ALLOWING COMMUNITIES to LIVE SUSTAINABLY within THEIR ECOSYSTEM
Conservation KARE, through The Lion Conservation Fund (LCF) supports traditional indigenous practices that once allowed communities to live more sustainably within their ecosystems. But why does LCF assist communities? Recent reports suggest lion populations have crashed approximately 90% in just one decade and could face extinction in the wild without intervention. Many of the reasons for this dramatic decline can be linked to poverty and, by addressing core issues, conservation efforts can be strengthened while providing people a healthier ecosystem to live in.
In recent years, the Samburu people have embraced conservation values and have become excellent stewards of their land, dedicating hundreds of thousands of acres of their land as wildlife conservancies. At LCF, the Samburu are engaged as conservation managers, wildlife scouts, conservation education coordinators, research assistants, and serve on community conservation committees. Recognition was recently given to LCF’s programs with Samburu communities for being one of the most sucessful wildlife-human conflict programs in Kenya, the only project to reduce retribution predator killing to zero for over 3 consecutive years, stabilizing lion population declines and restoring habitat through a combination of innovative projects. We work together with local people with cultural sensitivity to find ways for wildlife and livestock to live sustainably in the same ecosystem, as they have for the millenia.
The Samburu, who were once nomadic and moved with rains, have been forced by their government to live on group ranches without alternative resources for surviving the harsh drought conditions. While this region has always been impacted by drought, some experts believe that climate change has increased their frequency, severity, and duration. We work with communities to provide clean water, food, health care and education projects that change and save lives. Our programs provide new livelihoods, development of wildlife conservancies, habitat restoration, solar energy,and other critical services to the most remote locations of northern Kenya, where foreign aid and relief supplies are unavailable to children who would otherwise be forgotten.