Warrior Watch is Ewaso Lions’ anchor project. Ewaso Lions launched this community-led programme in 2010, engaging Samburu warriors – a group traditionally neglected, overlooked or blamed for wrongdoing – in conservation decision-making. Warrior Watch makes warriors ambassadors for lions within their communities, while raising awareness about conservation and advocating for peaceful co-existence with lions and wildlife.
The programme builds on the warriors’ traditional protection role by increasing their ability to mitigate human-carnivore conflict. The Warriors serve as a network working across multiple communities, informing herders of lion presence so they can avoid certain areas, averting depredation. This network also enables us to monitor threatened species and record conflict incidents over a wide-ranging area. Following lion attacks on livestock, Warriors encourage herders not to take retaliatory action and work with them to prevent future livestock attacks. As we have expanded beyond Samburu, we have engaged coordinators to carry out this work in communities which do not have warriors, such as in Isiolo County.