Big Life Foundation USA

Big Life works in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service to protect the endangered Eastern black rhino population in the Chyulu Hills area. Together, we conduct extensive foot patrols, aerial surveillance, and monitoring via camera traps. We also provide reliable, year-round access to protected watering points in this remote wilderness area to discourage rhinos from wandering beyond our area of operation in search of water during the dry seasons.

In addition to monitoring and protecting the resident rhinos, Big Life has been working to improve infrastructure in the rhino area, the goal of which is to maintain Intensive Protection Zone (IPZ) status, which will allow for the future inbound translocation of rhinos from other territories.

For Maasai herders, their cattle are their livelihood. When livestock falls prey to local predators, like lions or hyenas, the herders are financially disadvantaged and justifiably frustrated. To prevent herders from retaliating with spears or poisoned carcasses, Big Life incentivizes members of our partner communities to protect their livestock through improved fencing and husbandry practices.

In the event that an animal is lost to a predator through no fault of the herder, Big Life will compensate the herder for a percentage of the market value of the animal. This small consolation is significant to the Maasai, and as a result, retaliatory killings have been dramatically reduced in the area, with lion and other predator populations now on the rise.

As the human population increases, so do competing land-uses, such as farming and cattle grazing. Fighting for desperately limited resources like water and grass, humans encroach further and further onto what once were wild lands. With less space to share, people and animals now come into contact at an alarming rate, often with catastrophic and deadly results. Big Life works in partnership with the local Maasai to mitigate the impact of wildlife interactions, such as crop-raiding by hungry elephants, both for the people and the animals.

Big Life invests in the future of participating communities by funding teachers’ salaries, providing scholarship funds for local students, and implementing conservation-specific curriculum in classrooms.

The latest UN statistics cite over 1 million children out-of-school in Kenya and lists education as one of the three most critical needs, besides clean water and access to healthcare, within the Maasai regions in Kenya. The desire for education is so strong that families will bankrupt themselves, often selling their cattle (the main livelihood and sustenance commodity) to put their children through school.

Big Life currently offers merit and need-based scholarships, both in the short and long-term, to qualifying students, as well as covering the salaries of several local teachers.

In 2008, the cultural fathers of the new warrior generation asked Maasailand Preservation Trust—now Big Life Foundation—to help them eliminate lion hunting from the Maasai culture. In response, we partnered with the local Maasai to create the first-ever Maasai Olympics: the hunt for medals, not lions. This biennial event is a critically important—and effective—part of the initiative to create a cultural shift in attitudes of the Maasai toward a broader commitment to wildlife and habitat conservation.

There’s no point fighting to save wildlife if there’s no space left for animals to live. As the Greater Amboseli ecosystem changes, habitat for wildlife is being increasingly threatened and Big Life is prioritizing long-term solutions to save the natural spaces remaining.

Much of the Amboseli ecosystem is semi-arid and animals move vast distances as the seasons change. Protecting priority areas with strategic food and water resources, and the migratory corridors that connect them, is critical for maintaining a functional ecosystem that will support thriving wildlife populations for generations to come.

The number one reason that Big Life’s wildlife and habitat protection efforts are successful is because the local Maasai community is a key conservation partner and benefits from the work. We understand that if conservation does not support the local community in very real and meaningful ways, including financial remuneration, then sustainable conservation efforts will not be possible. One of the best ways to ensure the long-term success of our conservation efforts is to directly support the community, not only through our employment of rangers and field staff, but also through lease payments, tourism revenue, and by supporting education and healthcare.