F&ES Alum Receives Global Honor
For Conservation Work in East Africa
Laly Lichtenfeld ’99 M.F.S., ’05 Ph.D., co-founder and executive director of the African People & Wildlife Fund, has been named a 2016 Lowell Thomas Awardee by The Explorers Club, an international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ethos of exploration.
The Explorers Club promotes the scientific exploration of land, sea, air, and space by supporting research and education in the physical, natural and biological sciences.
Other recipients have included E.O. Wilson, Sylvia Earle, and Alan Rabinowitz.
Lichtenfeld founded the African People & Wildlife Fund, a conservation organization in East Africa, in 2005. Its projects include wildlife conservation, environmental education, natural resource management, and conservation enterprise. The organization’s Living Walls initiative, which constructs environmentally friendly livestock enclosures, have been 99-percent successful in protecting livestock from lion, leopard, and hyena attacks, and thus significantly reduced human retaliation against these animals.
In announcing her award, The Explorers Club wrote:
“Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld believes wild animals and humans can coexist in harmony. With 20 years of on-the-ground experience in East African wildlife conservation, Laly specializes in human-wildlife conflict prevention focusing on lions and other big cats. Encompassing nearly 10 million acres of Acacia woodlands, bushland, and open grassland, Northern Tanzania supports one of the highest large mammal diversities in the world, where wildlife still moves freely, unhindered by fences.
Other recipients have included E.O. Wilson, Sylvia Earle, and Alan Rabinowitz.
Lichtenfeld founded the African People & Wildlife Fund, a conservation organization in East Africa, in 2005. Its projects include wildlife conservation, environmental education, natural resource management, and conservation enterprise. The organization’s Living Walls initiative, which constructs environmentally friendly livestock enclosures, have been 99-percent successful in protecting livestock from lion, leopard, and hyena attacks, and thus significantly reduced human retaliation against these animals.
In announcing her award, The Explorers Club wrote:
“Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld believes wild animals and humans can coexist in harmony. With 20 years of on-the-ground experience in East African wildlife conservation, Laly specializes in human-wildlife conflict prevention focusing on lions and other big cats. Encompassing nearly 10 million acres of Acacia woodlands, bushland, and open grassland, Northern Tanzania supports one of the highest large mammal diversities in the world, where wildlife still moves freely, unhindered by fences.
“My multidisciplinary education at Yale has been instrumental in helping me to develop programs that are finding the balance for people and wildlife.”
— Laly Lichtenfeld
Lichtenfeld, a Distinguished Alumni of the Yale Tropical Resources Institute and a National Geographic Explorer, said, “I am so amazed and humbled to be receiving this incredible award on behalf of our team. I am confident that the work we are doing at the African People & Wildlife Fund will help to ensure that Tanzania’s people, wildlife, and wild lands will thrive for generations to come.”
“My multidisciplinary education at Yale has been instrumental in helping me to develop programs that are finding the balance for people and wildlife,” she added. “We have to look at conservation issues from all angles in order to achieve sustainable and meaningful impact.”
“My multidisciplinary education at Yale has been instrumental in helping me to develop programs that are finding the balance for people and wildlife,” she added. “We have to look at conservation issues from all angles in order to achieve sustainable and meaningful impact.”
PUBLISHED: August 29, 2016
Note: Yale School of the Environment (YSE) was formerly known as the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). News articles posted prior to July 1, 2020, refer to the School's name at that time.
