Rangers face risks without adequate welfare protection

Male rangers take part in the 21-kilometre Wildlife Ranger Challenge at Lewa Conservancy while carrying 20-kilogramme packs, testing their endurance and teamwork.[Phares Mutembei,Standard]

As a young girl growing up in Ilmarba village, Eunice Peneti would look at the wildlife roaming the Amboseli ecosystem with admiration and wonder.

She wanted to do more than watch the animals from a distance. She wanted to protect them.

For years, that remained a childhood dream. Then, in 2019, an opportunity came to her community when a donor supported the recruitment and training of women to become community wildlife rangers.

Peneti seized the opportunity.

“I was very happy when I was selected because this is what I wanted to do since I was a small child,” she said.

Her dream soon became a demanding reality. She underwent three weeks of training that included physical exercises, drills and other preparations for life as a ranger.

Today, she is among 17 women in Team Lioness, a group of female community wildlife rangers working in the Amboseli ecosystem  under the IFAW-Olgulului community wildlife ranger programme.

Her role is different from that of many of her colleagues.

Peneti is a radio operator, but she is also trained to drive when the need arises.

At 5am, she joins the morning run before reporting to the call room at about 6:30am. By then, she is already communicating with rangers in the field, checking on teams that have been on night duty and receiving updates from patrols.

At about 7:30am, the rangers who were not on the night shift begin their patrols.

Peneti remains behind in the radio room, recording information coming from the field, including wildlife sightings and other incidents reported by the patrol teams.

But she cannot settle into the office completely. She remains on standby.

“If there is a rescue, they call me and I go,” she said.

Her experience as a driver has also given her moments that have stayed with her.

One of her most memorable experiences came when she volunteered to carry water for members of her community. On her way, she encountered some community members and offered them a lift.

The members were surprised to see Peneti behind the wheel, something they had never seen her do before. In a community where driving was often viewed as a man’s role, her taking the wheel challenged that expectation.

Peneti encourages more women to consider opportunities in wildlife conservation, including roles traditionally taken up by men.

That determination was put to another test when Peneti and three other female rangers took part in the Wildlife Ranger Challenge at Lewa Conservancy.

The four-member team ran 21 kilometres in 2 hours, 56 minutes and 10 seconds while carrying a 10-kilogramme pack.

The race was not simply a test of speed.

Teams run together and are required to support one another until they reach the finish line. The weight carried by the rangers represents the physical and mental challenges they encounter while working in the field. Male teams carried 20-kilogramme packs, while the female teams carried 10 kilograms.

For Peneti, the challenge reflects the realities of the work rangers undertake every day.

“It is a challenge where we run as a group of four, and the load we carry represents the challenges we face as rangers in the wild,” she said.

“The requirement that no member of the team is left behind also mirrors an important principle of ranger work: protecting wildlife is a collective responsibility. Each member must help the others through the difficult sections and ensure the team reaches the finish together,” she added.

For Stanley Momposhikashu, a ranger in the Mountain Bongo men’s team that emerged winners, the challenge offered a glimpse of the physical demands that come with ranger work.

“The race was tough. It was so hot but drinking some water on the route helped some,” he said.

He said spending long days and nights in the jungle guarding wildlife against poachers, illegal loggers and other criminals was tough.

“I love working as a ranger and I appreciate the challenges that come with the territory,” he said.

Evan Mkala, IFAW’s Landscape Programme Manager, said the organisation’s landscape approach covers the Southern Rangelands, a vast connected landscape linking the Maasai Mara, Amboseli and Tsavo ecosystems.

According to IFAW, the landscape covers more than 76,000 square kilometres and is used by more than 19,000 elephants.

Mkala said the focus is on maintaining connected habitats and functioning wildlife corridors while ensuring that people can continue to live alongside animals.

“There is a greater need to protect the corridor,” he said.

He explained that protecting wildlife movement routes requires securing habitats, providing security and reducing human-wildlife conflict, with community rangers among the people helping to protect these connected habitats.

He said rangers are important because they help protect both wildlife and the communities living alongside them.

“A ranger secures this territory,” he said.

Community rangers, he explained, are members of the communities in the areas where they work. Their connection to the landscape gives them an understanding of the ecosystem because they have lived alongside wildlife and other members of the community for years.

“They are special because they have lived in the ecosystem, seeing the wildlife and the community. This local knowledge also helps rangers relate with the people around them, making them an important link between wildlife conservation and the communities living in these landscapes,” he said.

