Is it worth saving something today, if it won’t survive tomorrow? There are limited global resources available for conservation and this is an important question; we don’t want to waste time or funds. As a result, conservation efforts must involve not only the conservation leaders of today, but those of the future.

Big Life has always invested in education, largely through conservation scholarships within the Greater Amboseli ecosystem. We are currently supporting, through funding partners, scholarships for 268 children. Now we would like to amplify that impact for further conservation good.

Thanks to the initiative and support from the Mellmann Foundation, a new “peer counseling” program has been created. Forty-four scholarship students will become positive influencers in their communities, disseminating information on relevant topics such as female genital mutilation (FGM), environmental conservation, and health and hygiene. Students will select the issues they are most passionate about and become a member of a relevant ‘topic club’.

All of the students have received public speaking training and will work with parents/elders and an officer from Big Life to organize meetings in their communities to discuss their chosen topics. Students will work in their topic clubs during school holidays to disseminate information amongst their peers, families, and neighbors.

These students are bright, educated, an integral part of their communities, and perfectly placed to be “gamechangers” across multiple issues. They are the potential conservation leaders of tomorrow, but there is no reason that they can’t start having a positive impact today.

Only a very bold (or very hungry) predator will take on a full-grown elephant, but a calf wandering alone in the darkness is easy prey. It would have been a long and stressful night for the baby, but somehow he survived.

We don’t know how he was separated from his family. He was first seen late Sunday evening by a community member from Rombo Group Ranch, an area bordering Tsavo West National Park in a far corner of Big Life’s operating area.

Early the next morning, the same man bumped into the elephant in the bush again, and this time there was enough daylight for him to walk to Big Life’s mobile camp in Rombo and tell the rangers. It was 6 am.

The ranger unit set out immediately to where the elephant was last seen and found it soon after arriving at the spot. The tiny elephant, less than two-months-old, was seemingly responsive to any kindness and happy to walk with the rangers as they guided it back to their camp. The next calls, to Kenya Wildlife Service and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, were made at 6:49 am.

By 8:30 am, there was a SWT helicopter and team on the ground, and they sedated the calf and bundled it into the helicopter. From Rombo it was a short hop to the SWT HQ at Kaluku, where the calf is reportedly doing well. He will join the other elephant orphans in the care of SWT, and hopefully one day be released back into the wild.

Incredibly, the whole rescue operation took less than three hours. This sort of response is only possible because of our extensive ranger coverage (made possible by you our supporters, and Zoo Basel and USAID in particular on Rombo), the much appreciated partnership with SWT, and a community that cares. We all have an important part to play.

Luxury handbags, sparkling gold sneakers, and now conservation in Africa. It’s an association we would never have dreamed of, but fashion brand Gucci has just invested in conservation in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem.

The Chyulu Hills lie on the eastern side of Big Life’s operating area and include diverse habitats ranging from expansive swathes of grassland to towering cloud forests. This array of natural environments is home to an astounding level of biodiversity, including a small and rare population of 8 critically endangered Eastern black rhinos that Big Life helps to protect.

Just as important, the area is critical for carbon storage. When Gucci was founded almost 100 years ago, the protection of a remote natural space in Africa would have been of little relevance to the Italian fashion house. But the link is one that becomes stronger, and clearer, every day. Protecting nature, no matter where in the world, is good for the planet, and therefore good for everyone.

A REDD+ project allows anyone to contribute to the protection of the world’s carbon stores through the purchase of carbon credits, which offset the impacts of carbon-dioxide producing activities. The money from these credits is invested in habitat and conservation projects, as well as community empowerment. If the forests disappear, so does the income stream, so local communities are motivated to participate. It’s a local payment for a global good.

We are very pleased to share the news that Gucci has made the decision to purchase 350,000 carbon credits from the Chyulu Hills REDD+ project, as part of their effort to become a carbon neutral company.

Gucci is now the second major company to purchase credits from the Chyulu Hills REDD+ project, following two purchases made by Tiffany & Co. We are optimistic about the future seeing such large-scale, for-profit companies taking positive steps towards acknowledging climate change, and doing something to tackle it. We hope many more companies start to follow their lead, for everyone’s benefit.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

Wildlife protection comes in all shapes and sizes.

This is especially true of Big Life’s Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU). Although the team comprises only a single vehicle and nine rangers, they are highly trained and armed, in case of encounters with armed poachers. The team is nimble by design and able to react quickly – day or night – to poaching and other high-risk incidents across the ecosystem.

While the RDU is primarily focused on elephant protection, they are also called to intervene during a myriad of situations.

Over the last several months, the RDU has been busy. They have recovered elephant ivory, found and destroyed 19 snares targeting wild animals of various sizes, arrested suspects for bushmeat poaching and habitat destruction, mitigated elephant-human conflict by helping to steer hungry elephants away from farms and communities, and helped in the rescue of a gazelle suffering from multiple bite wounds, which was later released into Kimana Sanctuary.

There is no debate. The RDU’s impact is larger than life. We’re grateful to our supporters and partners, including La Passerelle Conservation and Parc Animalier d’Auvergne, for keeping our RDU in the field.

Photo: Jeremy Goss