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MPALA RESEARCH CENTER

In May 1989, Mr. George Small, citizen of Baltimore, approached Princeton University and the Smithsonian Institution with a proposal to establish a research and training center on his property, Mpala Ranch, in north central Kenya. This property consisted of 44,086 acres of savannah and dry woodland, with large mammal populations typical of East Africa (elephants, giraffe, several antelope species, cape buffalo, etc.), and is ideally suited for basic and applied ecological studies. An additional 5,021 acres was subsequently added to Mpala Wildlife Foundation, specifically for the proposed center.

Subsequent discussions among officials of Princeton, Smithsonian, the Mpala Wildlife Foundation and the relevant Kenyan organization -- the Kenya Wildlife Services and the National Museums of Kenya -- resulted in the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement in August 1991. The MOA, approved by the Board of Regents, laid the framework for the establishment of the Mpala Wildlife Research Trust.

The Trust Deed establishing the Mpala Wildlife Research Trust was signed on December 31, 1991 by the five organizations cited above, as well as by George Small and by a Kenyan citizen, Michael Shaw (attorney for Mpala Ranch). At this time the Trust took over management of the 5,021 acre block of land owned by the Mpala Wildlife Foundation. Under the Trust Deed, it also has free use of the other 44,086 acres, which will revert to the Mpala Wildlife Foundation on the death of George Small. These properties together comprise the Mpala Research Center. Neither the Trust nor the Smithsonian owns land at Mpala, nor are there plans for either the Institution or the Trust to purchase land there.

The Trust is responsible for managing these properties for the purposes of long-term experimental research on critical issues of desertification, wildlife ecology and management and the training of students from Kenya, the U.S.A., and elsewhere in basic and applied research techniques. The Trust is also responsible for seeking funds from foundations, corporations, and individuals, in order to develop and operate the Mpala Research Center.

A scientific advisory committee, with a member from each cooperating organization, has been established to advise the Trustees on the management of research programs and facilities, and the allocation of fellowship funds.

The processes of overgrazing and desertification which characterize much of Africa are as critical to global climatic change and loss of biodiversity as are the processes of tropical deforestation which characterize Asia and Latin America. An understanding of these African ecosystems is, therefore, of great practical as well as theoretical interest, and clearly falls within the mandate of the Smithsonian.

The Mpala Research Center provides the Smithsonian with a unique opportunity to undertake research and training in East Africa by participation in a consortium of distinguished research organizations. The Smithsonian has a long-standing interest in East African research but until now has lacked a firm base from which to carry out such studies.

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