Rewilding Grasslands to Restore an Endangered Antelope Replanting grasslands is a novel approach because ecological restoration has mostly been tried in forest ecosystems, not in African rangelands.

hen Kenyan wildlife biologist Abdullahi Ali won the 2020 Whitley Award, it was a boost Wto his pioneering conservation project to save the hirola (Beatragus hunter), a critically endangered antelope species, from extinction. occasional poaching and rinderpest in the Ali was just one of six winners out of 100 1980s also contributed. global applicants for the award. Born and Hirola are listed as critically endangered raised in Garissa, as a teen a visit to the on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Maasai Mara National Reserve inspired Today, they occur only on a narrow strip his vision to work with wildlife. He studied of land in Garissa County along the Kenya- wildlife biology at the University of Nairobi Somali border, a fraction of their original and has a PhD in Ecology from the University rangeland. Five individuals live in the of Wyoming, USA. Ishaqbini Hirola Sanctuary of Garissa while The 2020 award “was incredibly exciting a small population was translocated to but also humbling as we still have a lot to do Tsavo East National Park in 1963 and 1996. to ensure the full recovery of the species,” However, hirolas outside their natural habitat said Ali, founder of the Hirola Conservation are thought to be declining in Tsavo. Program (HCP). Every year, the UK-based Hirolas feed almost entirely on grass and Whitley Fund for Nature supports grassroots the dwindling of grasslands coincide with conservation leaders around the world the elephant poaching crisis in the 1970s and championing effective conservation solutions 80s. “Because of the porousness of the Somali with limited resources. border and the closeness to the Arabian The light-brown hirola antelopes with Peninsula, all the elephants in that area, distinctively long faces and lyre-shaped horns approximated to be 5,000, were eliminated,” live in the semi-desert regions of Kenya and explained Ali. Somalia. The name hirola is derived from Elephants maintain savannah grasslands the Somali name ‘arwala’ and they are the by bringing down trees and opening up the only living members of the genus Beatragus. vegetation. Says Ali, “once you eliminate In the 1970s hirola numbers plummeted these large herbivores, nothing else will from around 15,000 to less than 500 in do that.” Subsequently, much of the hirola the wild, a decline of over 95 per cent. The habitat gradually changed from grasslands crash was linked to habitat loss but livestock to woodlands. Ali adds that hirola are now overgrazing, drought, predation by carnivores, a refugee species, “living in sub-optimal

JANUARY - MARCH 2021 | 33 BIODIVERSITY

Ali’s mission is to grow hirola numbers by restoring degraded habitats to increase food availability and boost “the survival rates for calves to sub-adults to adults giving birth.”

have brought in different cultural practices, including hunting with snares. Since 2016, HCP has been clearing excess habitats and unable to access the full potential trees and planting new grass in experimental of food they need for food, shelter or other fenced plots, sites chosen for their favourable resources.” soils and other biotic conditions. The annual This also affects the biological cycle of the replanting exercises are done in partnership species with females calving at the wrong with local communities as part of capacity time, while the closed habitats increase the building and applying home-grown solutions risk of predation. Other grazing animals such compatible with local cultures. Says Ali, “It’s as the Coastal topi, Desert warthogs, buffaloes also enhancing livestock productivity, and and Beisa oryx have also declined over time. they get employment from this.” Ali’s mission is to grow hirola numbers by Garissa is occupied by nomadic pastoral restoring degraded habitats to increase food Somali communities. Proximity to the availability and boost “the survival rates for Somalia border makes the area susceptible to calves to sub-adults to adults giving birth.” banditry, while historic mistrust of outsiders What started as a PhD project has grown into means conservation efforts are more likely an organisation of 10 technical people and to succeed if fronted by an ethnic person. Estimated current more than 30 community rangers working HCP’s community outreach extends to field population of hirola with less in anti-poaching and hirola protection. excursions for schoolchildren or making than 250 mature Somalis generally do not hunt for bushmeat impromptu village visits to show conservation individuals. but newcomers from other parts of Kenya works for everybody, including the elderly.

34 | JANUARY - MARCH 2021 BIODIVERSITY

“We are inspiring a multi-generational group this as a long-term project of at least 10 years. to see the impact that we need in the long- They would also like to understand more of term,” said Ali. antelopes’ physiological conditions and how Research literature dating to the 1970s this highly degraded environment has affected and indigenous community knowledge has them. informed the choice of grass species for Now with financial support from the rewilding. As the local soil seed bank had been Whitley Fund Award, HCP can work decimated from overgrazing, native grass towards expanding rangeland rehabilitation, seeds were obtained from Baringo County in strengthening conservation awareness in the western Kenya. “Livestock eat the grass and local communities, enhance anti-poaching young shoots so they don’t mature and drop work and re-establish the Arawale National the seeds in the soil,” said Ali. Reserve of Garissa, once a hirola home range. This semi-arid region has highly variable Restrictions on movement and social weather and the rains failed in between 2016 gatherings in 2020 due to the Covid-19 and 2017, so grass seeds did not sprout. But pandemic curtailed much of HCP’s fieldwork HCP did not give up and good rains since and community interactions. But Ali is 2018 have resulted in the successful growth of determined to continue with the replanting new grass. Ali says that camera trap footage work because of the strong support he is shows hirolas seem very interested in the new getting from pastoralists who have suffered grass plots. He hopes to gradually improve from years of environmental degradation. the soil’s seed bank so that natural pollination and seeds dropping happens without human To learn more about HCP, visit: https:// intervention. www.hirolaconservation.org/ Replanting grasslands is a novel approach For more on the hirola see ‘Saving the Most because ecological restoration has mostly Endangered Antelope in the World’ (Swara been tried in forest ecosystems, not in African April-June 2020). rangelands. Ali says his approach is “based on evidence over the last three decades of how KARI MUTU the system was, how the species was doing is an independent writer for various newspapers and and what we can do to reverse it.” Last year magazines. HCP extended replanting into wider areas of the Garissa landscape and they plan to restore 1,000 hectares of wilderness. Ali envisions

JANUARY - MARCH 2021 | 35