Ikona WMA
SETTING a natural home to migrating animals from Serengeti National Park, IKONA WMA is a community based wildlife conservation area where photographic safaris had paid a rewarding prize to local communities neighbouring Serengeti National Park.
IKONA: Assembling point for The Great Wildebeest Migration
SETTING a natural home to migrating animals from Serengeti National Park, IKONA WMA is a community based wildlife conservation area where photographic safaris had paid a rewarding prize to local communities neighbouring Serengeti National Park.
IKONA share its borders with the Serengeti National Park, Ikorongo and Grumeti Game Reserves and Sasakwa Concession Area. The WMA is made up of five villages located in western side of the Serengeti National Park, in Serengeti District, Mara region.
Established in 2007, IKONA covers an area of 242.3 kilometres of wildlife conservation area which is home to migrating animals from Serengeti National Park and the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya.
Tourist activities are mostly photographic safaris, similar to Serengeti National Park. IKONA is a tourist attraction product and where the local communities had succeeded to participate in wildlife conservation through benefit sharing with positive results.
The five villages bordering the Western Serengeti – Western corner of the Serengeti and which make up Ikona WMA are Park Nyigoti, Robanda, Nyichoka, Natta-Umbiso and Makundusi.
The Great Wildebeest migration concentrate at IKONA between May and June, the time which tens of thousands of wildebeest cross the Ikona WMA on their way to Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya.
Wildlife attractions in this WMA are similar to those in living in Serengeti National Park.
Big African Mammals found in IKONA are large wildlife species, including Elephants, Lions, Buffaloes, Giraffes, Hartebeests, Waterbucks, Wildebeests, Warthogs, Leopards, Topis, Roan Antelopes, Lesser and Greater Kudu, Klipspringer, Zebras, Hippopotami, Black and White Colobus Monkeys and Crocodiles.
IKONA Visitors Centre is the tourist facility and which the WMA management is looking for an investor to run it.
Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the centre is an attractive structure, well designed and fit for tourist services, capable to serve 300 visitors at once. The centre with its surrounding nature provides the best view of all available attractions within Ikona WMA.
Tourists are free to visit IKONA WMA all the year round as the entire area is accessible by road from Arusha through Serengeti National Park, Mwanza and Musoma, or by air through airstrips inside Serengeti, Fort Ikoma and Grumeti Game Reserve.
Tourist accommodation and recreational services are offered in lodges and camps established inside IKONA WMA and which are IKONA Wild Camp, Grumeti Migration Camp – Eco Lodge and Grumeti Hill.
Other tourist attractions found in IKONA WMA are the Fort Ikoma – historical site where German forces camped during the First World War. There are trenches to escape from enemy attacks down to River Grumeti and which German soldiers dug, also bunkers to counter the British bombardment from Kenya.
