Conservation efforts for an entire country like Kenya are not fulfilled by one group or person alone. It takes many people and organizations with a shared vision and active collaboration to make long-term wildlife and habitat protection work successful. In Kenya, this work is led by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the government entity that conserves and manages Kenya’s wildlife, and an important partner of Big Life Foundation.  

Big Life has over 450 field staff, including 342 trained community rangers, but there are 6 that have earned a special designation from KWS: Honorary Warden.

Candidates are selected after a rigorous selection process in the conservation area that the individual actively works in. Honorary wardens have several important roles and duties depending on their own individual skillset. Typically, this includes assistance with wildlife security, problematic animal management, conservation education, community engagement, wildlife translocation, wildlife census, species and ecosystem management, and fire management in protected areas.

It is no surprise that with decades of experience and relationships with the local community, that Big Life’s co-founder Richard Bonham has been an honorary warden for decades. KWS turns to him when needed, and he actively participates in operations that require input for official legislation. Richard was also chairman of the honorary wardens for the conservation area in which Big Life operates, the KWS’s Southern Conservation Area.

There are an additional five honorary wardens at Big Life, including: Chief Operating Officer Craig Millar, Commanding Officer (and Disney Conservation Hero) Francis Legei, Operation Commander James Kupere, Operation Commander Kasaine Nkurupe, and the most recent honorary warden, Daniel Ole Sambu, our Predator Protection Program Coordinator.

We are so proud of these individuals that are deserving of this recognition as conservation leaders in our area of operation.

(Pictured is Big Life Commanding Officer Francis Legei presenting Big Life Co-founder Richard Bonham a Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Award.)

Today we celebrate the brilliant work done by our female rangers past, present, and future. Whether conducting foot patrols, finding snares, catching poachers, teaching new recruits, or preventing elephant crop raids, a day in the life of these women is anything but ordinary.

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. Big Life’s 10 female rangers, however, are bucking the trend. With their quiet determination and bright smiles, these women are not only becoming part of the solution to protect wildlife, but also blazing a trail for future female leaders, proving to the world that conservation is everyone’s business.

Craig Millar, Big Life’s COO, believes that these women are playing a vital role in changing the status quo: “In this part of Kenya, equality of the sexes is far behind most of the world, and it has only been in the past few years where the prospect of having female rangers has even been a possibility. Being properly employed gives women more freedom and control over their lives. Add in the fact that they’re a ranger with the ability to enforce rules and laws, and it’s a huge step forward.”

We’re very lucky to have these women on our team and we’re proud of the work all of our rangers do all year round, protecting wildlife and wild lands in East Africa.

In the words of Ann Maloi, Big Life’s Radio Room Operator who tragically passed away last year after a battle with cancer: “It’s not written anywhere that a lady can’t, or shouldn’t, be a ranger. Everything that men can do, women can do too. As long as you’re passionate, you can do it. In fact, you can probably do it better.”  

There are two worlds in Amboseli, and the difference is night and day. A wildlife corridor in an area of intense human activity has a traffic pattern that reflects it.

Here’s a glimpse over a 24-hour period at a pinch point in the Kimana Wildlife Corridor, where Big Life leases a thin stretch of land (70m wide at its narrowest) to funnel animals safely through a ribbon of human development, over a tar road, and into the natural habitat beyond.

The Kimana Corridor is the most heavily used route for animals moving to and from Amboseli National Park and the Kimana Sanctuary, which connects with the east of the ecosystem and on to Tsavo West National Park. Big Life rangers also help protect both the corridor and the sanctuary, providing safe passage through the ecosystem in more ways than one.

By day, the pinch point bustles with humans and their livestock, moving to and from grazing areas and markets. At night, the human world goes to sleep, the car traffic on the road thins, and the wild takes over.

There is little separation between humans and nature here. Animals have had to learn how to navigate the changes caused by human development, just as humans must manage living with wildlife on their land.

Humans, livestock, and wildlife rely on the same resources across Amboseli: water, grazing areas, and corridors to move between those areas. What is good for wildlife is good for people, and vice versa, and this makes Big Life’s work to protect these natural spaces doubly important.

Last year, thanks to support from Saving The Wild and Comvita, we started a Bee Keeping Project. 200 bee hives were installed in the community conservancies that protect part of the Kimana Wildlife Corridor, one of the major wild arteries that connects Amboseli National Park with the wider ecosystem.

Income from harvested honey will help to raise funds for scholarships for landowners’ children, adding to the package of benefits that conservancy members receive in return for committing their land to conservation.

Launching any new program is bound to involve some unexpected challenges, and we’ve faced many, including some industrious honey badgers that found the contents of our hives particularly delicious. The apiaries have since been reinforced, but it took time for the hives to recover.

But if there’s one thing that bees need to thrive and produce an abundance of honey, it’s WATER.  And drought is proving to be our biggest challenge.

After good rains at the end of 2021 and lots of pollen from the surrounding Acacia woodland, we managed an initial harvest of approximately 110 kg of honey, all of which has subsequently been purchased by local lodges in Amboseli. There is clearly a market for such a tasty product!

We were hoping for another larger harvest in June following the long rains, but those rains haven’t materialized.  As we stare down the barrel of a significant drought, the bees will keep their honey, as they’ll need every drop to survive. In the meantime, we’ll continue to manage the apiaries and hope that future rains will lead to more productive honey harvests.

The dry seasons are becoming hotter and longer, and the rainy seasons are more sporadic and less predictable in East Africa. From the largest elephant to the smallest honeybee, we are all feeling the effects of a changing climate.