Big Cats Initiative Report to Donors WORKING WITH COMMUNITIES TO Protect Big Cats
FROM A FEW FEET AWAY, a lion s roar can blow your hair back. It can also blow out the speakers on the recording device you re using to capture that magnificent sound, according to Michael Nichols, National Geographic magazine editor at large, who took the stunning image on the cover of this report. If we don t act now, there could be a day when we rely only on recordings to hear this roar, as the population of lions and other big cats continues to dwindle, due to habitat loss, lack of prey, and retaliatory killings when they hurt people or threaten livestock. National Geographic s Big Cats Initiative works to halt the decline of big cats in the wild by partnering with the communities that live with them. This year we launched the Build a Boma campaign, empowering donors to help communities in Africa undertake one of the most effective ways to conserve big cats and protect humans and their livestock. The Big Cats Initiative is possible because of your support. Your investment in this program is helping National Geographic protect lions, cheetahs, tigers, and other big cats ensuring we can hear that tremendous roar in the Serengeti and beyond for years to come. We no longer have the luxury of time when it comes to big cats. If we hesitate now, we will be responsible for extinctions across the globe. If there were ever a time to take action, it is now. DERECK JOUBERT, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and Co-Founder of the Big Cats Initiative
BIG CATS INITIATIVE REPORT INTRODUCTION On the cover: The magnificent, dark-maned male known as C-Boy, featured in National Geographic magazine s The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion. Above: A girl with her family s goats stands in front of her home. The family worked with BCI grantee Anne Kent Taylor s team to build a new fortified boma.
It is my generation s responsibility to act now using the best science and link it to constructive, on-ground conservation action. KRITHI KARANTH, National Geographic Big Cats Initiative 2013 Grantee COEXISTENCE Can one billion people and vulnerable wild animals thrive together in a country and economy that are starved for land? Conservation biologist and National Geographic BCI GRANTEE KRITHI KARANTH believes they can. Karanth analyzes complex human-wildlife interactions in one of the planet s most populous hot spots: India. She focuses on regions where humans and wildlife share space along park edges, mapping and predicting conflict risk over entire landscapes, and collecting data to help communities better manage human-wildlife conflict. A recent BCI grant is supporting Karanth in taking the next step to protect India s remaining tigers and leopards, which are further threatened by poaching and illicit trade. Her team is creating a real-time monitoring system of poaching incidents and a poachers-traders database linked to a mobile phone alert system to identify trade patterns around six wildlife reserves in the Western Ghats. Carried out in collaboration with law enforcement, the monitoring will establish the foundation for a long-term, cost-effective wildlife conservation program. TIGER FACT Tigers are the largest members of the cat family and the most threatened. A century ago there were 100,000 tigers. Hunting and forest destruction have reduced tiger populations to as few as 3,000 today. 2
LIVING WALLS It s a remarkably effective and simple solution to a complex problem. By building or reinforcing bomas traditional livestock enclosures used in many parts of East Africa a community can prevent livestock from being killed by lions and other predators, and as a result, stop the retaliatory killing of big cats. National Geographic BCI GRANTEE LALY LICHTENFELD has constructed more than 250 living walls, a variety of boma that combines wire fencing with fast-growing native trees, in northwest Tanzania s Tarangire ecosystem. Lichtenfeld s organization, the African People and Wildlife Fund, works with communities to build living walls using wire fencing and local Commiphora africana trees. Cut and planted during the dry season, the trees take root and grow when it rains, creating an impenetrable barrier of wire fence and thick foliage. These living walls currently protect 50,000 head of livestock, impacting 5,000 community members and saving 50 lions in a region that is home to one of the country s most threatened lion populations. Before living walls, most communities built livestock enclosures from scrubby thorn bushes, which dry out and need to be replaced often. These enclosures are less secure than living walls, so must be guarded vigilantly. Bomas and living walls help communities live peacefully alongside big cats and give villagers more time for other activities like small business enterprises and education. Opposite page: A tiger rests with her two-month-old cub in Bandhavgarh National Park. This page: A living wall, built by BCI grantee Laly Lichtenfeld s African People and Wildlife Fund, flourishes after the rains. GRANTEE HIGHLIGHTS BIG CATS INITIATIVE REPORT
BIG CATS INITIATIVE REPORT BUILD A BOMA CAMPAIGN LIONS, LIVESTOCK, AND LIVELIHOODS Top: Ole Kimoro stands in front of a new fortified boma, which he built with assistance from BCI grantee Anne Kent Taylor s team. Bottom: Adult male lions C-Boy and Hildur, who work together to retain control over two prides, sit side by side during an afternoon rain shower in Serengeti National Park. Opposite page: A cheetah and her cub in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.
