Project Lion Rover - real hope for lions

Project Lion Rover is part of a new initiative in which Born Free will work with the Kenya Wildlife Service, Land Rover, the local Meru community and others, to do all we can to ensure that lions are free to live and thrive in the Meru Conservation Area (MCA) for generations to come. The project offers real hope for lions in their heartland.

A new era is dawning for Meru National Park thanks to Lion Rover Project’s targeted approach, jointly implemented by Born Free and KWS, supported by Land Rover.

Lions are in the Priority Species list in the Barcode of Wildlife Project. Each Partner Country (Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria and South Africa) in the project has been asked to compile a list of approximately 200 species that are:

• Listed in one of the CITES Appendices which regulates their international trade; 
• Protected by national laws against possessing, killing, selling, and/or trafficking; 
• Endangered by domestic and/or international trade in that country; 
• Encountered by officials responsible for species protection; 
• Are trafficked as parts, products, or immature stages that are hard to identify; 
• Are hard to identify as adult, intact specimens because of their similarity to other species that are not protected; and 
• Are likely to be the basis of criminal investigations and prosecutions. 

The four BWP partner countries have selected 774 priority species for the project.

Kenneth Ochieng, Senior Warden Meru National Park introduces Born Free founder Virginia McKennato Kenya Wildlife Service rangers in Meru National Park

In response to requests from Captain Kenneth Ochieng, KWS Senior Warden Meru National Park, tents, laptops, binoculars, cold weather clothing, cameras and Global Positioning System units (GPS) were bought by Born Free with funds provided by Land Rover. They were recently put into action as part of enhanced anti-poaching activities.

Meru is where George and Joy Adamson famously raised and released Elsa the lioness back to the wild, a story told in the book and subsequent film Born Free.

Meru is beautiful, wild and rugged country. Not for the faint-hearted. Its golden plains, acacia forests and stands of palm are criss-crossed by sparkling rivers that sustain the wildlife of this extraordinary landscape. Meru is the land of the lion. Not only because of Elsa, but it is where George went on to return three lions from the film Born Free, to a life of freedom.

Phase One of Project Lion Rover, supported by Land Rover, involves the purchase and deployment of critically important equipment to the local KWS team charged with the protection of wildlife in the MCA.

This Phase will be followed by a series of coordinated actions under the Lion Rover umbrella including: the establishment of a Born Free de-snaring team; the provision of supplemental fuel for anti-poaching activities; and the development of conflict mitigation strategies with local people (including improved livestock security).

Vitally important for the medium and long-term will be the integration of these efforts into the KWS Large Carnivore Conservation Strategy document (due for revision in 2015).

As part of this effort, Born Free shall be working at the landscape level to support lion population analysis, in conjunction with the locally-based KWS Senior Scientist. This activity will permit KWS to establish credible lion baseline data and to monitor our progress in the months and years to come.

This research will help to: determine how many lions there are and what is happening to their natural prey species; identify conflict hotspots; help focus the KWS anti-poaching effort; determine what we can do to mitigate conflict; pin-point where bushmeat poaching is causing the greatest damage and guide our de-snaring team in their work to reduce its impact.

It will also help us decide how we can bring benefits to the local community, thereby creating an atmosphere of greater tolerance, understanding and respect for wildlife, especially lions.