Contact us - Email: alex@ecoscapes.co.ke I Mobile: +254(0)795617185

The Ecoscapes Portfolio, Kenya

Ecoscapes Sanctuary – Ecoscapes Organic Market Garden – Ecoscapes Garden Centre – Ecoscapes Landscape Architecture – Ecoscapes Sustainability Centre

About us

Ecoscapes was founded by Richard and Alex Bell in 2015 to manage the various components of the Ecoscapes Portfolio.  With Richard’s financial and technical skills and Alex’s landscape architectural and horticultural skills, they have used their diverse but complimentary talents, to build their dreams of Ecoscapes Sanctuary and the other elements of the Ecoscapes Portfolio.
ECOSCAPES’ MISSION STATEMENT
  • We want to encourage a community of like-minded people to live at Ecoscapes Sanctuary who value nature and wildlife, living holistically with the environment and who enjoy the outdoors and water sports.
  • We aim to create a destination on the shores of Lake Naivasha which will attract local and international visitors.
  • We aim to promote the ethos of healthy living through embracing organically grown food and a holistic lifestyle in harmony with the environment.
  • We aim to educate people about the Organic Agricultural Movement and encourage other people around us to adopt similar practices.
  • The botanical gardens and nurseries will promote the use of indigenous, drought resistant and medicinal plants in the landscape as an environmentally sound practice for gardening.
  • At the Ecoscapes Organic Market Garden and our other Ecoscapes’ enterprises we value the people who work for us.
  • We believe that the experience of working for us should be enlightening for our employees.  Part of the job is to be taught the theories of our ethos not just the practical aspects.  We encourage our employees to adopt our principles for organic farming and holistic living in their homesteads and to spread the word to their friends and relatives.

Alexandra Bell

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Alexandra Bell (nee Archer) has an undergraduate degree in Horticulture (BSC Honours) from Reading University, England and a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture (MLA) from the University of Georgia, USA.

Alex was, until December 2016, the sole proprietor of Ecoscapes, a full service landscape architectural practice in Nairobi, which she founded in 1996.  During this time she worked on a large variety of commercial and private landscape architectural projects in Kenya and throughout East Africa.  Prior to 1996, she worked for Pickering Firm Inc in Atlanta, Georgia, USA as a landscape architect.  Since 2016, Alex has focused on organic farming and developing Ecoscapes Sanctuary.

For the last 8 years Alex has developed Ecoscapes from a farm growing fine beans for export into a certified organic farm growing over 100 different herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables for the local market, aiming at households around Naivasha and Nairobi.  We have retained our weekly pop-up markets at Shamba Cafe and Langata Link every Wednesday and we also do delivery to the home.  The Ecoscapes nursery has flourished and has over 300 plants that have been selected for drought tolerance.  Alex has kept her hand in as landscape architect and does a few projects every year.  The Ecoscapes Sanctuary Master Plan was designed by Alex and sales of residential plots to like-minded people continues.  Ecoscapes House is a popular holiday home and as of May 2023 we have opened Ecoscapes Glamping with a view to expanding to 8 Glamping units in the future.  Ziwani Island House is now available for self-catered holiday rentals as well as all-inclusive full board bookings.  All of our properties have been stylishly designed by Alex.  We are starting a program of courses in yoga, art, landscaping, healthy and sustainable living.  We have started community outreach programs with farm visits and now we want share our vast knowledge of organic farming in Kenya by developing the Ecoscapes Organic Farming Institute.

Richard Bell

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Richard Bell is a seasoned ICT entrepreneur who is currently helping Amazon Web Services expand their Infrastructure in the Middle East & Africa.  More broadly he is recognized as a subject matter expert in the technology, telecoms and renewable energy sectors in Africa, and leverages his knowledge through selected board appointments.  He is currently a Non-Executive Director of The East Africa Maritime System (TEAMS) the undersea fibre optic cable linking Kenya to the Middle East.

Between 2007 and 2017 Richard was Co-Founder and Director of Wananchi Group which is a multi-media infrastructure company across 7 countries in Eastern Africa.  Under their Zuku brand they were the first to deploy large scale Fibre-to-the-Home infrastructure in Africa.  From 2005 to 2007 Richard was a Director and Investor in African Lakes Plc (the owners of Africa Online and UUNet Africa).  Previously in 2002 he was Founder of Kenya Data Networks (now Liquid Telecom Kenya Ltd) which was the first data infrastructure company in Kenya, and, he was one of the early Internet Pioneers in Africa when he Founded the ISP/Swift Global in Kenya and Uganda in 1995.

Richard has been actively involved in the development of ICT in Africa.  He was Chairman of the Kenya Capital Markets Authority Task Force on ICT Impact/venture investing in East Africa and was appointed by His Excellency, President Kibaki as a founding Director of the Kenya ICT Board.  He was founding Chairman of the Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC), founding Chairman of the Telecommunications Service Providers’ Association of Kenya (TESPOK), founding Chairman of the Kenya Internet Exchange Point (KIXP), and, a founding Director of the Africa Network Information Centre (AfriNIC).

His early career was as a commissioned officer in The Royal Marine Commandos where he specialized in Mountain & Arctic Warfare.

Richard holds a BSc (Hons) from the University of St Andrews, Scotland & is a Sloan Fellow (MSc) of the London Business School, England. He is a Kenya Citizen is an enthusiastic amateur aviator, bush pilot, and, conservationist.

Ecoscapes! It's a lifestyle!