Growth Commission

Growth Commission

Chris Jordan, from series Ushirikiano, Borana tribal home, Gotu Village, Nakuprat-Gotu Community Conservancy, Kenya, 2011.

The Prix Pictet Commission is an invitation from the Partners of the Pictet Group to one of the nominated photographers to undertake a field trip to a region where the Bank are supporting a sustainability project run by a charity or other NGO. 

In July 2011 Chris Jordan visited the Northern Rangelands of Kenya to complete the third Commission supported by the Pictet Group, which was held in conjunction with the Tusk Trust – specifically in the Nakuprat-Gotu Conservancy, a community that provides critical seasonal refuge and for wildlife between the National Reserves of Samburu, Shaba and Buffalo Springs, with the community-managed conservancies under the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) umbrella lying to the south and the north of these reserves.

Pictet’s support has enabled Tusk and NRT to establish the necessary governance and management structures for the Nakuprat-Gotu Community Conservancy. It has also helped to establish a wildlife monitoring programme with links to Kenya Wildlife Service and other security forces, and to lay the foundations for the creation of income generating activities via tourism, women’s groups and valuable livestock marketing.

Ushirikiano illustrates a hopeful future with new security provision, water tanks, biodiversity conservation, schools and women’s enterprise projects. It depicts how the Borana, Turkana and Samburu tribes are encouraged to live and work alongside each other in a spirit of collaboration. The Nakuprat-Gotu Conservancy aims to improve human, habitat and wildlife security, and establish income-generating activities including tourism ventures and livestock marketing, and so create a sustainable model for future economic development.

Ushirikiano series previewed at Diemar/Noble Photography in London in October 2011. A monograph produced by teNeues accompanies the series.

Chris Jordan from series Ushirikiano, Water tank near Daaba Primary School (Turkana tribe), Nakuprat-Gotu Community Conservancy, Kenya, 2011.

Chris Jordan from series Ushirikiano, Borana child at Gotu School, Gotu Village, Nakuprat-Gotu Community Conservancy, Kenya, 2011.

The Prix Pictet Commission took me on a thousand-mile photo-documentary safari in a part of Kenya that most tourists never see. There I encountered a confederation of NGOs working closely with local tribes to create a sustainable way of life based on principles of environmental stewardship, wildlife conservation and peace. Despite enormous adversity – poverty, drought and wildlife poaching for starters – and some dubious intrusions of outside religious, commercial and educational culture, this quiet mini-revolution, led by a council of tribal elders, is bringing peace and stability to a huge area of Kenya. Ironically, their chances of success in the long run depend largely on whether the so-called first world can shift our own paradigm, as this part of Kenya increasingly is being ravaged by the effects of global climate change.
Chris Jordan explains of his work Ushirikiano

Chris Jordan from Ushirikiano, Samburu children at Naisunyai Primary School, West Gate Community Conservancy, Kenya, 2011.

Chris Jordan from series Ushirikiano, Bull elephant killed for his tusks, Namunyak Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya, 2011.

Chris Jordan from series Ushirikiano, Borana mother and baby, Gotu Village, Nakuprat-Gotu Community Conservancy, Kenya, 2011.

Ushirikiano: Building a Sustainable Future in Kenya's Northern Rangelands

The book of the Prix Pictet Growth Commission, with a foreword by HRH The Duke of Cambridge and essays by philosopher Nigel Warburton and Financial Times correspondent Katrina Manson.

The Commission is an invitation to one of the photographers shortlisted for the Prix Pictet to produce a series of photographs in a region where Pictet & Cie is supporting a sustainability project related to the award theme.

Ushirikiano features photographs from Chris Jordan, taken during a fieldtrip to Northern Kenya where Pictet is supporting the Tusk Trust to develop the Nakuprat-Gotu Conservancy – an initiative which aims to bring peace and prosperity to a region ravaged by violence and the vagaries of climate change. Jordan’s photographs both document the problems – particularly the poaching of elephants for their tusks – and celebrate triumphs and heroes of what he calls this ‘quiet revolution’.

Ushirikiano was published by teNeues in November 2011. Copies can be ordered from teNeues.