In November 2024, Wildlife Conservation Network’s Partner Ewaso Lions hosted a week-long “Community-led Conservation” workshop in Samburu, Kenya with 18 distinguished conservationists from around the world to share insights and strengthen the pivotal roles that local communities play in conservation.
Members of the Community-led Conservation workshop.
This was a gathering of conservationists with invaluable insights in implementing community-led programs in a wide array of geographies. Guests included conservation organizations across both the Whitley Fund for Nature alumni and WCN’s Partner Network, including Global Penguin Society, Hutan, Niassa Lion Project, Proyecto Titi, Grevy’s Zebra Trust, and more! For many travelers, this was the first time they’d ever visited the African continent.
The Ewaso Lions and Proyecto Titi teams.
The gathering was a dream made possible by Dr. Shivani Bhalla and the Ewaso Lions team upon receiving the 2023 Whitley Gold Award for their efforts to help the local lion population rise to a 15-year high. The Ewaso Lions team felt that the best way to share their successes in conservation was to invite peers from around the world to meet their team of Samburu warriors, elders, and women.
One of the workshop sessions.
Despite the weather occasionally surprising us with brief downpours – causing a flurry of activity each time to protect equipment and food from the rain, the workshop was conducted with real-time translations across English, Samburu, Portuguese and Spanish in order to ensure that every voice was heard and every perspective or insight could be effectively shared. Together, we discussed how terms such as “local,” “community,” and “conservation” differ across cultural and geographical contexts and enriched each other’s perspectives on the importance of local community leadership in conservation.
María Lujan Villabriga of Global Penguin Society and Ewaso Lions’ Mama Simbas.
Across cultures and languages, there were some clear alignments about much needed values for ensuring successful community-led conservation. Guests agreed that we must emphasize the benefit of mutual human exchanges and co-dependence rather than individualistic exploitation to better steward our changing environment. They felt the most successful approaches to community-led conservation involve locally rooted, context-specific, long-term thinking, which leads to adaptive, inclusive, collaborative, and holistic conservation to ensure the well-being of all life is sustained for generations to come. Rosamira Guillen of Proyecto Titi reminded her peers: “If people are not meeting their basic needs, they are not going to worry about conservation.”
Ewaso Lions’ Munteli Lalparasaroi and Hutan’s Amanda Shia.
But it wasn’t all just talk – conservationists got out in the field too! Ewaso Lions made sure to show guests the results of their work as well as some of the reasons why Samburu is so worth protecting with educational experiences led by their Warrior Watch and Mama Simba teams, and safari rides into Samburu National Reserve.
West Gate Community Conservancy
By the end of the workshop, conservationists expressed that we will always be learning more to improve conservation in different contexts, but, together, we can push forward a framework towards successful community-led conservation. The knowledge generated here promises to leave a lasting legacy, guiding conservation efforts toward a more inclusive, community-led approach that will help protect our planet’s biodiversity for generations to come.
Ngeeti Lempate of Grevy’s Zebra Trust and Munteli Lalparasaroi of Ewaso Lions.
This event would not have been possible without the support of the hard-working people that helped organize it. So, a huge thank you to Ewaso Lions, all of the traveling conservationists, Whitley Fund for Nature, Zoological Society of London, World Women Work, the Samburu National Reserve, Westgate Conservancy, and more.
Read more about this event on the Ewaso Lions blog!
Support Wildlife Conservation Network
Good info. Lucky me I reach on your website by accident, I bookmarked it.