Wild animals in Kenya’s sprawling (5,308 m2) Tsavo East National Park are safer today because of AWI’s ongoing sponsorship of a Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Airwing patrol plane based in that park. (See AWI Quarterly, summer 2023). The KWS wildlife protection strategy relies, in part, on vigorous aerial patrols that, most importantly, serve to deter most poachers. (Those same patrols are also very effective in leading KWS rangers on the ground to intercept poachers not prudent enough to be deterred.)
But safe aerial patrols require ongoing training and careful maintenance of the equipment, including the certified overhaul of airplane engines once they reach 2,000 hours of operation. AWI recently funded the overhaul of the Tsavo East Husky patrol craft, which is now deployed back to the park and deftly piloted by KWS Capt. John Tiapr. Kenya law prohibits all commercial, recreational, and trophy hunting and trapping. And KWS works diligently to assure those laws are respected. Tsavo East—whose sweeping landscapes served as the backdrop for the Oscar-winning film Out of Africa—is home to many thousands of elephants, giraffes, lions, antelopes, zebras, buffaloes, and myriad other species. AWI is happy to support the brave efforts of KWS pilots and rangers to ensure these animals remain at home in the wild and out of the hands of poachers and traffickers.