IFAW says wildlife in the Southern Rangelands moves across protected areas, community conservancies, farms and pastoral lands, making connectivity between habitats particularly important.

Mkala said the Wildlife Ranger Challenge also provides rangers with an opportunity to interact with colleagues from different parts of the country. The interaction allows them to exchange ideas, learn different approaches to conservation and encourage one another in their work.

“If we fail to protect wildlife and the habitats they depend on, we are doomed, because animals such as elephants need space to move between different habitats. When those spaces are lost or blocked, pressure increases on both wildlife and communities,” he said.

He added that Team Lioness is an example of teamwork among rangers, but protecting wildlife also requires supporting the people who do the conservation work.

Among the needs he identified are financial and social welfare, training, proper equipment, security, workplace support, opportunities to interact and learn from other rangers, and motivation.

“Rangers need proper equipment, training, security and welfare support to do their work effectively. In our programmes, we have responded to some of these needs through support such as equipment, medical insurance, vehicles, radios, training and mentoring,” Mkala said.

The welfare of rangers was also a major issue raised during the Wildlife Ranger Challenge at Lewa Conservancy.

Lewa Conservancy Head of Anti-Poaching Unit Edward Ndiritu said rangers work round the clock to keep wildlife safe, yet many remain without life insurance.

“Majority of the rangers in wildlife conservancies do not have life insurance,” he said.

He said insurance for rangers was an important benefit of the Wildlife Ranger Challenge, whose main goal is to raise funds for their welfare.

Rangers during the 7th

 Wildlife Ranger Challenge at Lewa

 Wildlife Conservancy in Meru.[Phares Mutembei, Standard]

More than 50 per cent of wildlife rangers across Africa lack life insurance, according to Tusk Trust Chief Conservation Officer Chantel Migongo Bake.

The 2026 Wildlife Ranger Challenge brought together more than 2,000 rangers across Africa in a series of physical and mental challenges that culminated in a synchronised 21-kilometre race.

Migongo said the event was important not only as a competition, but also as an opportunity for rangers to meet colleagues who understand the demands of the job.

“We recognise that being a ranger is a very lonely profession. They are out in the field by themselves for months on end away from their families,” Migongo said.

She said bringing rangers together allowed them to share their experiences and support one another.

“To have an event where we bring them all together, where they're amongst their peers, talking to each other about the trials and tribulations, but also to celebrate each other, I think that's really important,” she said.

The 2026 challenge brought together 24 teams from across Kenya, with 96 rangers representing areas from the Coast to northern Kenya.

Migongo said the gathering also provided an opportunity to recognise the contribution of both male and female rangers to conservation.

“For women rangers, I have so much respect for you,” she said, noting the challenges women face while pursuing a demanding career in conservation.

She said more young people and women should be encouraged to consider ranger work as a career.

But beyond recognition, Migongo said ranger welfare also requires practical support, particularly access to insurance and reliable equipment.

“We are working really hard through the Ranger Welfare Standards Initiative to get rangers under Ranger Protection and Medical Insurance Scheme and Life Insurance,” she said.

She said the initiative aims to expand insurance coverage to at least 10,000 rangers by 2030, while ensuring that those already working in the sector also receive adequate protection.

“We have to focus on the existing numbers. We have to ensure that they get insurance, that they get life insurance, that they get good equipment that is able to last them and protect them in the field,” Migongo said.

The Wildlife Ranger Challenge was launched in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic to help keep ranger teams operating and has since grown into a continent-wide campaign supporting ranger welfare and raising public awareness of their work.

Including funds expected from the 2026 event, the Wildlife Ranger Challenge is set to have raised more than $28 million for frontline ranger teams over seven years.

The funds raised support ranger welfare, training, equipment, technology and operational capacity.

Rangers' responsibilities extend beyond anti-poaching patrols. They monitor wildlife and habitats, respond to emergencies, help reduce human-wildlife conflict, gather intelligence, support communities and, in some areas, assist national security agencies.

Migongo said community rangers would remain important as Kenya and other countries work towards the global 30x30 conservation target, which seeks to conserve at least 30 per cent of land and ocean by 2030.

Rangers working on community lands, she said, are particularly important because they come from and understand the areas where they operate.

“Being able to reach 30 per cent is going to be through community lands. It's going to continue having communities living within those spaces, and that's not just land, it's also seascapes,” Migongo said.