Team Lioness: Meet Kenya's first all-female ranger unit

DW (English)

In Amboseli, tradition meets transformation. Team Lioness, a group of brave Maasai women, is rewriting the rules—protecting wildlife and empowering women in a land where warriors were once only men.

Transcript

00:00In a land where warriors have always been men, a quiet revolution is rising, led by women in boots, not beads.

00:13Welcome to Ambocelli and welcome to Team Lioness.

00:17We asked my team whether they have the binoculars, smartphone, GPS, notebook,

00:30and pen.

00:32Team Lioness is Kenya's first all-female ranger unit.

00:37Brave Maasai women train not just to protect wildlife, but to change minds.

00:42Operating near Ambocelli National Park, they patrol one of the most poaching-prone corridors in East Africa.

00:50So, what happens when women who were once forbidden from such roles pick up responsibility to protect some of Africa's most iconic creatures?

01:00The challenges that we encounter while in patrolling, first, there's human-wed-life conflict.

01:07That is the very toughest because, for example, when an elephant killed a person, there's that pain in community.

01:14Or a lion attacked the kettles that we have around, so you feel that pain.

01:19The second challenge that we encounter, we don't have arms, whereby we collide with poachers.

01:25They'll be very difficult for us to self-defense ourselves because we don't have those arms.

01:30Although they face daily danger from armed poachers, the team relies on a smart strategy.

01:35When we meet poachers, because we don't have arms, we will have to put an ambush.

01:42You guys will have to go a distance, 200 meters, for example, so we can call another team.

01:49For example, the mobile unit who have a vehicle, they'll have to rush to where we are.

01:55At least when we become a big team, we'll have to arrest them.

01:59Team Lioness has significantly contributed to reducing poaching incidents

02:04and fostering peaceful coexistence between wildlife and local communities.

02:12In Maasai culture, the role of a warrior has long belonged to men.

02:18But the winds are shifting.

02:20Now, women are not only standing guard over wildlife, they're standing up for themselves.

02:25There before, the community were not supporting us, but we came to prove the men.

02:35Now, many girls, even there in the community, they have to ask her,

02:40there is any chance that I can give out my girl to work with you guys.

02:45The reaction of our family toward being an arranger, it was very difficult,

02:49because we know that women, they do work at home, looking after kettles,

02:54we're looking after children and also house chores.

02:59So we changed that norms of the community,

03:04that the ladies also can do better work outside the community,

03:10especially for the conservation.

03:12These women begin their day before dawn.

03:18So, what does a typical day on patrol look like for them

03:22and how do they mediate when humans and elephants collide?

03:26We have to divide the group into two.

03:29The ones who will go patrol during the morning patrol

03:32and the other one who will go to the incident in the evening.

03:37Maybe the incident advocate, or there's a bush, there's a fire in bush,

03:41or there's a human-ordered conflict.

03:44The team that we left in the camp, they'll have to rush to the incident place.

03:49In 2019, the International Fund for Animal Welfare

03:55selected eight Maasai women, young, determined, and ready.

03:59They trained side-by-side with men, endured heat, the long walks,

04:04the wild terrain, and they passed.

04:08How Team Learners came about, it's actually an inspiration and a dream

04:12from the community women that we work with,

04:14because they felt underrepresented,

04:16and it's them who actually pushed for this initiative

04:19to have women rangers as part of the team.

04:22Women play a vital role, especially in peaceful negotiations

04:26with communities to calm them down and prevent retaliation.

04:31This eventually helps IFO achieve its conservation goals

04:35in the Amboseli ecosystem.

04:36What inspired me to be part of the Team Learners?

04:39First of all, I had passion since I was born,

04:42because I live in a Amboseli area,

04:47whereby we encounter the wildlife.

04:49We share the same water points,

04:51and you find there before, in Amboseli, we had rhino,

04:56but for now we don't have rhino,

04:58because poachers have killed,

05:01and I think so with the work of rangers.

05:04Then if you had started there before,

05:06for now we would have rhinos.

05:08The other thing that inspired me to be a ranger,

05:11you know, in our community,

05:14we find females were taken like a weak point,

05:18whereby they didn't have any voice to talk

05:21or to express themselves.

05:24Because the women are not there to be listened,

05:26then why not me?

05:27I want young girls there outside,

05:31when they see Team Learners,

05:33let them see courage.

05:34I'm proud to wear Team Learners uniform,

05:37because it takes to be that proud and the courage,

05:41at home we dress as normal women there outside,

05:44but when I come here, I dress as a ranger,

05:47because there are before men,

05:49are the only people who want this job,

05:51and for now, all of us are equal.

05:54Team Lioness tells us that when women are trusted

05:57with responsibility and equipped with opportunity,

06:00they not only protect,

06:02they redefine tradition.

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