Long-term giraffe conservation requires working in large landscapes that span many different kinds of land use. One such landscape is the Tsavo-Mkomazi transboundary area, which straddles Kenya and Tanzania. In one of the Maasai giraffe’s last strongholds, we are implementing a science-based conservation action plan to support giraffe populations and benefit communities.

The demand for firewood, agricultural land, and pasture for livestock threatens biodiversity in the unique cross-border Tsavo-Mkomazi landscape, which includes densely forested hills and rangelands. We deploy many different strategies, including working with community conservancies and group ranches to restore forests and rangelands that are home to elephants, lions, buffalo, leopards, wild dogs, and other species.

We pioneered the community conservancy model in East Africa and have continued to support community conservancies across our landscapes. In Kenya, we helped to establish the LUMO Conservancy, which provided a model for two ranches to become certified to operate as conservancies.

We work with Kenyan government partners to help ensure wildlife crime is appropriately prosecuted. Our efforts include an innovative court-monitoring program in the Tsavo landscape, in which we provide logistical and technical support to often overburdened prosecutors, preventing wildlife cases from slipping through the cracks.