Continue reading »]]> We have selected the 2013 Noloholo Environmental Scholars!  With four new scholars this year, we are now supporting a total of 16 scholars with full six-year scholarships to private secondary school. As role models to our younger students, these scholars are also the future environmental leaders of the Maasai Steppe.  We welcome any contributions to the Noloholo Environmental Scholarship Fund. You can donate now by indicating “Noloholo Environmental Scholarship Fund” on our donation form. For more information, contact APW at info@afrpw.org.

Congratulations to all our Noloholo Environmental Scholars!

Continue reading »]]> APW is very pleased to announce that we now have 220 Living Walls installed in the Maasai Steppe. These Living Walls are protecting approximately 50,000 head of livestock in fortified enclosures. This impacts nearly 5000 Maasai community members, whose livestock are now safe at night from predators. With livestock safe at night, we eliminate the main reason for retaliatory killing by Maasai livestock owners, and help preserve native vegetation that would otherwise come under constant harvest as a traditional building material. Many thanks to all our partners, supporters and local community members who helped us to achieve this important milestone for lion conservation and the improved coexistence of people and big cats. We would like to extend special recognition to the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative, the Regina Bauer Frankenberg Foundation and the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund for their critical support of this work. Read more about Living Walls.

One of our Living Walls flourishes as the native Commiphora posts help create an impenetrable barrier that protects wildlife and saves big cats.

Continue reading »]]> Our Warriors for Wildlife are local community members selected and trained by the African People and Wildlife Fund to help promote the coexistence of people and wildlife. Many work to protect wildlife and habitats, monitoring the wildlife populations roaming outside national parks. Others are part of our targeted human-big cat conflict response team —monitoring big cat-livestock conflicts, helping pastoralists find lost cattle, and preventing lion killings. Together, they are an important force for conservation in the Maasai Steppe.

In August, we selected new candidates for the wildlife/habitat protection team over 3 days of intense trials. These individuals are now receiving training in wildlife monitoring, anti-poaching techniques, field tactics and technical skills including computer, GPS and rangefinder use. We are pleased to support a total of 14 Warriors for Wildlife now, including our first woman member of the team!

To learn more about the efforts of our big cat conflict response team, read Lions Saved From Poisoning on Tanzania’s Maasai Steppe on National Geographic’s News Watch.

Continue reading »]]> Several years ago, APW debuted Tanzania’s first environmental summer camps, an activity we now conduct annually at Noloholo. Always a popular activity among the local communities, our summer camps hosted 40 children over two weeks so far this year. At the camps, we emphasize fun learning activities about the natural world as well as the importance of maintaining cultural diversity. Using their leadership skills reinforced during our scholars’ retreat in April, the Noloholo Environmental Scholars taught several lessons during this year’s summer camps and acted as peer leaders for the younger campers. Once back at school, the campers pass on their knowledge to their wildlife club peers engaging in environmental debates and other activities. To view photos of the summer camps, please visit our photo albums on Facebook.

Continue reading »]]> APW is very pleased to announce that we have met our 2011 goal of 100 Living Walls installed in the Maasai Steppe. These Living Walls are now protecting approximately 25,000 head of livestock on a nightly basis and positively impacting nearly 2000 Maasai community members. With livestock safe at night, reduced lion-livestock conflict means better outcomes for the big cats. It’s a win-win-win scenario that keeps cattle safe from lions, lions out of the way of Maasai spears and local habitat intact. Many thank to all our partners, supporters and local community members who helped us to achieve this important milestone for lion conservation and the improved coexistence of people and big cats. We would like to extend special recognition to the Regina Bauer Frankenberg Foundation, the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund and the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative for their critical support of this work. Read more about APW’s Living Walls.

Continue reading »]]> APW’s 2012 Noloholo Environmental Scholars have just been announced.  We have four new scholars this year bringing us to a total of 12 scholars with full, six-year scholarships to private school.  Our scholars need more sponsors. Please consider contributing to the scholarship fund. For more information, contact APW at info@afrpw.org or donate now and indicate Noloholo Environmental Scholarship Fund.

Continue reading »]]> Please make a gift to APW’s Annual Fund Campaign and help Africa’s people and wildlife to coexist! To read about our accomplishments this year and our goals for the coming year, please read our annual letter or make a donation right now. Thank you!

Continue reading »]]> APW’s annual field trips to Tarangire National Park for local sixth grade students in the Maasai Steppe were a great success. Lions were sighted daily keeping our record of big cats sightings for kids at 100%! To see more photos, visit our Tarangire National Park Trips 2011 album on Facebook

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Natural Resource Action Planning

APW recently introduced natural resource management action planning to the Maasai Steppe. In collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, a three day workshop was held for 37 community members of Loibor Siret village. By the end of the workshop, seven strategies including improved water, livestock and wildlife management were identified by the participants for action. A new committee, called Reto-o-Reto or “interdependency” in Maa, was established to move the initiative forward.

Continue reading »]]> Thanks to the support of Stephen Gold and the WCN Solar Project, we have finally achieved 24 hour power at the Noloholo Environmental Center. With our large solar power installation in place, we can now run our offices and classroom without spending critical funds on fuel, relieving all of us of the drone of the generator. We are very grateful for this important donation to our center!