I read an interesting article, including an interview with Masaai Women, in National Geographic about the effect The Living Walls Program – an initiative by the African People and Wildlife Fund (APW)- has had on the local people in the Masaai Steppe.

The Living Walls Program involves planting thorny Commiphora africana trees around the bomas of village heardsmen to discourage nighttime lion attacks on livestock. In 2011 the target of building 100 Living Walls was reached.

APW’s research in one region along the Tarangire National Park in Tanzania found that 6.4 to 8.8 percent of the lion population was being killed every year by villagers defending their livestock.

The Tarangire ecosystem (3 million acres/1.2 million hectares) is home to one of the country’s most threatened lion populations. In this ecosystem, lions and the Maasai people live alongside one another outside the borders of Tarangire and Lake Manyara National Parks. People and lions come into direct and frequent conflict when lions attack and kill the Maasai’s livestock and harm people. Intense retaliatory killing of lions occurs on a monthly basis.

The Living Walls offer a win-win scenario, because it results in both effective big cat conservation and improved lives for local people, who feel much safer: cattle stays safe from lions, lions are out of the way of Maasai spears and so the local habitat stays intact.

APW’s Living Walls are now protecting approximately 25,000 head of livestock on a nightly basis and positively impacting nearly 2000 community members.

Read the full interview ‘here’

Via: National Geographic