"Pink Mirror"

The Angama Foundation

Angama is founded on the principle of running a profitable business in order to make a meaningful and sustainable difference to the communities that neighbor their lodges, and the wildlife and land that surround them. In a nutshell, the Angama team believes in Benjamin Franklin’s oft-quoted saying: ‘Doing Well, by Doing Good / Doing Good, by Doing Well’. The Foundation is active through three fields of work: Education, Healthcare and Conservation. Projects are identified and prioritized together with the lodges’ neighboring communities, the Conservancies, and NGOs that have a track record of making an impact in the region.

In the Mara, the Foundation works with the Mara Conservancy to ensure the longevity of the Mara Triangle through two initial fields of co-operation surrounding livestock predation compensation and rhino monitoring. With the opening of Angama Amobseli, the Foundation has partnered with the Big Life Foundation to protect and maintain the Kimana Sanctuary while supporting greater conservation efforts within the Greater Amboseli ecosystem.

Big Life Foundation

Protecting over 1.6 million acres of wilderness in the Amboseli-Tsavo-Kilimanjaro ecosystem of East Africa, Big Life partners with local communities to protect nature for the benefit of all. Since its inception, Big Life has expanded to employ hundreds of local Maasai rangers—with more than 30 permanent outposts and tent-based field units, 14 patrol vehicles, 2 tracker dogs, and 2 planes for aerial surveillance. Co-founded in September 2010 by photographer Nick Brandt, conservationist Richard Bonham, and entrepreneur Tom Hill, Big Life was the first organization in East Africa to establish coordinated cross-border anti-poaching operations.

Using innovative conservation strategies and collaborating closely with local communities, partner NGOs, national parks, and government agencies, Big Life seeks to protect and sustain East Africa’s wildlife and wild lands, including one of the greatest populations of elephants left in East Africa. The first organization in East Africa with coordinated anti-poaching teams operating on both sides of the Kenya-Tanzania border, Big Life recognizes that sustainable conservation can only be achieved through a community-based collaborative approach. This approach is at the heart of Big Life’s philosophy that conservation supports the people and people support conservation. Big Life has established a successful holistic conservation model in the Amboseli-Tsavo-Kilimanjaro ecosystem that can be replicated across the African continent.

Area of Operation

Big Life’s Area of Operation (AOO) covers approximately 1.6 million acres of the Amboseli-Tsavo-Kilimanjaro (Greater Amboseli) ecosystem in East Africa. Big Life’s team of 500+ helps to protect and secure wildlife and critical habitat stretching fom the rangelands north of Amboseli to the Chyulu Hills and Tsavo West National Parks in the east, and south to Kilamanjaro National Park. The area is a central connection point for migrating wildlife and contains some of the most important habitat left in Africa. Big Life was the first organization in the region to conduct collaborative cross-border patrols between Kenya and Tanzania, and their AOO is divided into a core area with a permanent security presence that is also regularly patrolled by mobile units, a non-core area that is actively covered by our intelligence network and where mobile units respond based on need, and adjacent areas where we provide support as needed.

Core AOO: Chyulu Hills National Park, Enduimet Wildlife Management Area (Tanzania), Eselengei Group Ranch, Kimana Area, Mbirikani Group Ranch, and Rombo Group Ranch

Non-Core AOO: Merrueshi Ranch, Taveta Area

Adjacent Areas: Amboseli National Park, Kuku Group Ranch, Mailua Ranch, Olgulului, Tsavo West National Park