Wildlife conservationist pursues dream in Africa
Print Edition
It is just before dawn and Zhuo Qiang is already patrolling with rangers at Ol Kinyei Conservancy in southwestern Kenya. It’s been a part of the 43-year-old conservationist’s life for the past three years.
“That’s Saruni,” Zhuo says, pointing to a lion in the bush. “He’s one of three males of the Ol Kinyei pride here in the conservancy. He’s 8 years old.”
Zhuo knows all the adult lions in this 73-square-kilometer conservancy, an important part of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem.
“We have around 26 lions here in the conservancy and every adult has a name,” says Zhuo, who is also called Simba, a Swahili word for lion.
He says there were around 200,000 lions in Africa a century ago, but the number has dwindled to 30,000. In Kenya, there are less than 3,000 lions.
Zhuo’s childhood fascination with a lion cartoon has sown the seeds for his future adventure in Africa, a continent he first came to in 2004. He has since traveled to 12 African countries to learn about the living conditions of various wildlife.
In 2011, he founded Mara Conservation Fund, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to protecting lions and other animals, as well as saving their natural habitats. Based in OL Kinyei Conservancy, it’s the first wildlife conservation organization run by a Chinese in Africa.
Over the years, Zhuo and his foundation have offered help to the conservancy as well as the local Maasai people in a bid to save the wildlife.
The organization has donated a vehicle to the conservancy to facilitate anti-poaching efforts and study the movements of big cats. This followed a donation of a motorcycle, cameras and mobile radios to the conservancy from 2012 to 2014.
It also donated four vehicles and other equipment, like GPS devices and spot lights, to Maasai Mara National Reserve and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) in 2013.
To reduce human-animal conflict, the foundation, together with a conservancy managed by Gamewatchers, has built two lion-proof enclosures, known as bomas, for Maasai families living around the conservancy.
“Maasai people may poison lions if one attacks their livestock. So we built the bomas for those families as a way to reduce the conflict,” says the conservationist, adding the money was from Chinese donors.
Chinese Good Samaritans
The organization has also assisted in the rescue of sick and injured animals. Last July, it provided vehicles for rangers to track and save an elephant from poachers.
Zhuo is not the only Chinese concerned with saving Africa’s wildlife.
Premier Li Keqiang has reiterated China’s commitment to the eradication of poaching in the African wild. During his visit to Kenya in 2014, Li announced a grant worth US$500,000 to KWS to boost its anti-poaching gear.
The Chinese Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, also donated equipment worth US$20,000 to aid Kenya’s war against wildlife crimes last August.
Former NBA star Yao Ming has come to Kenya twice and shot a documentary aimed at combating poaching. In 2013, actress and UNEP Goodwill Ambassador, Li Bingbing, joined a campaign to raise awareness on elephant protection in Kenya.
Zhuo has also launched awareness campaigns in several cities in China and toured in both the UK and the US, delivering speeches on wildlife conservation.
His foundation also plans to translate the Swara, a quarterly magazine on wildlife conservation, into Chinese to reach more people about the importance of wildlife protection.
“There is no border for wildlife protection, and it doesn’t matter where you contribute your share. I want to provide a platform for Chinese to give their share,” says Zhuo.
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