|
Eunice Peneti (R), 28, a former athelete and one of the eight members of the first Kenyan female Maasai community ranger’s unit known as 'Team Lioness', has a final look into the mirror prior to go on patrol within the Olulugului-Olareshi group ranch, an expansive area of traditional Maasai community land in Amboseli, Kajiado, Kenya, on 16 May 2020. The female rangers are part of a total of 76 community rangers who are financed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), and patrol a route of at least 20 kilometres every day to look out for any illegal activity or injured animals as a way of preventing poaching and reducing human wildlife conflict. Their patrol area is part of the 607 square kilometres of communal land around Amboseli National Park in visual range of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the highest peak in Africa. The park is also a passageway for thousands of elephants in the middle of Maasai land. Due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the lioness team members have not been able to go home since early March 2020 and the team has been living in their camps as a preventive measure to stop the spread of the virus and from contracting the virus. The closure of borders and the threat of the coronavirus has emptied the Kenyan parks, the main tourist attraction in the country, affecting also the Maasai communities that are highly depending on their income from the tourism – either in formal jobs, by selling small jewels to tourists or even by a small fee from tourists visiting their 'boma', the circular mud house villages where most of this ethnic group live. The IFAW funded rangers had to increase their patrols to ensure that poachers do not exploit any gaps that may arise leading to an increase in poaching. (Photo by Daniel Irungu/EPA/EFE)
|
