Lion Conservation Efforts Backfire

East African Lion conservation projects must involve the Maasai tribe to be successful. 

Conservation efforts to protect the African lion whose species is dwindling in Kenya and Tanzania will fail if policies neglect to consider the Maasai pastoralists’ complex hunting relationship with the animal, say university researchers.  

Contrary to popular assumptions, East Africa’s Maasai don’t always hunt lions as an act of retaliation or as a cultural rite of passage, according to CU assistant geography professor Mara J. Goldman, who led the study, and law student Jennifer Perry (Geog’08).

After conducting 246 in-depth interviews with Maasai from 2004 to 2008, the team found that Maasai also kill lions to demonstrate political discontent with conservation policies, reaffirm the protective role of young warriors or allow individual warriors to gain prestige. 

Understanding the Maasai’s multidimensional relationship with the animal and involving tribal members in the conservation process is key to protecting lions, says the team. 

Read more in Clint Talbott’s (Jour’85) article in Arts and Sciences Magazine online. 

Photography by Ivan Mateev/Getty Images