Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Grants MWCT

MWCT’s Conservation Program addresses an LDF (Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation) priority, “Engage and empower local communities to be the protectors of their natural resources.” MWCT’s organizational mission is precisely to implement this priority in the Chyulu Hills landscape of the Tsavo-Amboseli ecosystem; specifically, in the Kuku Group Ranch, where land title is held by the indigenous Maasai population. Traditional custodians of the land, the Maasai have struggled to maintain sustainable communal land use amid modern pressures and policies. Since MWCT began in 2000, the local Maasai have renewed their appreciation of natural resource management and most now ally with MWCT for conservation. However, economic pressures are significant and still threaten to undercut conservation behaviors. Major threats to the area include unplanned expansion of subsistence agriculture and settlement, as well as unsustainable exploitative practices, such as charcoal burning, timber harvesting and poaching. Together, these behaviors would lead to deforestation and associated depletion of wildlife populations. MWCT works to hold these threats at bay on a daily basis; without the provision of continued incentives and support to the community, wildlife populations – including lion and elephant – would be quickly extirpated as the land became degraded.