HUMAN/WILDLIFE CONFLICT MITIGATION IN RURAL TANZANIA
Tanzania Lion Illumination Project is a 501c3 organization that is dedicated to stopping HWC in rural areas of Tanzania, by promoting peaceful coexistence between people and predators with lights. Flashing solar lights are attached around the bomas, where the pastoralists keep their livestock at night, keeping livestock safe, and predators far away.
Without hunting, wildlife has no value.
Thanks to DSC Foundation we have been able to expand our project exponentially. Saving more predators and saving lives and providing a buffer zone around parks and hunting blocks.
Conflict Mitigation
We travel the countryside helping pastoralists protect their livestock with lights, stopping the retaliatory killing of predators. The pastoralists have always lived with predators, and will tolerate them if their cows, goats, and sheep are safe. We can’t imagine a world where lions, leopards, and other predators are only seen in zoos, so we are doing our best to preserve them and preserve the pastoralist’s lifestyle as well.
Protection of People and Predators
We install lights about 10 yards apart, around the enclosures which are called bomas by the Maasai. We have done over 800 bomas since 2014, and will never be finished. There are many places where lights are needed, and besides ongoing installation areas, there are many new areas we have yet to visit. We keep GPS locations of every boma we’ve installed lights on.
OUR PROJECT IS 100% SUCCESSFUL
We have installed lights on over 800 bomas and have never had an attack occur in a boma. Predators don’t like lights, and don’t even come close. The comments I hear the most are “I can sleep at night” or “the dogs are quiet at night”.
