Globe Foundation
Lone Eagle
Kenya’s extraordinary biodiversity makes it an important place for the GLOBE Foundation to assist in conservation efforts. The Great Rift Valley that runs through Kenya has often been lauded as the “cradle of civilization” for its status as “home” to so many species in such numbers.
Several agencies, including the Kenyan government, are involved in conservation work in this region, but GLOBE’s support of the Lone Eagle project is fulfilling a very particular niche: funding fuel and operation costs of a Hughes 500D helicopter to assist in mission’s whose degree of difficulty calls for supplemental support. Lone Eagle pilot and renowned conservationist, Alan Root, explains:
For many conservation operations a helicopter provides the easiest and often the only way to get the job done: darting dangerous animals in thick bush in order to put on radio collars, or treat wounds; driving large numbers of animals into mass capture traps in order to relocate them from endangered to safe habitats; low and slow surveys of wildlife areas, searching for and catching poachers. All of these activities are made easier, more effective or indeed possible with a helicopter. Lone Eagle provides the best machine for this work – a Hughes 500D – free or at minimum cost to any conservation project that can demonstrate a need for its special capabilities.
GLOBE’s support of the Lone Eagle’s work resulted in a successful mission in September 2008. Root recalls how it all happened:I got an urgent call from Ian Craig, who was involved in an operation to move a number of giraffe from an area where they were overstocked and damaging their habitat. The plan was to move them to a new community conservancy in Northern Kenya. They had tried driving the animals into a funnel trap with rangers on foot, but after a small initial success the animals were nervous and impossible to drive. The operation was running out of time and Craig wanted to know if I could help.
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