Blame it on Queen Victoria and Kaiser Wilhelm.

In 1881, Queen Victoria and Kaiser Wilhelm decided who would get what in an East African land exchange. And so the border between English and German East Africa was adjusted accordingly. Queen Victoria took some coastline for what would become Kenya, and Mount Kilimanjaro and the surrounding area became part of what is today Tanzania.

Cut to the present day. The animals of Amboseli in Kenya are, of course, oblivious to this invisible line. But for elephants, lions and other species, crossing that line into Tanzania in search of food or water can be the difference between life and death.

During the course of the year, about one third of Amboseli’s 1700+ elephants head across that border into Tanzania, just a few kilometers away (per our partners, Amboseli Trust for Elephants). Matriarchs like Maya, pictured below, will cross with their families, calves like Maksim, here aged just one month, in tow.

Back in those dark days before Big Life was around, when poaching was out of control, many of the most spectacular big bull elephants were killed on the Tanzanian side of the border, or killed by Tanzanian poachers who slipped across the border, before escaping back into Tanzania with their bloody trophies.

That’s what happened in 2009 to Igor, the iconic 45-year old elephant memorialized in the photo that is now part of Big Life’s logo.

That’s why, upon Big Life’s founding in 2010, we established the first coordinated cross-border anti-poaching operation in East Africa, with rangers embedded in the field in multiple outposts on both sides of the border. To prevent further senseless deaths like Igor’s.

As a result, things are far better these days, not just for the elephants, but for all the animals in the ecosystem. Poaching on both sides of the border is way down, significantly thanks to the concerted efforts of Big Life rangers.

The hard truth is that no matter how well we protect the animals on the Kenyan side, if it’s not to the same standard on the Tanzanian side, then those very same animals can tragically die when they unknowingly cross the border.

The lions in the above photo belonged to the Kitirua pride in Amboseli, very close to the Tanzanian border. In the last two years, seven lions have been speared or poisoned when they crossed the border. To make matters worse, cubs have been tragically left to starve and die without the protection of their mothers.

Thanks significantly to Big Life’s long-term Predator Compensation Fund (PCF), the lion population in the ecosystem has rebounded dramatically in the last 14 years. This program compensates herders for the loss of their livestock killed by predators like lion and cheetah. It has been an extraordinarily effective program in Kenya, with almost no incidents of retaliation by herders in participating communities. This is a particularly amazing achievement on a continent where almost everywhere else, lion populations are plummeting.

So as the threats against wildlife grow—with conflict-driven lion killing and increased bushmeat poaching of giraffes, zebra, and antelope likely the tip of the iceberg—it is time to increase our efforts in Tanzania. This includes bringing our highly successful PCF program across the border.

In the 300,000 acre area known as Enduimet, immediately south of Amboseli, Big Life’s vehicles and equipment need upgrading. More constant vigilance by the rangers is required.

This cross-border protection is what Big Life is all about. We can’t expect the animals to just conveniently stay within the man-made boundaries inside which they are protected. The more contiguous land mass we help to protect and preserve, the far healthier and more abundant the animals and entire ecosystem will be.

With this in mind, Big Life has formed an exciting new partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) for our operations in Enduimet.

Big Life will fund and implement wildlife protection operations, while TNC—which focuses on securing intact and functioning landscapes in key wildlife areas—will fund and provide administrative support.

Big Life and TNC will continue to work closely in future years to build strong local governance, improve wildlife management, and increase sustainable revenue streams for this critical elephant corridor and dispersal area.

Your donations will help to support:

• Anti-Poaching and Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation Costs in Enduimet: $250,000
• Start-up Costs of Predator Compensation Fund in Enduimet: $60,000
• Ongoing Costs of Existing Outposts on the Kenyan Side of the Border: $90,000

Total: $400,000

MATCHING DONATION OF $200,000

Our operations budget for 2018 has increased as we attempt to more comprehensively address the growing number of issues within the ecosystem, from conservation leases for endangered land to fence building to prevent crop-raiding elephants from being killed.

In 2017, a fair amount of our budget in Kenya came from the US Agency for International Development and US Fish and Wildlife Service. But with the major budget cuts proposed by the Trump Administration, we don’t expect that level of support to continue. So now more than ever, we are counting on you, our amazing donors, to help make this work a reality.

One of our most loyal donors has just committed, with incredible generosity, to match every donation made up to $200,000. This means that every dollar you donate in response to this appeal between now and December 31 will have double the impact.

