Conservation Hero: Benson Leyian

Conservation Hero Benson Leyian Chief Executive Officer, Big Life Foundation, Kenya

I started my career as an accountant. A few years later, I got a job with Amboseli Ecosystem Trust. The aim was to provide leadership and coordination to secure natural habitats for community, wildlife and biodiversity conservation. This linked me back to the nature I enjoyed while growing up herding livestock across the very same ecosystem.

I joined Amboseli Ecosystem Trust during the craze of land subdivision and I could vividly see habitats shrinking for development of tourism facilities, crop farming, and huge cities.

When I started out, I didn’t understand the relationship between community wellbeing, conservation and habitat protection. I thought wildlife took space for livestock rearing and posed risk to the community. The last few years have been trying for communities, especially when land is sold to non-pastoralists who convert land for crop farming, a use that’s not compatible with livestock keeping. Conservation is far better for pastoralist communities than other forms of land use. Livestock keepers require space for their livestock - so does wildlife conservation. Big Life’s philosophy that “conservation supports the people and people support conservation” has become my mantra since I joined the institution.

My major challenge has always been my age. I joined AET as CEO when I was 28 years old. They were looking for an older candidate, but I emerged the best in interviews. I joined Big Life Foundation as COO but was promoted to CEO within one year. The people I interact with are always older and more experienced than me, ranging from group ranch leaders to national government minsters.

My love of people and wildlife keeps me inspired. After flora, fauna and their habitats are destroyed, the next is destruction of the human race. We must protect nature, so that nature can protect us too. There are many ways to know you are making progress, including more positive community attitudes towards conservation, increased wildlife populations and decreased poaching, and improved consultation processes by government agencies.

Over the years Tusk has been a consistent and significant partner to the Big Life Foundation. Donations and grants from Tusk go a long way, most notably keeping our rangers in the field for wildlife protection, human-wildlife conflict mitigation and community support. Richard Bonham’s (Big Life’s Executive Chairman) 2014 Prince William Award gave us incredible global visibility and our funding levels have never been the same since.

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Benson Leiyan Credit: Jeremy Goss/ Big Life Foundation

I’ve had many successes in my career thanks to the wonderful teams I’ve worked with. I don’t believe in a zero-sum game and am always looking for ways to elevate my peers and partners.