“A huge threat to lions and all wildlife in this region, is the loss of the Samburu culture. If the culture is lost, we will lose our wildlife.” ![]()
London, 26 April: Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) will present its 2023 Gold Award to Dr Shivani Bhalla, a Kenyan conservationist whose work with her team of Samburu warriors, elders and women has helped the local lion population rise to a 15-year high. The success comes even amid the worst drought in living memory in the Horn of Africa which is escalating conflict between people and wildlife.
Charity Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, will award the £100,000 top prize on 26 April at the Royal Geographical Society in a ceremony that also marks the 30th anniversary of the Whitley Fund for Nature, livestreamed to YouTube.
WFN Trustee Sir David Attenborough said conservation work has never been more urgent: “We need the work of Whitley Award winners to succeed and to help them to whatever extent possible.”
Lions are now more endangered than elephants or rhinos in Africa where they number just 20,000 and have disappeared from 92 percent of their historical range. Shivani, the Founder and Director of Ewaso Lions, and her team work to promote the coexistence of people and wildlife. With the funding, they will pioneer a transformational framework for locally-led conservation which will be rolled out worldwide.
The grassroots project in the Ewaso ecosystem, northern Kenya, will build on momentum following the COP15 global treaty agreed at the UN’s Biodiversity Summit which recognises the role of local and indigenous peoples in safeguarding as much as 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity.
Ewaso Lions has overseen a rise in the local lion population to more than 50 individuals last year from 11 before 2008. The team safeguards community land and monitors lion movements using traditional knowledge and modern technology. This saves about 250 livestock from lions annually in its 4,530km² remit.
The Samburu people are semi-nomadic and measure wealth in livestock, typically cows and camels –which can be worth up to $1,000 each. Lions are increasingly coming into contact with livestock, threatening livelihoods, while the drier landscape and ongoing drought is exacerbating coexistence. Other threats include plans for large-scale infrastructure projects and disease, such as distemper and rabies.
“Safe space for lions is reducing. In order to survive alongside people, lions need thick bush to hide during the day. They are losing this vital habitat, making it extremely challenging for them and are increasingly becoming confined to smaller, isolated islands of thick bush.”![]()
The project aims to inspire a global movement to empower local leaders to define community-led conservation efforts by boosting the skills needed to fight mounting threats. It will build on the success of programmes including “Warrior Watch”, created in 2010 by Jeneria Lekilelei, then a young warrior and now Director of Community Conservation at Ewaso Lions.
Warrior Watch encourages young warriors to become wildlife conservationists and protect lions. Samburu warriors travel on foot throughout the landscape tracking lions and alert nearby pastoralists to their presence to prevent livestock from being attacked. “Mama Simba,” is another dynamic women-led conservation initiative created by local Samburu women.
The lions of Samburu are more solitary than those found in other parts of Kenya and live alongside pastoral communities outside of protected areas. They hide during the day and emerge at night to hunt.
Shivani’s new programme will empower and train 150 community members across northern Kenya, as well as engage with 25 top global conservation leaders to develop a framework to be rolled out globally, with the aim of ensuring that conservation decision-making happens at the local level, while also deepening the cultural values of communities which have always lived alongside wildlife.
Shivani said “We need to be investing in local leaders from all demographics who ultimately provide their own sustainable solutions to address the conservation challenges that are faced globally… I envision a future where with or without conservation projects, conservation will be a way of life.
“My team and community are what inspire me every day. Every single time we see lion cubs or lions feeling safer in places where they were once not safe – we know that we are making a difference,” Shivani said. “Hearing lions at night is also what keeps us going,” Shivani said.
HIGH-RES IMAGES AVAILABLE HERE
NOTES TO EDITORS – DR SHIVANI BHALLA
- Shivani was born and raised in Kenya and has a PhD from Oxford University. She has been active in big cat conservation in Kenya since 2002, establishing Ewaso Lions in 2007 which has grown to a team of 64 full-time employees – mostly made up of Samburu warriors.
- Ewaso Lions encompasses 3 national reserves and 11 community conservancies. Its mission is to put local people at the centre of all programmes to create a sense of pride over the landscape by working with elders, warriors, women and children.
- Winning a Whitley Award in 2014, WFN has helped Shivani to scale up her work through subsequent rounds of Continuation Funding. In 2023, she receives the charity’s top prize, the Whitley Gold Award.
- The Ewaso ecosystem through which the Ewaso Nyiro River runs consists of an arid panorama of grasslands, acacia trees and scrubland, much of which is vulnerable to persistent droughts affecting East Africa. The region is home to the third largest population of lions, cheetahs and wild dogs in Kenya and includes populations of elephants, Grevy’s zebra and reticulated giraffes. The ecosystem of Samburu, Isiolo and Laikipia Counties is one of the only places in northern Kenya where lion numbers are increasing outside protected areas.
NOTES TO EDITORS – WHITLEY FUND FOR NATURE
- Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) is a UK charity supporting grassroots conservation leaders in the Global South. Over 30 years it has channelled £20 million to more than 200 conservationists across 80 countries.
- An early pioneer in the sector, WFN was one of the first charities to channel funding directly to projects led by in-country nationals. Its rigorous application process identifies inspiring individuals who combine the latest science with community-based action, to benefit biodiversity, climate and people.
- WFN’s flagship prizes – Whitley Awards – are presented by Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, at a prestigious annual ceremony in London. Winners receive funding, training and media profile including films narrated by Trustee, Sir David Attenborough.
- The 2023 Whitley Awards Ceremony is on Wednesday 26 April at the Royal Geographical Society, streamed live to YouTube from 8pm BST. The 2023 Whitley Award winners are:
- Yuliana Bedolla in Mexico who is protecting marine bird life from invasive species on the Baja California Pacific islands
- Tulshi Laxmi Suwal is a world expert on pangolins who plans to conduct Nepal’s first forest fire impact assessment on pangolins, the most traded mammal in the world.
- Mamy Razafitsalama is working to improve livelihoods and reduce forest fires in Madagascar, which has lost nearly half of its forest cover and where one-third of the country’s 110 lemur species are now Critically Endangered
- Serge Alexis Kamgang in Cameroon will expand the only lion-focussed project in the Bénoué ecosystem where lion numbers have fallen to just 250
- Albert Salemgareyev in Kazakhstan plans to find sustainable solutions to emerging conflict between saiga antelope and local pastoralists over water resources in the country’s newest protected area
- Leonard Akwany in Kenya works in Lake Victoria where native fish species have more than halved to 200 and local livelihoods are threatened. He plans to create community managed protected areas to allow fish populations to recover.
- Every year, a past Whitley Award winner is chosen to receive the Whitley Gold Award, worth £100,000, in recognition of their outstanding contribution to conservation. Joining the Judging Panel, the Whitley Gold Award recipient also acts as a mentor to Whitley Award winners and an international ambassador for conservation success. The 2023 Whitley Gold Award winner is Kenyan conservationist Shivani Bhalla, recognised for her community-led work to secure a future for lions in northern Kenya.
- whitleyaward.org, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn
FOR INTERVIEW REQUESTS AND INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Carol Roussel, Head of Media Relations at Whitley Fund for Nature
T: 07379 019 804
Kate Stephenson, Head of Communications at Whitley Fund for Nature
T: 07460 136 571
Image credits: Jillian Knox, Ewaso Lions, Anthony Ochieng
