Today on World Lion Day, many will rightly draw attention to the fact that Africa’s lion population has been in sharp decline, by some estimates as much as 43% in the last 20 years.

But here in Amboseli we are celebrating a 20-year milestone of a very different kind. In April 2003, the Predator Compensation Fund (PCF) was created in close collaboration with local Maasai communities and elders to find a way of preventing the retaliatory killing of lions and other predators in response to livestock losses.

In the 18 months before the program began, at least 31 lions were killed on Mbirikani Group Ranch.  At that rate, it was highly likely that Amboseli’s lion population would be wiped out by the end of 2003. In the 20 years since, only 20 lions have been killed in violation of PCF on Mbirikani - a 95% reduction in the average number of lions killed on a monthly basis.

Over that same amount of time, Big Life has compensated for 49,457 livestock killed by wild predators with payments of more than US $1.6m to the local Maasai community.

But the real celebration is this: since PCF was started, the lion population across the ecosystem has grown from less than 20 to around 250.

Of course, not all of this lion conservation success can be credited to PCF alone. There has been a lot of hard work by our partners at Lion Guardians and the Born Free Foundation, as well as other more general conservation programs implemented by numerous entities, that have been greatly beneficial.

Lion killing in Amboseli has not been eradicated completely. Violations still occur, notably the recent killings you read about in May. Incidents like this are definite setbacks, but are often catalysts for much needed dialogue, and the community-enforced penalties are important demonstrations of commitment to the agreement.

So, in two decades since our program began, we have seen the Amboseli ecosystem’s lion population go from near local extinction to what scientists believe is the right amount for a healthy population at capacity.

And that is a story we believe should be roared at the top of everyone’s lungs this World Lion Day.

Thanks to all of our partners and supporters for making programs like PCF possible.

Photo: Max Melesi

It all started a few days ago, outside of Big Life’s area of operation, within Motikanju Conservancy on Kuku Group Ranch, where a herd of elephants were near a crop of ripe tomatoes, looking interested. The farmer was rightly very nervous of his crop getting destroyed and attempted to push 7 elephants away from his farm with not much more than a shovel and a flashlight. What resulted was a tusk through the farmer’s gut and a life-threatening rush to the nearest hospital in a Big Life ranger vehicle.

The next day the local community then proceeded to track the herd of elephants from Kuku into Kimana. Calming the growing mob of warriors hellbent on retaliation for the farmer’s severe injury took a long time and significant support from Kenya Wildlife Service, but eventually the warriors were convinced to abandon their efforts. But in the skirmish, a spear was thrown, and one elephant was later seen with a wound near her tail.

Once the community agreed to give up the chase and returned home, Big Life rangers rushed to call the KWS/SWT vet to check the elephant’s wound and confirm whether treatment was needed. Since she had a calf with her, it was decided to err on the side of caution and dart and treat the wound quickly, to give her and her calf the best chance of survival.
The farmer is recovering, and very lucky to be alive. And the elephants are equally lucky, and will hopefully stay away from farms.

This kind of human-wildlife conflict is becoming more and more common. We’re working with the local community to make sure that critical habitat areas are kept clear for wildlife to use safely in the wake of land-use changes and increasing human development.

In the meantime, our rangers will be there to help keep both people and wildlife safe.

Last year, Big Life’s beekeeping project with Saving the Wild made its first harvest, producing an impressive 110kg of honey. Everything was on course for a second harvest in July 2022 following anticipated rains, but the drought only intensified. With water in short supply, and desperately needed for honey production, the decision was made to wait until the arrival of the rains, so the bees could retain their strength throughout the difficult dry months.

And wait we did. It took almost a year for the conditions to recover, but on a series of clear and starry nights earlier this month, our beekeeping team managed to harvest double the amount of honey as we did last year.

While we feel justified in our decision to delay harvesting, we still have a way to go to make this project profitable, so we are trialing several new techniques we hope will help us achieve that goal.       Following some very busy weeks, the fruits of Amboseli’s bees and our labor will soon be available at safari lodges around Amboseli and on Nairobi’s online supermarket retailer, Greenspoon.

Once the project becomes profitable, honey sales will help pay for scholarships for children that grow up along the Kimana corridor, a narrow stretch between Amboseli National Park and Kimana Sanctuary where the apiaries are located. Photo: Josh Clay

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.