Celebrating 2020 Wildlife Champions!

Every day, rangers risk their lives to protect the planet’s most endangered species, alongside the communities hosting this incredible wildlife.

They endure hardship and challenging events - ranging from poaching, banditry and frequent cattle raids to scorching sun and challenging terrain.

They do such phenomenal work to preserve the world’s biodiversity from disappearing and make an impact on the ground, thus the need to applaud their effort.

That is why, the Northern Rangelands Trust through the wildlife and security departments with support from the European Union through the Community Policing Initiative (CPI) is celebrating rangers who play a critical role in supporting community-led conflict resolution, wildlife protection and endangered species recovery across its member 39 conservancies.

117 were awarded for their outstanding work.

They are just part of a whole team who have gone an extra mile to help their communities, have dedication and passion, are disciplines and are contributing to wildlife conservation within their respective conservancies.

“We appreciate the rangers for their work and efforts because they are the core people on the ground who assist in endangered species recovery and are the foot soldiers who make an impact on the ground,” says Anthony Wandera, NRT’s Senior Research and Monitoring Officer.

Three rangers were selected per conservancy for an award that reflects on ranger’s contribution across peace, security, wildlife protection and livestock theft recovery. The awardees received certificate of recognition and gifts.

This event gave the rangers a chance to mingle, celebrate each other and exchange ideas on how best to collaborate and tackle poaching.

In 2020, not a single elephant was lost due to poaching in NRT member conservancies, with reports from wildlife monitoring conducted by rangers indicating an increase in the number of Grevy’s zebra, oryx and reticulated giraffes across the conservancies.

“I am very happy with the tremendous efforts these rangers are putting in wildlife monitoring and protection across their respective conservancies,” says Juliet King, NRT’s technical advisor.

The rangers who are supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Embassy of Denmark in Kenya and Somalia through DANIDA, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the Kenya National Police Service, Tusk Trust and Beatrice Karanja, supplement national government security agencies efforts in stock theft recovery, anti-poaching, charcoal burning and securing peace.