Support the Laikipia Lion Rangers from Ol Maisor, Sosian, Mugie, Borana, Mpala and Karisia as they join the Wildlife Ranger Challenge!

You can follow campaign updates on social media with #ForWildlifeRangers or find out more at WildlifeRangerChallenge.org.

About the Wildlife Ranger Challenge:

Covid-19 has created a temporary safer world for Africa’s wildlife. But the floodgates are opening as the economic impacts of Covid drive more poaching. With tourism gone, the rangers who care for wildlife lack the resources to do their jobs. Lion Landscapes’ ranger teams are joining thousands of others across the continent taking part in the Wildlife Ranger Challenge, a series of physical and mental challenges, culminating in a 21km virtual race on Saturday 18th September.

You can join them! Show your support and sign up to run or walk with the community game scout team from wherever you are in the world:  WildlifeRangerChallenge.org/registration. Now is the time to go the extra mile to support our rangers!

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Your contribution will help support 46 Lion Rangers in Laikipia, Kenya, and 20 Lion Defenders in Ruaha, Tanzania to protect local livelihoods, lions and other wildlife. Every dollar we raise via JustGiving will earn an additional 25% match!

Your donation also helps to unlock vital funds for other ranger teams across Africa; the Scheinberg Relief Fund will donate the equivalent of 75% of the amount raised to the Ranger Fund!

The role of rangers:

Lion Rangers are trained to work with local livestock owners to prevent livestock losses to predation, and resulting retaliatory killings of large carnivores. By monitoring lion movements, they pre-empt human-carnivore conflict by warning livestock owners of the lions' whereabouts and shadowing lions when they move into areas with a high risk of conflict. They also advise livestock owners on effective predator-proof husbandry and collect and record valuable data that helps us understand more about human-carnivore coexistence and carnivore population dynamics. When conflict arises, particularly wildlife poisoning incidents, Lion Rangers respond quickly to minimise further impacts on human, livestock and environmental health.

Impact that 2020 WRC had on Organisation & Rangers:

The 2020 Wildlife Ranger Challenge proved to be a wonderful opportunity to build camaraderie between all the Lion Ranger units based on ranches and conservancies across the Laikipia landscape. Strengthening relationships between local conservation partners is central to Lion Landscape’s collaborative conservation approach, and enables consistent and coordinated management of human-large carnivore conflict in the region. The WRC challenge also raised vital salaries for all the Lion Rangers for both 2020 and 2021, plus extra funding through our donation page, which was distributed to the participating teams for equipment, uniforms and additional training.

Ongoing effects of the pandemic:

The Covid-19 pandemic has seriously exacerbated human-carnivore conflict in the Laikipia region, with the related hardship reducing human tolerance for further losses of valuable livestock to predation. This was compounded by the extremely heavy rains, flooding, and locust plagues during 2020, which have all acted to reduce food security, increase human suffering and further erode resilience to lion predation losses. Important zoo and tourism funding sources have also been cut, as have been other donor funding reliant on events. In short, Covid-19 has created a perfect storm for human-wildlife conflict, increasing the threats our project is trying to address, whilst simultaneously challenging our capacity to respond. Cost-effective ways of ensuring fast responses to prevent or mediate potential lion-human conflict situations have never been so important. Any perceived reduction in support to livestock owners could lead to a breakdown in hard won trust and a rise in devastating poisoning events.

How support in 2021 could help:

Continued support from WRC will ensure there are enough Lion Rangers to respond to lion movements in time to prevent livestock predation, protecting livelihoods for pastoral people, reliant on their livestock to support their family needs. It will also mean that Lion Rangers can respond to poisoning events, saving the lives of multiple lions, spotted hyena, jackal and endangered vultures, and reducing environmental exposure to harmful poisons for people and livestock. Providing training, equipment and management support for Lion Rangers on our partner conservancies, helping to achieve our shared goal of consistent landscape-scale facilitation of human-carnivore coexistence.

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Tusk Trust Limited is a charity registered in England and Wales, No: 1186533, and a company registered in England and Wales, No: 11948023. 

In the US, “The Friends of Tusk Fund” donor advised fund is administered by CAF America (Tax ID 68-0480736)

Donors who pay tax in the UK can enhance their donation through Gift Aid, meaning that for every £10 raised, Tusk can recover an additional £2.50 for the cause from the UK Government.

US supporters wishing to make a tax deductible donation please click here.