How Taita female rangers are breaking gender barriers to conserve wildlife

The Star Kenya

In the vast rangelands of Taita Taveta County, women are defying community norms that have for long hindered them from taking part in conservation. https://shorturl.at/UQtuQ

Transcript

00:00I'm proud to be a female ranger.

00:02First of all, I'm a co-pilot.

00:04I'm very proud of that.

00:06The challenges we face as female rangers,

00:09first, is that the female rangers

00:13have not been able to participate in our conservations.

00:16Second, is that the rangers in conservations,

00:20the rangers are small.

00:22When you look at men, they are big.

00:24So, the rangers are small.

00:25In the future, we want to be like the rangers

00:28in conservations and dungeons

00:30to make sure that there are opportunities for women

00:33and for men to change.

00:35And also, to have leadership,

00:37and to be able to work together.

00:39I love being a ranger.

00:41First of all, I'm a Kikei child,

00:44and I've been given the opportunity to work

00:46as a ranger in conservations.

00:49If you look at my life,

00:52and my current life,

00:54it's because the female rangers

00:56were given the chance,

00:58the opportunity to work,

01:00or to work as a ranger.

01:03But if you look at it now,

01:05the female rangers have also been given

01:07the opportunity to work as a ranger.

01:10So, it's up to the male rangers to decide

01:12what they want to do.

01:14Then, in terms of challenges,

01:16there are a lot of challenges.

01:18First of all, the female rangers

01:20have been given the opportunity

01:22to work as a ranger.

01:24If you look at the number of female rangers

01:26in conservations and dungeons,

01:28there are a lot of men.

01:30There are a lot of women,

01:32and there are a lot of men.

01:34And when it comes to the other challenges,

01:36it's very difficult for a Kikei child

01:38to be able to work as a ranger.

01:40It's not like we're sending ourselves

01:42to work as a ranger,

01:44and we're going to make it work.

01:46It's not like that.

01:48I don't want Kikei to have to

01:50work as a ranger.

01:52I don't want her to have to

01:54work as a ranger.

01:56I don't want her to have to work as a ranger.

01:58We are intentional in building the capacity

02:00of the board members and the managers

02:02to be able to have

02:04affirmative action when they're recruiting,

02:06to be able to be intentional

02:08in the recruitment, and ensuring

02:10that it's a balance between men and women.

02:12And sometimes we see them

02:14maybe promoting more men

02:16and leaving out the women.

02:18But we're also just showing that

02:20some of these roles doesn't need you

02:22to be a man or a woman, but actually

02:24needs you to have the right skill set.

02:26So as we continue with

02:28Wild Female Rangers Week,

02:30we'll be doing a lot of

02:32awareness campaigns around

02:34just supporting

02:36the narrative and

02:38the current situation that

02:40even the female rangers need

02:42to be given a chance.

02:44As a ranger,

02:46I've been through a lot of training

02:48and I've learned a lot.

02:50Like today,

02:52I learned about

02:54gender violence.

02:56And I've also come to know

02:58the importance of women

03:00at work.

03:02Not just at our ranch,

03:04but also at the ranch.

03:06And I've seen

03:08that after the ranches,

03:10there are still

03:12a lot of women

03:14at work.

03:16So I'd like to ask

03:18our management at Davida Ranch

03:20when they start recruiting,

03:22to give them a chance.

03:24We still have very low numbers

03:26of female rangers within

03:28conservancies. Within

03:30different platforms that we engage with

03:32conservancies, either the conservancy

03:34chairpersons or the managers,

03:36or even the wardens, we really

03:38urge them to ensure that

03:40they put affirmative action

03:42to employ female rangers,

03:44but also to create an

03:46enabling environment so that

03:48the female rangers that are employed

03:50can be able to work

03:52or have an enabling environment

03:54to work. That is putting

03:56in place toilets

03:58because they need toilets.

04:00Both men and females, but mostly females.

04:02But also putting in place

04:04water in those outposts.

04:06So those are the things that we

04:08are advocating for.

04:10And also to ensure that

04:12conservancies follow the labour laws

04:14and ensure that employment

04:16of both male and female rangers,

04:18they are able to adhere to the

04:20labour laws.

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