We are thrilled to announce that we have earned a Four-Star rating from Charity Navigator for the 5th consecutive year.

Charity Navigator is America's leading independent charity evaluator, a trusted source that helps millions of donors turn their values and beliefs into action. This prestigious rating underscores our commitment to financial health, accountability, and transparency. Our 100% score, coupled with the fact that 87 cents of every dollar donated goes directly to our mission protecting African wildlife, means you can give with confidence.

Your ongoing support empowers our community rangers to continue their vigilant work on the ground protecting the Greater Amboseli ecosystem, fostering an environment where both people and wildlife can thrive.

This accolade is a milestone we are very proud of, but the real heroes are you, our supporters, and our rangers and field staff who turn intent into meaningful change every day. Here's to another year of partnering with local communities to protect nature for the benefit of all.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

Done right, tourism can be the beating heart of a local wildlife economy. It creates jobs and generates revenue for local communities who keep their land natural and open for wildlife.

Done wrong, it is an ugly beast. Local people are overlooked for employment opportunities, profits are extracted and sent to Nairobi or elsewhere, and the communities that live alongside wild animals hardly benefit.

Amboseli National Park is impressive for its biodiversity and robust wildlife populations, but it is very small. The park attracts a huge number of tourists, among the highest in Kenya.

The survival of the wildlife using the park depends entirely on animals being able to move in and out of the surrounding Maasai-owned lands, and those are the areas Big Life works to protect.

Amboseli has some truly excellent tourism operators, many of which we are grateful to have strong partnerships with. The good ones employ from the local communities, support local businesses, support conservation efforts, and pay fair access fees to local community-owned conservancies.

Going on a safari can be powerful force for good, but make sure your money is supporting the businesses that work with local communities and conservancies, like our partners listed below. Amboseli is not immune to the other kind.  

To all the good wildlife tourism operators out there, thank you. The conservation world appreciates you, and we hope that more and more travelers will too.

Big Life's Tourism Partners

Great Plains Conservation
Amboseli Bush Camp
Angama
Elephant Gorge Camp
Kilimanjaro Balloon Safaris
Gamewatchers Safaris
Tawi Lodge
Tulia Amboseli Safari Camp
Satao Elerai

Photo: Jeremy Goss

Ranger training is a critical piece of Big Life’s conservation success. To achieve and maintain our wildlife protection goals, Big Life’s rangers (and rangers across the African continent) must be regularly trained to ensure they have the most up-to-date education and skills in wildlife protection, wildlife crime prosecution, first-aid, and bush tracking skills.

To that end, Big Life conducts a comprehensive training program through the Amboseli Conservation Academy (ACA), which we launched in 2018. The training program is an intensive 21-day course, in which 300 rangers participate annually. The key activities of this course include non-commissioned officer courses for our officers, first aid training to ensure each unit can handle hazardous duties, training on crime scene investigation techniques and prosecution follow-up to bolster prosecution success rates, and instruction on monitoring and reporting techniques. Specialized operational courses are also included to prepare rangers for rapid responses to varying situations, including dangerous poaching scenarios and crop protection from elephants.We are grateful to our partners at Part Time Rangers for directly supporting a recent ranger training course, which resulted in 31 rangers getting critical training.

Keeping our ranger skills current and fresh will ensure we maintain our success for wildlife and wild lands in East Africa.
Photos: Josh Clay

To the untrained eye, it’s just a pile of dirt. Nothing remarkable about it. But it’s hiding something insidious: a charcoal kiln.

Last week, Big Life rangers helped arrest 8 suspects with 165 bags of charcoal. The charcoal came from the operation of 7 kilns, like the one seen here.

Illegal charcoal production, or charcoaling, is a problem across Kenya but especially in more remote areas where electricity and gas prices are higher. By felling trees, and burning them in low temperature underground ovens, charcoal can be produced relatively easily but at great cost.

The combined impact of deforestation and increased carbon emissions led to a ban on charcoal production in Kenya five years ago. Many critical species, including acacias, are used for charcoal production, with huge implications for local ecosystems including wildlife food and refuge, as well as water retention and erosion control.

This bust is the biggest Big Life’s rangers have conducted so far this year, and hopefully the last.