Amboseli’s rangelands are hurting. High numbers of livestock, and the breakdown of traditional rotational grazing practices, have resulted in unsustainable pressure on savannah grasses. Without a protective covering, soils are eroding, and gullies scar the landscape. This degradation has become more severe in the face of a changing climate and extreme droughts like we saw this past year. When the rains do fall, all of that life-giving goodness runs straight off the hard surfaces as there is no vegetation to slow it down. Enter the humble bund: a half-moon shaped trench which catches water, allowing it to seep into the ground slowly, recharging the groundwater and increasing the ability of vegetation to regrow.

Thanks to critical support from Apple Inc. and Conservational International, Big Life embarked on an ambitious project in 2021 to restore land that had become practically desert-ified. Two pilot sites of around 10,000 acres were chosen by the community, and a small army of Maasai women and men were employed to dig thousands of bunds – 77,898 bunds and counting - to be precise. 193 jobs were created at a time when the drought left many without an income, and 52 ‘restoration scholarships’ have been awarded primarily to kids from around the sites. Each bund was reseeded with palatable grass species and crucially, the community agreed to restrict livestock grazing to allow the sites to recover. It hasn’t been easy and the drought definitely impacted recovery, but we have been encouraged by the results. Our partners at Justdiggit and MWCT are doing similar pilots in neighboring areas, and collaborative and ambitious initiatives like these are crucial to large-scale recovery of rangelands.

All life in Amboseli - both wild and human – depends on healthy rangelands, and we hope to expand this work significantly in the years to come.

This week Big Life is joining fellow conservation organizations in celebrating the brilliant work done by female rangers - past, present, and future - who have been proving to the world that conservation is everyone’s business. In Maasai culture, like so many things, conservation and anti-poaching work has been dominated by men, while women are raised to become dutiful wives and caring mothers. And while many of Big Life’s 12 female rangers are wonderful wives and mothers, they are also bucking the trend. With their determination and fearlessness, these women are not only becoming part of the solution to protect Amboseli’s wildlife, but they are also blazing a trail for future female leaders. One such trailblazer is Constable Susan Lemomo, who was honored as a Disney Conservation Hero last November – an award provided by the Disney Conservation Fund that recognizes the heroic efforts and dedication of people around the world working to conserve wildlife and protect wild places.  In addition to her work as a ranger, she is one of the core instructors at Big Life’s Amboseli Ranger Training Academy and has helped to train more than 100 rangers. When Susan started, there were hardly any female rangers, let alone female ranger instructors, and she was one of the first Big Life instructors to train other female ranger recruits - something she is rightly very proud of. She adds, “In my recent position as a ranger instructor, I am seeing more and more women learn how to become rangers which is exciting for me. From my community, not many women receive a salary like I do, and I am happy to be an example to other women and girls to prove that we can support our families just as well as men can. I use my salary to support my three children and my mother.”

Well done, Susan - and the rest of our female rangers! You are an inspiration to us all. Photo: Josh Clay

The vet kept digging. He knew there was something in there. With all the dead tissue, there had to be. The elephant known as Pembe (meaning ‘ivory’ or ‘tusk’ in Swahili) snored gently as the probing continued in his back leg, asleep under the effect of the anesthetic drugs.

Only hours earlier, Pembe had been upright, walking on a swollen and clearly painful leg. Luckily, a guide from Ol Donyo Lodge spotted him on a morning game drive and placed the call to Big Life.

Our partners at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust were airborne almost immediately, carrying a Kenya Wildlife Service vet in their Sky Vet helicopter. The darting was a textbook operation, and so it was that Pembe found himself unconscious and at the center of attention.

We’ve known Pembe a long time, but he’s always been a bit of an enigma. He comes and goes from Big Life’s core operating area, and we were never sure where he went to. It turns out the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust have seen him in areas on the far side of the Chyulu Hills.

Those areas are dangerous: where crafting poisons from local plants and hunting with a bow and arrow are common. And it is a poisoned arrow that the vet eventually pulled out, almost certainly from a failed poaching attempt. Thankfully, the poison did not make it beyond the leg or Pembe would be dead already.

Seeing him up close confirms something else, which is that in the decades since he was first seen at the Ol Donyo Lodge waterhole, Pembe has grown to be one of a few rare and special elephants: a ‘tusker’ who carries tusks that weigh more than 100 pounds each.  His impressive tusks make him a prize target for ivory poachers.

Another injection later to reverse the anesthetic, and Pembe is up and off back into the bush. We hope he won’t wander so far next time, but Big Life rangers will walk with him as far as they can.

Following the traumatic incident this last weekend, in which six lions were speared on Mbirikani, we want to thank all of our supporters for the overwhelmingly positive words of encouragement. It means a huge amount during what has been a very difficult time for us.

We also appreciate the strong statements condemning the act that have been made by representatives from our local community and government. The message posted below is from the leader of the Mbirikani community, on whose land the incident happened.

The Governor of Kajiado County, the highest elected official of the 5.4-million-acre government administrative region within which Big Life operates, said the following:

“I would like to condemn this as a serious tragedy to us people who are pro-conservation, and as a community that has started to enjoy the benefits that go with conservation and wildlife. We are yet to fully establish what went wrong, but it is important for us to say that as a government, we support conservation and we condemn the act. I am sure that as a resilient community, a resilient people, we will overcome this.”

For Big Life, this incident has only highlighted the need for the conservation work that we do, and the importance of the achievements that we share with our partner communities who have made commitments to conservation on their land.

Click here to enlarge the statement below.