So if you can, if you would, please contribute today:

Thank you as always for your support, 

Nick Brandt & Richard Bonham

Sunset is a bad time to be on your own in Africa, more so if you are a baby elephant.

The young female, not more than a couple of months old, was found by rangers wandering alone late in the afternoon. Not wanting to intervene, some of the ranger unit watched the calf while the rest went in search of her mother.

With darkness closing in, and no sign of the mother, the rangers had no option. The baby, completely trusting of her new human friends, needed no persuasion and simply followed the rangers back to their outpost, where they all spent the night.

At first light the rangers resumed the search for her mother, but again with no luck. Thankfully, in these situations we are able to call on the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The rescue plane was slightly delayed due to a temporary closure of Nairobi airspace, but the baby waited calmly with the rangers at the airstrip, even managing a sleep before being flown out.

With the ongoing dry conditions in Amboseli, elephant families are fragmenting more than normal in their search for food. It is possible that the baby lost her mother in this way, or perhaps that the mother died as a result of the drought conditions. We will likely never know.

What we do know is that there will be a happy ending for this young elephant, who has now been moved to the DSWT orphanage in Nairobi, where she will grow up with a new herd in preparation for her re-release into the wild.

Something is wrong here. The smell of rotting flesh fills the air. Scavengers wander leisurely from one carcass to the next, spoilt for choice and with no need to fight over scraps.

Humans are pretty good killers, but we’ve got nothing on nature. We’re coming to the end of what looks to be the worst year of rainfall since the last major drought in 2008/09, and the impact has been immediate and severe.

We’ve just watched hundreds of wild animals, and thousands of livestock, die from starvation or other drought-related ailments. Among those wild animals have been at least 15 elephants, each known by name to the Amboseli Trust for Elephants. Four of these elephants have been old females, and each of these deaths represents not only the loss of a mother and family member, but a huge amount of important survival knowledge.

Many of these deaths could have been avoided. Droughts will always come and go, but the impact of them depends on how well the land is managed in the periods in between. Across Amboseli, traditional management systems have fallen away, replaced by the inaction typical of modern-day politics. Hard decisions are hard to make, because they can cost leaders their positions.

This is one of the most pressing conservation issues here and across Africa. It’s a question of how we manage the wild land that remains, and keep it productive for wildlife AND for local communities. Big Life is happy to be working with the Amboseli Ecosystem Trust, a grass-roots organization that is taking a leadership role in land-use management decisions. On the ground, we are working with local communities to support grazing planning from the bottom up. This is complicated work, and not very sexy, but it is necessary to the long-term success of our conservation programs.

The rains have now finally started to fall in Amboseli. Not huge amount, but enough to avert complete disaster. The animals have started to lift their heads, slowly regaining their energy levels. We are now holding our breath, and hoping that the rains keep coming.

This week, the Trump Administration announced that the “trophy” body parts of legally hunted elephants from Zimbabwe and Zambia may be imported into the U.S., along with weakened protections for African lions. Allowing hunters to import pieces of the dead bodies of elephants and lions is a direct rollback of two Obama-era regulations meant to protect both of these threatened species, and the argument that this decision was undertaken in the name of conservation is utterly absurd. 

This announcement comes on the heels of the U.S. Administration’s proposed 2018 budget, which includes extensive cuts to already grossly underfunded wildlife conservation programs. If enacted, funding for programs that protect critical species like elephants and rhinos, including in Big Life’s area of operation, will be completely eliminated. Wildlife is not the only potential victim. With further cuts proposed for programs that support local communities, including vitally important support for community rangers, humans will also suffer. 

The world is seeing monumental shifts happening to stem the ivory trade and ensure the broader survival of iconic animals across the African continent. Under global pressure, even countries like China have demonstrated a commitment to shutting down the illegal ivory market. At this critical tipping point, the proposed U.S. budget cuts, compounded by the decision to lift the ban on the import of elephant and lion trophies, sends a confusing and dangerous signal to the rest of the world about the United States’ commitment and leadership in the fight against illegal wildlife poaching and trafficking. 

Decisions made over the next several months have the power to shape the future and chance of survival for some of the world’s most iconic endangered species. While the situation looks dire, there is still time for the political narrative to change.

To join the fight, and use your voice to change the narrative, please consider the following:

1. Donate to support Big Life’s work to protect and secure wildlife and wild lands in East Africa: https://biglife.org/donations
2. Contact US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or tweet @RyanZinke
3. Contact US Fish & Wildlife Service: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or tweet @USFWS