We have some tragic news to share. Simultaneously a life to celebrate.

Rangers put their lives on the line every day that they step into the field, and we have always dreaded the moment when things might go terribly wrong. Sadly, that day came recently when one of Big Life’s long-serving rangers, Kior Kulwa, was killed by an elephant while returning to work from home.

It was a completely chance accident, in a remote area, and the fact that it happened to a man as experienced in the bush as Kior suggests that it was probably unavoidable. It feels especially tragic that he was killed by one of the animals he had worked so hard to protect.

Kior was previously a poacher, and after being arrested a number of times in the 1990s decided to take a different path by joining Big Life and rising to the rank of corporal in Big Life’s rhino protection platoon. He was well known for his enthusiasm and hard work, and had earned the respect of his peers by twice winning the monthly award for best performing ranger. Always cheerful and ready with a joke even in the most stressful circumstances, Kior was a backbone of Big Life’s wildlife protection program.

Kior leaves behind a wife and two children, one of whom has been hired as a ranger to continue in the footsteps of his father. Kior is one of the many unsung heroes of wildlife conservation and joins the growing number who have paid the ultimate price for the work that they do. He will be sorely missed and forever remembered. Thank you Kior.

We have created the Fallen Ranger Fund in Kior's memory to help support the families of Big Life rangers who have been injured or killed in the line of duty. To contribute, please click here. 

It’s a great pity that we can’t translate the news headlines for elephants, because they would surely be doing an even more ecstatic dance than we.

The Hong Kong Legislative Council today voted to pass a bill that will end the ivory trade in the city-state, which has long been one of the global hubs of the bloody business. The decision was overwhelming, 49 votes to 4, and a strong finish for the bill that started its journey through parliament in June 2016.

We don’t have much sympathy for traders demanding compensation, as investigations have revealed that ivory traders have been using loopholes to peddle illegal ivory under their ‘legal’ licenses. Only this last July, Hong Kong customs seized seven tons of illegal ivory in the biggest bust the city had seen in 30 years.

The ban will take effect in three phases, with an immediate ban on trade in elephant trophies, followed by a ban on ivory imports and exports after three months, and full closure of all commercial ivory trading by the end of 2021, by which time all possession licenses will have expired.

This of course leaves some wiggle room for traders to continue to exploit over the next few years, and we hope that this ban is followed up with strong enforcement. But more than anything, we are grateful to the decision makers in Hong Kong, and the efforts of all of those who have pushed for this to happen.

Following the implementation of China’s ivory trade ban at the end of last year, we couldn’t have a better start to this one. There is more than light at the end of the tunnel, we can just about feel the warmth on our faces.

(Image: Big Life's Daniel Sambu on an outreach visit to Hong Kong a couple of year's ago)

Sadly, elephants can’t own property. But they need a home too, and there are some places that they can’t afford to lose. 

The Kimana Sanctuary is one of the these. It is small but critical; 5,700 acres of land at the heart of the Amboseli ecosystem. It is home to majestic elephant bulls, big elephant families and countless animals of all kinds.

As swamps have converted to agriculture, and development has closed off wildlife migratory routes, Kimana Sanctuary offers these animals access to water, and a safe corridor to travel between different areas of the ecosystem.

There is no plan B. This land needs to be protected, and Big Life is excited to start the year with the announcement that we will be taking over this responsibility, and adding existing rangers to the Big Life team. This is possible thanks to support from our incredible partners the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, who will be covering the cost of the land lease (paid to the local community) for the coming year, and funding from the D.N. Batten Foundation who provided key support for the establishment of Big Life operations in the sanctuary. The funding for the rehabilitation of existing tourist infrastructure, critical for revenue generation, will be provided by UNDP/GEF.

The land is safe, and we need to make sure that the animals within it are safe too. This past weekend the Kenya Wildlife Service/DSWT vet team worked with Big Life rangers to treat an elephant that was seen walking around the sanctuary with a spear stuck in his back.  This would likely have happened to him while raiding neighbouring farms, but Big Life’s next phase of crop-protection fencing will separate the sanctuary from the town, keeping both humans and elephants safe.

With elephant poaching under control in Amboseli, these complex issues of space and human-wildlife conflict are Big Life’s biggest challenge. Thanks to all of you who have made our successes possible, and for those who might be interested in joining Big Life to support our current work, please donate HERE.

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