Malih J.N. Ole Kaunga

Malih J.N. Ole Kaunga is a Laikipia Maasai graduated in water resource management. He is the founder and Director of Indigenous Movement for Peace Advancement and Conflict Transformation (IMPACT Trust, www.impactKenya.org), an indigenous human rights organization active in Northern Kenya. Ole is also the Secretary General of Pastoralists Alliance for Resilience and Adaptation Across Nations, a coalition of community leaders, natural resource stewards, grassroots organizations, and customary institutions and 46 Indigenous Peoples Organizations in Kenya. He has previously worked for and consulted with International Labour Organisation Africa Program on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (Convention 169), with World Intellectual Property Organization on issues of Maasai Cultural Heritage, and with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and Climate Change. He is a member of the Advisory Council of Nia Tero and a former member of Conservation International’s Indigenous Advisory Group. In 2022, he was part of the team that coordinated Indigenous Peoples engagement and self-organised participation at the African Protected Area Congress organised by IUCN and its Members whose outcome documents were Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Declaration and the Kigali Call to Action. This process led to the formation of a platform Alliance for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Led and Rights Based Conservation in Africa that draws leadership from across Africa with its secretariat in IMPACT.