Before I got the boma, I was losing at least three sheep or goats every month. I was spending a lot of time mending my boma using bush materials, and my family and I would spend almost the whole night guarding our livestock. The boma has made a big difference, and our lives are getting better. RITEI KIPARA worked with BCI grantee Amy Dickman s team in Tanzania to construct a new boma. In December 2013, National Geographic launched BUILD A BOMA, a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign that allows donors to contribute directly toward boma construction or work with others to build support for one of the most effective strategies for saving lions, cheetahs, and other species. Our goal is to raise $500,000 for boma and living wall construction in East Africa. x 10,000 LION FACT African lions are classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, with the current population estimated below 35,000, compared to 450,000 a century ago. In West Africa, lions number fewer than 500 and meet the criteria for regionally endangered. All donations support National Geographic s Big Cats Initiative and go directly to boma construction projects. A donation of as little as $25 can help maintain a boma for a year. A gift of $500 will help a family build a new boma and protect a community s livestock from attack by lions, leopards, and other predators and keep big cats from harm for years to come. In this way, donations to the Build a Boma program help National Geographic protect lions, livestock, and the livelihoods of those living together with big cats. To learn more, visit buildaboma.org. 5
BIG CATS INITIATIVE REPORT 2013 GRANTEES GRANTEES Since National Geographic s first BCI grant in 2010, the initiative has made nearly 50 grants totaling more than $1.3 million, for on-the-ground conservation projects that enlist the support of local people and for community education programs. In 2013 alone, we made 15 grants totaling more than $390,000 to researchers and conservationists working in Africa and Asia, including our first grant to protect clouded leopards. Our grantees have helped build or fortify more than 500 bomas and living walls across Tanzania and Kenya. With multi-year support, the lion population in Kenya s Samburu National Reserve has increased from just a half dozen to more than 50. More than a dozen lions have been saved from snares in Zambia and they have gone on to produce more than 33 new lion cubs. CHEETAH SHIVANI BHALLA Securing a future for cheetahs through community-based conservation in northern Kenya. KELLY MARNEWICK Facilitating the management of the South African managed cheetah metapopulation (year 2). CLOUDED LEOPARD HASAN RAHMAN Assessing the status of felids in Bangladesh, with the clouded leopard as focal species, and conserving them through a youth network of Cat Scouts. SNOW LEOPARD TANYA ROSEN Securing human-snow leopard coexistence in the south of Tajikistan. 6
LION HANS BAUER Conserving lions in North Benin, using Lion Guardians, conflict mitigation, and community training. MATTHEW BECKER Combating the impacts of wire-snare poaching and the illegal bushmeat trade on lions and their prey in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia, following the cessation of trophy hunting in community-protected areas. ANDREW LOVERIDGE ANDREW PLUMPTRE Protecting African lions from poaching and bushmeat snaring in western Zimbabwe. Creating incentives to conserve lions while minimizing losses of livestock around Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. MULTIPLE SPECIES PAOLA BOULEY AMY DICKMAN Supporting post-war recovery and conservation of Panthera leo and Panthera pardus in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. Continuing to reduce human-big cat conflict in Tanzania s Ruaha landscape. PHILIPP HENSCHEL JANE HORGAN Improving the status of lions and cheetahs in the Tsavo Complex. Using livestock-guarding dogs in Botswana as a tool to improve productivity of farms and to mitigate conflict between farmers and predators. KRITHI KARANTH LALY LICHTENFELD FLORIAN WEISE Real-time monitoring of big cat poaching and trade to improve law enforcement in the Western Ghats, India. The Maasai Steppe Big Cats Conservation Initiative: Combining conflict prevention, environmental education, wildlife protection, and habitat conservation in a holistic approach to lion and cheetah conservation. Carnivore Conservation Research Project: Using conflict mitigation and livestock protection to protect cheetahs, leopards, and lions in Namibia. 7
