Lion Guardians project expands!
The Lion Guardians project has been a success: Since the start of Lion Guardians, there have been no lions speared on Mbirikani – and the Guardians have prevented over 20 hunting parties from killing lions. This is in contrast to over 30 lions killed on adjacent ranches.
Lion Guardians has recently expanded the project to include Eselenkei Group Ranch and Olgulului Group Ranch, in response to urgent requests from communities and conservationists. Olgulului in particular experiences a lot of wildlife conflict as it borders Amboseli National Park.
Biggest challenge
Of course, one might think that the greatest obstacle faced by the Lion Guardians project is convincing Maasai warriors that protecting lions is better than killing them.
But it isn’t.
Leela Haazah explained that Lion Guardians’ biggest challenge is funding.
In most conservation organizations, the biggest challenge is finding the money to run the project. Panthera gave us our first donation and that allowed us to hire Guardians and get the equipment needed to truly run the project in the way we planned. Lion guardians would not be so successful if it wasn’t for the trust and support from Panthera.
Learn more about Lion Guardians
The Lion Guardians project is one of the first in East Africa to combine traditional knowledge with western-based technologies. It is proving to be a culturally and economically sustainable approach to conservation – and could serve as a model for traditional conservation strategies, which are sadly becoming less effective as human population grows and puts increasing pressure on wildlife.
Find out how you can help Lion Guardians:
Watch a video about the Lion Guardians:
Lions in crisis
Scientists have recently discovered that the number of lions living in Africa has dropped dramatically from as many as 200,000 to only 23,000. While the majority of these lions are living inside of National Parks, lions living outside of the parks are being being killed at an alarming rate.
The problem is that as human population expands, so does livestock production – which is how many rural Africans make a living. Not only is lion habitat shrinking, but their natural prey is losing grazing area to domestic livestock – and the few remaining lions have no choice except to prey on livestock.
The result is increased interaction between humans, domestic livestock, and lions. For most farmers, poison is a cheap and easy solution to these “interactions”. A few cents’ worth sprinkled on a carcass is enough to kill an entire pride of lions.
From Lions, Conflict & Conservation by Frank, L.G., Hemson, G., Kushnir, H. & Packer:
Conflict with humans over livestock depredation is the single most important factor causing the decline in African lion populations. With growing numbers of people and livestock throughout the continent, lions will become entirely restricted to very large or well-managed protected areas if conflict mitigation cannot be implemented on a wide scale. Ancient methods of livestock husbandry are remarkably effective at minimizing conflict, but these are rapidly being lost to modernization. Building good bomas and conscientiously tending livestock require time and effort at a time when poison is readily available and spearing lions is the only traditional test of manhood left for young warriors. As a cash economy has become increasingly relevant to rural Africans, they have lost their tolerance of predators and are likely to continue eliminating lions unless they bring in financial benefits that outweigh costs.
In fact, according to Dr. Laurence Frank, Living with Lions Project Director, unless urgent action is taken, Kenya’s lions could vanish within 10 years.
Images: flickr.com/photos/tambako/ / CC BY-ND 2.0 and flickr.com/flametree/ / CC BY 2.0
About Rhishja Cota-Larson
“The project’s goal is to secure a sustainable future for carnivore conservation” ??
What ?! “carnivore conservation” is worried that it could work itself out of a job ? Oh that would be just tooo bad !
Do we really want a world without Lions (even if they are carnivores)? It’s so great to see a project developed and run by the local people affected. Read the Lion Guardians blog at http://lionguardians.wildlifedirect.org/ You can also donate to support their wonderful work.
From the author:
Thank you, Pat. I personally think Lion Guardians is an excellent concept – and there is certainly an urgent need in the world for new conservation strategies!