Meet the host of a groundbreaking series highlighting local wildlife conservation
To safeguard Africa’s biodiversity, Paula Kahumbu has successfully harnessed the power of media to spread her mission.
©National Geographic/Cheryl Zook
African nature shows have been an established television genre for decades, but there has never been one like Wildlife Warriors before.
“While Africa has been the source of thousands of wildlife documentaries, few have featured Africans as hosts, and virtually none have included local crews and production,” says Dr. Paula Kahumbu, the conservationist who created and hosts the show. “We are changing the narrative about Africa’s wildlife and influencing our audiences with inspiring stories about African heroines and heroes.”
As the first series about African wildlife made by, presented by, and about Africans, Wildlife Warriors connects millions of Kenyans with the people working to protect their country’s incredible biodiversity. For Kahumbu, it’s the latest accomplishment in a career spent working to protect Africa’s biodiversity, a trajectory influenced by her own, often fortuitous, connections with fellow conservationists.
Kahumbu helms the TV series Wildlife Warriors, the first African nature show produced by a local crew. “We are changing the narrative of Africa’s wildlife,” she says.©National Geographic/Cheryl Zook
Growing up in a suburb of Nairobi, Kahumbu was fortunate to cross paths with several figures who would inspire her love of nature at an early age, from her tree-climbing geography teacher, Lori Oates, to her neighbour, famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey. “These inspirations made me want a life of field research, studying Africa’s amazing wild animals.”
By the time she finished high school, Kahumbu had continued her studies and fieldwork, but like most Kenyans, she had little hope of attending university. “I decided to become a ranger, and went to Richard Leakey to ask him to deploy me in northern Kenya to help George Adamson [yet another celebrated conservationist] protect lions,” she recalls. “Leakey took me under his wing, advised me, and took a lifelong interest in my career,” Kahumbu says. “He tested me, gave me freedom and a license to make mistakes and fail.”
With Leakey’s help, Kahumbu earned a scholarship to study ecology and biology at the University of Bristol, going on to receive a master’s degree from the University of Florida and a PhD from Princeton University, meeting and learning from countless other scientists, educators, and activists. Among them was John Kisimir, a fellow Kenyan conservationist who helped her find the most effective way to reach the hearts and minds of Kenyans with her important message.
Kahumbu is also the CEO of Wildlife Direct, a non-profit organization that protects African elephants and rhinos. Campaign efforts secured US$20-million to fund anti-poaching activities.iStockPhoto / Getty Images
“He told me, ‘All you need is to educate our people with content that’s relevant and aspirational for Africans,’” she says. “When I came up with the idea of producing wildlife content, I was very new to the business, and we had no funds, but he was right: the appetite for local stories was massive.”
Kahumbu’s work with Wildlife Warriors – which is seen by more than half of all Kenyans – has made her a celebrity and attracted endorsements from some of the country’s most influential figures, including first lady Margaret Kenyatta. It also brought Kahumbu to the attention of Rolex and National Geographic, which named her the Rolex National Geographic Explorer Of The Year in 2021.
An award given to an individual making scientific discoveries to benefit the world and sharing them through exploration and storytelling, Kahumbu says it has significantly impacted her mission. “It created huge global visibility for my work and opportunities for me,” she says.
In addition to invitations to speak worldwide, the award has also led to a role as presenter of a new National Geographic television series, Secrets of the Elephants, which will debut in 2023. “It has always been my dream to present a major wildlife documentary, and thanks to Rolex, I am getting access to opportunities that seemed impossible just a year ago,” she says.
Kahumbu was recently named a Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the year, and she’s set to debut a new series on National Geographic called Secrets of the Elephants.©National Geographic/Rebecca Hale
With international recognition and a new platform to share her message through National Geographic, Kahumbu is poised to connect with millions more people around the world. It could not come at a better time, she says. As the populations and economies of African nations continue to grow, the people of the planet’s second-most-populous continent risk losing much of their iconic wildlife and wild spaces to habitat loss, poaching, and a host of other threats unless major changes are made.
Her work also includes a position as CEO of WildlifeDirect, which focuses on elephant and rhino protection. The group’s campaign, Hands Off Our Elephants, was launched in 2013, and by 2014, the Kenyan government devoted US$20-million to fund anti-poaching activities.
Thanks to the success of Wildlife Warriors, Kahumbu is now able to bring her message into Kenyan schools, where she has been working to create Wildlife Warriors clubs, providing educational materials and field trips to visit Kenya’s national parks. She’s also in the process of creating the Wildlife Warriors Field Lab on a 30-acre site adjacent to Nairobi National Park, where Kenyan schoolchildren will camp, do field research, make art and connect with the natural world.
“It’s very new, and I am very excited about the potential impact that it will have for thousands of Kenyan children,” she says. With her own story as an example of what’s possible, she has every reason to be hopeful.
Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Rolex. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.
