By Richard Bonham, Executive Chairman

I am incredibly proud to introduce Big Life’s new CEO, Benson Leyian, for many reasons.

Benson is “home-grown.’’ He hails from Mbirikani Group Ranch, which is at the center of Big Life’s area of operations. He knows the ecosystem, community, and conservation opportunities and challenges better than anyone I know, and probably more importantly, because of his background, he can see it from the inside out.

As a child, he did his time herding livestock, equipped with only a spear to protect himself and his father’s livestock from predators, and this has given him that all-important understanding of the ways of the bush and co-existence with wildlife. 

His father never had a formal education but understood its importance and sacrificed what he could to send him to school. Despite periods at home due to lack of school fees, Benson excelled, and today holds a BSc in Non-profit Management and Public Administration. He is also a Certified Public Accountant. And as if that wasn’t impressive enough, in his spare time he is finalizing his PhD in Project Planning and Management.

Benson’s first job was as an accountant for a tourism company, but his passion for conservation led him to the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust, where he worked his way up to become the CEO. While there, the Governor of Kajiado County (within which Amboseli is located) recognized his abilities and recruited him to serve as his conservation advisor and Chief Officer in the Office of the Governor.  

The timing of his arrival at Big Life could not be more important, as we work with our partner communities to navigate the complex transition of large areas of the ecosystem from communal land to private ownership, in a way that keeps natural resources intact and the ecosystem functional. 

Benson is married to Dr. Jenifer Timpiyian who is a gynecologist at the Kenyatta National Hospital, another success story who we are proud of as a prior beneficiary of Big Life’s scholarship program. They have three children.

We are excited to have you leading the team Benson, welcome.

At a glance, there was nothing unusual about the two men, other than a small suitcase that suggested they were going on a short trip. But we knew what was in the bag, and it wasn’t clothes for a weekend away.

Inside were actually six cat skins from five leopards and a serval, with an estimated combined street value between $2,000 and $4,500.

The cats had been poached using snares far outside of Big Life’s core area of operation, but our intelligence network caught wind of it as soon as they were on the market. We worked with the Kenya Wildlife Service to set up a bust, and quickly arrested the two men involved.

They are now in jail awaiting trial, and according to the Kenya Wildlife Act, the minimum sentence for this offence (dealing in or possessing wildlife trophies without a permit) is a fine of at least $10,000, a five-year jail term, or both.

Big Life’s broadening intelligence network has become one of our strongest deterrents against wildlife crime. The poachers and traffickers involved have no way of knowing friend from foe, and the risk of being caught is extremely high, as are the consequences. While simple, it is very effective.

Please consider supporting our work, which keeps animals thriving in the wild and their pelts out of suitcases.

The Amboseli ecosystem is vast. While the system of tarmac roads is growing, many of rural communities are located far from it.  And that means providing services to remote parts of the ecosystem can be challenging. Being able to move through the bush quickly is not only a matter of efficiency, but of safety.

So we are especially proud of Joan Seleyian for getting her motorbike license recently, the first female employee at Big Life in Kenya to do so. Joan is our Community Health Program Assistant, and her role is to support the Ministry of Health nurses and clinical officers to provide essential health services in remote areas of the Greater Amboseli ecosystem.  She helps to convene community meetings dispelling the myths and misconceptions that surround family planning, as well as managing a team of Community Health Volunteers. And she will also be at the forefront of a new program aiming to tackle the high child and teenage pregnancy rates in the area. Being able to safely use a motorbike makes a world of difference for her ability to do her job.

While motorbikes are common in East Africa, it’s not common for women to ride them, despite the employment opportunities having a license opens up. Joan is an inspiration to other Maasai women for challenging the status quo.

Congratulations, Joan! We hope more will follow in your footsteps. 

Our thanks to CHASE Africa for funding this essential work.

Some days we take small steps, other days they’re more like jumps. Today we’re very excited to announce a jump.

You might be familiar with the Kimana Sanctuary. Right in the heart of the Amboseli ecosystem, it is a critical link in one of the last corridors for elephants and other animals to move between Amboseli National Park and the Tsavo ecosystem.

The Sanctuary was created in 1996 as one of the first community-owned wildlife sanctuaries in East Africa, but mismanagement of early tourism enterprises led to their failure. For more than a decade the Sanctuary stood still, a forgotten paradise that received few visitors.

Conservation-related benefits were minimal, leading to growing impatience among the Sanctuary’s 844 collective landowners. Something needed to change, and in 2018 Big Life and Sheldrick Wildlife Trust took over management of the Sanctuary.

Slowly, we dusted it off and picked it up. We purchased and upgraded the infrastructure through support from the D.N. Batten Foundation and UNDP/Global Environment Facility, but we knew that long-term success depended on increasing income to landowners.

We renovated a guest house, created campsites, and fixed up the road network. Visitors started to trickle in, and then flow. Revenue increased, but still we relied on our partners and donors to fund most of the costs of conserving the Sanctuary.

That is about to change through an exciting partnership with Angama, owners and operators of Angama Mara safari lodge in the Maasai Mara. A sub-lease agreement will give Angama tourism access to the Sanctuary, with resulting revenue streams that will allow Kimana Sanctuary to become self-sufficient, simultaneously covering its own running costs and increasing income to its landowners.

Big Life will retain the head lease and management responsibilities, and Sheldrick Wildlife Trust will continue its support through funding for community rangers (until such time that these costs can be covered by tourism revenue), alongside the financing of land leases in conservancies elsewhere in the Kimana corridor.

This is truly cause for celebration, a moment that changes the future. It’s a clear example that where wildlife thrives, tourism will follow, creating sustained revenue that can protect important wildlife refuges for years to come.

It’s a model that we will pursue in the other areas where we work across Amboseli, to achieve our goal of building local economies that rely on conservation, not destruction, of nature.

Photo: Jeremy Goss