[FEL-L] Lions Making a Comeback on Kenya Ranches

[BigCatSimba at aol.com]

source: _National Geographic News_ 
(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070410-lions-kenya.html)  | Aug 06, 07 | submitted by _Pat Coate_ 
(http://www.greatnewsnetwork.org/index.php/news/membername/patcoate/)  
 

"We've made remarkable progress in a short time." - Laurence Frank, Living 
with Lions project director

 
Near Mount Kilimanjaro, Southern Kenya - Conservation efforts on a ranch in 
southern Kenya have led to an "extremely encouraging" rebound in the lion 
population there, an African predator expert said. 

The guardians are also community educators who help their people improve 
livestock care and understand the potential economic benefits of conservation. 
 
 
 
John Roach
for _National Geographic News_ (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/) 

April 10, 2007
Conservation efforts on a ranch in southern _Kenya_ 
(http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_kenya.html)  have led to an "extremely 
encouraging" rebound in the _lion_ 
(http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/african-lion.html)  population there, an African predator expert said.  
The positive trend is a bright spot in an otherwise dismal situation for 
lions in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, said Laurence Frank, a wildlife 
biologist at the University of California, Berkeley. 
 
Less than a year ago, Frank reported that Maasai warriors appeared poised to 
obliterate southern Kenya's lion population.  
(Read: _"Lion Killings Spur Fears of Regional Extinction in Kenya"_ 
(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060522-lions.html)  [May 22, 2006].)  
The big cats are speared as part of a manhood ritual and poisoned to prevent 
livestock predation, he explained.  
In 2006 a total of 32 lions in the region were killed.  
But a compensation program, combined with a newfound passion for 
conservation, has allowed the lion population on one communally owned ranch to increase 
from 15 to 25, or about 67 percent, in the midst of the surrounding slaughter.  
"We've made remarkable progress in a short time," said Frank, who directs the 
Living With Lions project in Kenya.  
"The lions seem to be doing better where we and our partners are working."  
(Frank's research has been funded in part by the _National Geographic 
Conservation Trust_ (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/conservation/) . The 
Conservation Trust and National Geographic News are both divisions of the National 
Geographic Society.)  
Compensation and Pride  
The project seeks to reverse the dramatic decline in lion populations outside 
the African country's national parks and game reserves. It works closely with 
several groups in southern Kenya.  
The Mbirikani Predator Compensation Fund and Maasailand Preservation Trust 
are headed by Tom Hill, a New York philanthropist, and Richard Bonham, who runs 
Ol Donyo Wuas tourist lodge on the communally owned Mbirikani Group Ranch.  
The privately funded compensation fund reimburses Maasai herdsmen when lions 
and other predators kill their livestock. The compensation removes the 
financial burden and emotional tension such a loss creates, fund operators say.  
But to receive full compensation, herdsmen must keep watch over their grazing 
livestock during the day and guard them in lion-proof thorn bush enclosures 
called bomas at night. If they don't, they are paid less for the loss.  
Frank said this compensation program is the most important factor in the 
rebound of the lion population on the group ranch, which covers 500 square miles 
(1,300 square kilometers).  
The trust, together with Frank's group, has also started a program that gives 
young, mostly uneducated Maasai warriors an opportunity to work in 
conservation as lion guardians, or Simba Scouts.  
Leela Hazzah, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who 
studies Maasai attitudes toward carnivores, conceived the guardian program 
and runs it with Séamus Maclennan, a project biologist.  
The guardians track the lions and tell their neighbors when a lion is in the 
vicinity, prompting locals to graze their livestock elsewhere.  
The guardians are also community educators who help their people improve 
livestock care and understand the potential economic benefits of conservation.  
"That is an extremely valuable service that they're playing in their 
community," Frank said. "This gives them prestige."  
The program is governed by the lion population's size. Currently there are 
enough lions for 7 paid guardians and 20 volunteer positions.  
As the lion population grows, more jobs will be added. If a lion is killed or 
poisoned, a job disappears.  
What's more, Frank noted, the young men have enthusiastically thrown 
themselves into the job and are already making a major impact.  
"All the young men on the group ranch have sworn they'll never kill another 
lion, which is totally remarkable. The whole point of being a young man until 
now has been to kill a lion," he said.  
Pilot Efforts  
Frank is further encouraged that this conservation success is now being 
replicated on another nearby ranch.  
The Kuku Group Ranch is operated by Luca Belpietro and Antonella Bonomi's 
Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, which is affiliated with Campi ya Kanzi 
Lodge.  
The addition of the ranch expands the compensation and conservation 
initiatives by about 400 square miles (1,000 square kilometers). Frank hopes to include 
additional ranches in the coming years.  
"What we're doing on these two places now is basically pilot efforts to see 
what works," Frank said.  
"It looks like on Mbirikani we've hit on a winning formula of involving the 
local young men in conservation and helping pay people for livestock killed by 
lions and other predators," he added.  
But despite the success of these local pilot projects, the overall situation 
in southern Kenya "is still pretty dismal for lions," Frank noted.  
"There have been some tremendous developments, but we'll want to see these 
developments bear fruit for a couple of years before I'm ready to say we've 
licked the situation," he said.  
If successful, Frank hopes to expand the efforts throughout Kenya's 
rangelands.  
Sarel van der Merwe is chair of the World Conservation Union-affiliated 
African Lion Working Group based in _South Africa_ (http://w
ww3.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_southafrica.html) .  
He said that Frank and his colleagues have had "remarkable successes" in 
addressing the conflict between humans and lions, and he encouraged the 
researchers to widen their efforts.  
"Isolated little management plans will not result in a stop to the killing 
and resultant decrease in lion numbers over the African continent," van der 
Merwe said via email.  
"Comprehensive conservation strategies and managed cohabitation are the key 
words for successful lion population conservation continent-wide." 
 
 
 
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