Andrew Stein

I am lucky to have the opportunity to pursue my three passions in life- wildlife conservation, travel and helping people. When I was a child growing up in Massachusetts I never expected to travel much or work to conserve large animals in the wild. That is what people on TV were able to do. It was when I visited Africa for the first time during a study abroad trip I realized that I could be a field biologist and help people coexist with wildlife. From then it was my goal to design projects in rural communities to help people and protect wildlife species. After my first leopard project began in 2001, I was hooked and have worked on lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas and wild dogs throughout East and southern Africa. As new projects develop, it is exciting to see what will present itself next.

Pride in Our Prides represents my first initiative structured exactly as I have intended. As wildlife species become more threatened and protected areas more isolated, we need to engage with communities to foster local investment in natural resources and heritage. Lions represent a big challenge because they can be devastating for subsistence livestock owners and dangerous for people. It is this threat that causes people to act out and kill LIONS as a problem species. However, until fairly recently, people have coexisted with lions. With expanding human populations, habitat fragmentation and advanced weaponry including poison people have reduced lion range by over 80%.

I wanted to do something and I kept coming back to this quote-“In the end, we will protect only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught” (Baba Dioum). I believe that it is human nature to care when you know the backstories of individuals and not just paint with broad strokes. I have seen examples of livestock farmers learning to tolerate animals, even conflict animals, when they knew their stories. Our project tests this hypothesis to promote coexistence.

May 2016