Recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve, the Amboseli ecosystem is one of Earth’s iconic natural treasures. Mount Kilimanjaro’s snow-capped peaks watch over this vast 2-million-acre landscape that teems with life and is home one of the world’s last gene pools of ‘super tusker’ elephants. 

Much of the region is arid, and animals must migrate over large areas to find food and water as seasons change. Very little is formally protected, and large herbivores spend an estimated 80% of time outside of the relatively small National Parks. 

It is in these spaces that Big Life Foundation works. Our area of operation covers approximately 1.6 million acres (roughly half the state of Connecticut) of land owned by Maasai communities that is critical for the survival of this ecosystem.

Big Life’s community partnerships go back 30 years and are based on the principle that if conservation supports people, then people support conservation. Our diverse range of innovative programs are co-designed with the communities affected by them and this has given us incredible success at tackling a host of complex conservation challenges including ivory poaching, the illegal wildlife trade, human-wildlife conflict, and habitat preservation. 

Our programs include a network of 353 community rangers in 44 anti-poaching teams in Kenya and northern Tanzania, a livestock compensation program that has been central to the recovery of the local lion population, construction and maintenance of 105km of electric fencing to reduce conflict between farmers and crop-raiding elephants, a conservation land-lease program protecting 100,000 acres, an education support program funding the education of more than 1,500 students, and the provision of primary healthcare and sexual and reproductive health services to local communities.

To find out more, head to www.biglife.org or follow us on social media on Instagram and Facebook.