HIGHLIGHTS In addition to passing the $1 million mark on our BCI grantmaking programs, the BCI team continued its research and assessment work. Our global outreach and awareness programs spread the word about the fight to save big cats. In 2013, the BCI team published three collaborative, peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals, including the most comprehensive assessment of global lion populations ever conducted. The team has also completed the critical first stages of a similar assessment and mapping exercise for all known leopard subspecies, populations, and habitats. The week after Thanksgiving, BIG CAT WEEK on Nat Geo WILD premiered Dereck and Beverly Joubert s new film Game of Lions, which follows the journey of young male lions in the African bush and their potential to be king, and Betty White Goes Wild!, an up-close look at one of White s big loves big cats. In August, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE featured The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion, with photos by Michael Nichols. In December, Ghost Cats featured the work of National Geographic photographer and grantee Steve Winter, who used camera traps and remote imaging to capture cougars and other wildlife living on the fringes of civilization in the Santa Monica Mountains. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS MAGAZINE encouraged children of all ages to write Letters to Lions, which BCI founders Dereck and Beverly Joubert delivered to African leaders to let them know how important lion conservation is to children around the globe. Our BIG CAT SISTER SCHOOL PROGRAM, which pairs African and U.S. schools, helped raise more than $4,000 for schools in Africa during the 2012 2013 school year. Grantee Laly Lichtenfeld was able to purchase solar panels and a computer for the Isele Primary School in Tanzania with funds raised by her U.S. sister school. 8 A leopard in tall grasses of the Okavango Delta at twilight.
Through its grantmaking programs and other initiatives, National Geographic uses science-based storytelling to inspire and engage people around the world to better understand and care for our planet. National Geographic s Big Cats Initiative brings forces together to find innovative and often simple solutions to help protect lions, cheetahs, tigers, and other big cats, and address challenges to their survival, such as human-wildlife conflict. The fate of big cats must take into account the fate of the communities they affect. With your investment, we are able to fund projects that balance the needs of these communities with the desire to conserve lions and other endangered cats. Together we can make sure the majesty of these powerful animals is not lost. THANK YOU BIG CATS INITIATIVE REPORT HIGHLIGHTS THANK YOU
BIG CATS INITIATIVE LEADERSHIP Co-founders of the Big Cats Initiative, award-winning filmmakers and National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence Dereck and Beverly Joubert work to conserve and understand the large predators and key African wildlife species that determine the course of all conservation in Africa. They have been filming, researching, and exploring in Africa for more than 25 years. BCI GRANTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE Sarah Durant, Senior Research Fellow, Zoological Society of London Luke Hunter, President, Panthera Dereck and Beverly Joubert, National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence Thomas E. Lovejoy, National Geographic Fellow and Biodiversity Chair, Heinz Center for Science, Biodiversity, and the Environment Tico McNutt, Founder and Director, Botswana Predator Conservation Trust Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology, Duke University George Rabb, former President, Chicago Zoological Society Rudi van Aarde, Chair of Conservation Ecology Research Unit, University of Pretoria BCI PROGRAM DIRECTOR Luke Dollar NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY Development Office 1145 17th Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036-4688 U.S.A. 202 862-8638 800 373-1717 For more information about what National Geographic is doing to What do you dream about? I would guess FROM TOP: MARCUS WESTBERG, STEVE WINTER. PAGES 8 9: BEVERLY JOUBERT. BACK COVER: DRAWING FROM LETTERS TO LIONS PROGRAM. TOP: MARCUS WESTBERG, MICHAEL NICHOLS. PAGE 5: CHRIS JOHNS. PAGE 6, FROM TOP: MARCUS WESTBERG, MINDEN PICTURES, JASON EDWARDS. PAGE 7, PAGE 2: TIGER BY STEVE WINTER, KRITHI KARANTH PORTRAIT BY SANDESH KADUR. PAGE 3: COURTESY AFRICAN PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE FUND. PAGE 4, FROM PHOTO CREDITS COVER: MICHAEL NICHOLS. INTERIOR COVER: PORTRAIT OF DERECK JOUBERT BY BEVERLY JOUBERT; VILLAGE GIRL BY MARCUS WESTBERG. save big cats in the wild, please visit causeanuproar.org. Visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/causeanuproar. you dream about zebras, hippos, giraffes, and rhinos! NATALIA, Age 8 Letters to Lions The National Geographic Society aims to be an international leader for global conservation and environmental sustainability. Leading by example, the Society has developed green initiatives related to water, energy, recycling, and employee programs that are in line with its mission to inspire people to care about the planet.