Maasailand Preservation Trust

In 2003, in response to an imminent and virtually certain threat of local lion extinction,  Maasailand Preservation Trust in close collaboration with the local community conceived a first-of-its-kind predator compensation program, the Predator Compensation Fund (PCF).

The intention of PCF was to better balance the costs and benefits of living with wildlife and thereby replace conflict and retaliation with tolerance. This novel conservation strategy remains one of the most far reaching projects to come out of MPT. It was the first project of its kind implemented in Maasailand and has proven so successful that it is now operating on two neighboring group ranches.

Livestock rearing in Maasailand is the most vital activity for the community’s subsistence.

Consequently, predators are under constant threat from the livestock owners who view them as a threat to their stock and kill them in retribution for livestock losses. In an eighteen-month period from late 2001 to early 2003, twenty-two lions were documented by game scouts to have been killed on MGR, one-half by spearing and one-half by poisoning. This was a small scale representation of a much larger threat to the African lion population that is currently suffering a well-documented decline in numbers. To put this into context, recent numbers have shown that whereas 20 years ago there were 200,000 lions in Africa, today numbers are known to be falling and are already below 30,000, with recent extrapolation showing less than 2,000 of these residing in Kenya. On top of this a recent report has stated that the use of lion parts in Chinese traditional medicine is on the increase.

The Predator Compensation Fund is not designed to simply reduce or stop the killing of lions and other carnivores; it is attempting to replace conflict with tolerance.  Even more importantly, its mission is to replace the perception of conflict with a different perception.

PCF is a joint venture between MPT and the Group Ranch Community, with the community paying a proportion of 30% of each claim from their wildlife-based income.

The PCF was formed on a living agreement which works around a dynamic system of penalties and incentives.

This works around a dynamic contract that compensates the local community for livestock lost to predators not just in return for a complete cessation of the killing of lions and other predators but on an agreement that penalizes other community members when it is violated. This system is constantly under review from a steering committee of local elders and MPT.

PCF’s principal purpose is to prevent or, at worst, greatly diminish the killing of lions and other carnivores and eliminate any justification for a culture of poisoning. However, a secondary purpose of improving livestock husbandry is  enforced by a secondary penalty system. Discounts are applied to compensation for depredated livestock when either a boma (tradition Maasai livestock pen) fence is below minimum agreed requirements or when livestock is deemed to have been “lost in the bush” (unattended) before it was killed by a carnivore.

False claimants are fined.

One key aspect of PCF is that it acts as an umbrella, providing protection for other persecuted species such as hyena, cheetah, leopard, wild dog and jackal.

The success achieved by the PCF in its first six years (2003-2008) is arguably unprecedented in African conservation. Since inception, lion killing has virtually stopped on Mbirikani Group Ranch (MGR) within a Maasai community of 10,000 people. The two Predator Compensation Funds run by MPT are continuing to function efficiently and provide protection for the ecologically essential predators of the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem. The proof of PCF’s effectiveness is shown in the figures below.

* In the 18 months prior to launch of PCF

** In the 2 years prior to launch of PCF

*** In the 2 years prior to launch of PCF

The above figures show that livestock owners on MGR have killed only four lions in more than six years. During this same period, over 110 lions have been killed on the neighbouring group ranches outside the PCF program. This same MGR community that now protects lions killed 22 animals in just 18 months prior to the introduction of PCF.

The program continues to capture the hearts and minds of the Maasai community through collaboration and consistent performance of PCF, thus shifting the economics of daily life in a positive direction and fostering a broad-scaled commitment to conservation in the 21^st century.

This method is a very cost effective way of protecting predator habitat, costing just 25 US Cents to protect an acre for one year. We are calling on all able people to please donate generously and support this great project to avoid such scenes as below.