly feeding on Southern Cattail (Typha domingensis). Unbothered. Unhurried. Completely in his element.

This is not a rare sighting. This is a daily ritual.

Elephants are drawn to Lake Jipe specifically because of Typha domingensis, the invasive species now covering 60% of the lake. They wade in, they feed, they cool off. And in doing so, become one of the lake's few natural defences against the plant threatening to swallow it whole.

But the same Typha has shrunk the lake from 100km² to just 30km². It blocks fishing boats. It destroys the breeding grounds of the critically endangered Jipe Tilapia.

The dense reed beds that draw this elephant in, gives him cover. Which means communities encounter him closer, more suddenly, more dangerously.

One elephant. One lake. One invasive plant. A cascade of consequences touching every living thing here.

We watched all of this from a boat. Close enough to hear him breathe.

Come to Lake Jipe. Not to see wildlife , but to understand what it truly means to share a planet.

📷 || Eco-Jipe Program

Fire, smoke, and generations of knowledge. Long before refrigeration, Lake Jipe's fisherfolk knew exactly how to make th...
05/05/2026

Fire, smoke, and generations of knowledge.

Long before refrigeration, Lake Jipe's fisherfolk knew exactly how to make the catch last, smoked slow, preserved the traditional way, just as their grandparents taught them.

Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) mostly. A few tilapia (Oreochromis esculentus). But not the Jipe Tilapia (Oreochromis jipe), nobody's seen one of those in days.

Same lake. Same smoke. But not everything is making it through.

Every morning, they push the boat out. For the families living around Lake Jipe, fishing isn't a hobby it's everything. ...
30/04/2026

Every morning, they push the boat out.

For the families living around Lake Jipe, fishing isn't a hobby it's everything. School fees, food on the table, a way of life passed down through generations.

But the lake is tired.

The same water that feeds families also calls the elephants, who come to drink, to cool, to simply exist in the only home they know.

And when one lake carries the weight of everything, fish, families, elephants, a whole ecosystem something has to give.

That's where Eco Jipe came in.

Beekeeping. Permaculture gardens. Sesame farming. Sitting with communities in schools, under trees, in village meetings, talking about why this lake matters and what we lose if we don't protect it together.

Not to replace the lake, but to take some of the weight off it. To give families another way. To help communities see themselves as its guardians, not just its users.

Because when the lake thrives ,so does everything that depends on it.

One lake. One fish. Almost gone. These are tilapia , familiar, abundant, found across East Africa. But in Lake Jipe, on ...
28/04/2026

One lake. One fish. Almost gone.

These are tilapia , familiar, abundant, found across East Africa. But in Lake Jipe, on the Kenya-Tanzania border, lives a cousin most of the world has never seen.

The Jipe Tilapia. Oreochromis jipe. Found nowhere else on earth ,just that one lake.

We couldn't show you a photo of one today. And that's exactly the point.

They are so rare, so few, so deep in a shrinking and silted lake, that catching even a glimpse of one has become almost impossible. Fishermen who have worked Lake Jipe for decades go days without seeing a single one.

That invisibility is not mystery. It is a warning.

While the lake silts up from surrounding farmlands, while illegal nets sweep through shallow waters, while the lake itself shrinks from upstream water use — the Jipe Tilapia quietly disappears.
That fight starts with knowing it exists.

We will protect it.

He's the biggest thing on this earth. She showed up with a tiny entourage and still acts like she runs the place. Honest...
24/04/2026

He's the biggest thing on this earth.

She showed up with a tiny entourage and still acts like she runs the place.

Honestly? Respect.

Coexistence

Ardhi hii ni yao wote.

📷 | Eco-Jipe

Behind every thriving garden, there is a whole community. This is the permaculture garden of Mzee Mwakireti, 83 years ol...
23/04/2026

Behind every thriving garden, there is a whole community.

This is the permaculture garden of Mzee Mwakireti, 83 years old, and still nurturing this space alongside his family in Jipe.

A semi-arid landscape where farming is never easy, and where elephants frequently raid crops. And yet, here it is. Thriving.

What you see in these photos tells a bigger story, buyers coming in, vegetables moving from soil to table.

Every week, this garden quietly produces an average of 13kg of vegetables and 17kg of tomatoes, feeding households and creating a real source of income.

A special thank you to Chabin for their organic soil ammender, making gardens like this possible. 🤍





21/04/2026

Sir the URGENCY. For what exactly?

Fun fact: Elephants can detect water from nearly 19km away..meaning he knew exactly what was in the Lake before he arrived.

Every move, every decision has a reason we may not always understand. Elephants are truly complex and intelligent and this makes them so fascinating.

The audacity to rush and not drink though..😭

The journey of sesame (simsim) began on 8th March, and these images capture its growth from planting to germination and ...
20/04/2026

The journey of sesame (simsim) began on 8th March, and these images capture its growth from planting to germination and now 40 days into development.

Sesame continues to play an important role in supporting farming systems in arid landscapes while contributing to coexistence strategies in wildlife areas





Falling in love with the problem — not just the solution.For the past year, we at Eco-Jipe Program have been listening, ...
31/10/2025

Falling in love with the problem — not just the solution.

For the past year, we at Eco-Jipe Program have been listening, learning, and living alongside our community

👩🏾‍🌾 the farmer protecting her crops from elephants,
🐟 the fisher seeking sustainable catches, and
🌾 the families adapting to the impacts of climate change.

These past few days, we’ve had deep, inspiring conversations with many of them shaping how we move forward:
✨ learning as we adapt,
💡 embracing technology, and
🤝 growing partnerships that matter.

We’re especially excited to explore new synergies with of a friend and Cohort 2 fellow to bring IoT, AI, and sensors into our work on Human–Wildlife Coexistence and livelihood diversification around the Lake Jipe ecosystem.

Together, we’re reimagining conservation for people and for nature.

Stay tuned for updates, and if you can, come visit Lake Jipe where community, conservation, and technology meet.

Address

Jipe
Taveta
80302

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Eco-Jipe Program posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category