Tanzania

The 2021 Earth Day theme ‘Restore Our Earth’ looks at natural processes, emerging technology, and innovative thinking that helps restore the world’s ecosystems. African Wildlife Foundation utilizes all of the above every day to protect wildlife and wild lands, and enhance natural ecosystems.

One of the most important lessons from school is the importance of trees. We learn that trees bring us rain, which is essential for crop production and food security. Teachers use photos of degraded landscapes and famines caused by drought to show the striking effects of wanton tree cutting.

To protect that most iconic African wildlife species, the lion, conservationists rely on an array of solutions, mitigating threats including habitat loss, the illegal wildlife trade, and, most significantly, human-lion conflict — the leading cause of lion decline in numerous places. Confronting these challenges is the work of Dr. Bernard Kissui, a leading lion researcher whom African Wildlife Foundation has supported throughout his academic and conservation career.

It is early evening at Taita Ranch, which lies adjacent to Kenya’s biggest national park, the Tsavo. We drive slowly along the bumpy roads in the 98,000-acre conservancy, stopping to peer into bushes, alert for any signs of movement. We are looking for giraffes. They are usually in plenty, visibly towering over the shrubland and quietly grazing on the choicest leaves on the tops of trees, but today they are proving uncharacteristically elusive.

382. That is the staggering number of wildlife product seizures our canine detection units have made in just East Africa alone in roughly six years. African Wildlife Foundation has trained and deployed over 70 dog handlers and 48 dogs have been trained and deployed at transit points in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana, and Mozambique since the inception of African Wildlife Foundation’s Canines for Conservation program in 2014.

Every year, during the dry July-September season, millions of wildebeest thunder across the vast Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, following the rain in their quest for breeding grounds and fresh pasture. On this centuries-old journey, massive herds plunge into the dangerous Mara River as they make their way to the Serengeti plains — a spectacle that brings tourists from far and wide to Kenya and Tanzania. But this year, the wildebeest’s avid audience all but disappeared.

African Wildlife Foundation conserves elephant and rhino populations by supporting the work of rangers and community wildlife scouts — the “boots on the ground” who shield highly endangered animals from poachers’ guns.

Smallholder farmers make up more than 60 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s total population, according to a 2019 McKinsey & Company report. These small-scale producers own less than five hectares each, but collectively hold most of the arable land in the region. Investment in this sector will undoubtedly increase productivity, which experts signal as the “biggest growth driver” and the answer to food insecurity.