Jonathan Scott was relatively unknown in Kenya until a coffee table book appeared in the bookstores. That world got to know about the Marsh lions in the world famous Masai Mara National Reserve.

That was in the early 1980s — and from then on there was no looking back for the young man from the United Kingdom. Not long after, the Marsh lions and Big Cat Diary became household names on BBC’s wildlife channel.

With his love for wildlife, he spent hours as a child watching Africa’s big cats in the London zoo. He arrived in Africa on an overland truck and ended up in apartheid South Africa. Despite having been offered a scholarship in South Africa to continue with a PhD in animal sciences, he turned it down to come to Kenya, intent on working with wildlife.

He found a job managing a camp in the Mara and during his free time scoured the vast plains following the cats he had come to know, photographing and sketching them.

“The scientist in me kept meticulous notes in the field of the lions and leopards and other wildlife, which years later (1996) morphed into Big Cat Diary on BBC Wildlife Planet,” he reminisces. He bought his first car from the limited edition of wildlife sketches he sold.

“I have sat in the comfort zone for too long,” he says. “At 65, I want to turn the tide.”

He is talking about the dwindling space for wildlife, poaching and travel advisories that are devastating Kenya’s wildlife and tourism. And the time to speak out is now.

“Wildlife has lost 90 per cent of its habitat in the past few decades,” he states showing me a global satellite map with squares full of land that’s under cultivation, cities and towns. Only a handful of those squares represent wildlife. That map is a wake-up call on how close we are to losing the globe’s wild heritage.

“Poaching is a national disaster,” states Jonathan.

However, Kenya is not the only country faced with this monumental problem, he acknowledges, especially where her rhino and elephants are concerned. Jonathan cites Nepal as an example of a country that turned the tide around for its rhino population. The Indian rhino once roamed the entire Indo-Gangetic plain but excessive hunting and habitat loss brought this one-horned animal near extinction.

Alarmed about losing its rhino to poachers, the Nepalese government, in addition to establishing protected national parks like Chitwan, started a programme called Gaida Gasti.

“In every village, town and district a committee was entrusted to gather intelligence,” said Jonathan. The army was sent in and by the turn of the millennium, the rhino population which dropped below 100, stood at 500-plus today.

“You have to get the intelligence right,” states Jonathan. “It’s a war that will not end with one battle. Every generation will have to take up the battle. In 1989, we turned the tide against elephant poaching when the ivory stockpile was burnt but poaching is back two decades later. Social media is a powerful tool for people to say no to illegal trade.”

Jonathan and his wife Angela, whom he met when he started his forays into the Mara in the 1970s, host fund raising dinners in prestigious places like the Royal Geographical Society in London and in Namibia host a 10-day safari that culminates with a fund raising dinner for Dr Laurie Merkel’s Cheetah Conservation Fund. In the Masai Mara, the couple has raised funds for two patrol vehicles for Narok County Council, including their maintenance.

“Without international tourism, wildlife conservation will be mortally wounded,” warns Jonathan. “If Kenya is to get really serious about its conservation, it needs serious individuals and dedicated communities,” he added.

He’s concerned about Masai Mara National Reserve because that’s where he has spent the longest time. The reserve has no management plan while the community conservancies around the reserve do and boast better infrastructure, revenue collection, anti-poaching units and monitoring tourists, especially where they are not supposed to crowd around wildlife like lions, leopards and cheetahs.

“At a time when Kenya is battling terrorism and travel advisories, we need to show the world that the Mara is respected. There is nowhere else like it on earth.”

The Masai Mara National Reserve is rated as one of the new SevenWonders of the World in a poll that was conducted by ABC Television’s Good Morning America. The Mara is most famous for the annual migration of the wildebeest, which sees 1.5 million wildebeest accompanied by 200,000 zebra trek in from Serengeti National Park.

“We’re seeing just as many wildebeest and zebra as in the 1970s and that’s because they are migratory and don’t stay here long enough. On the other hand, we’re seeing declines in numbers of all species due to habitat change and human impact.”

This includes the numbers of the local wildebeest migration from the Loita migration, which boasted 150,000 wildebeest in the 1970s. Today, an estimated 20,000 cross over the hills into the reserve – their passage being blocked by wheat farms, fences, human increase and roads.

“The reason for the sharp decline in tourism numbers is that people perceive the whole country at risk from terrorism. And that’s not true.

“People don’t read the small print in the travel advisories. Travel advisories state specific places in a country. There is no place on the planet today that is safe enough to ensure safety. Terrorism is a global issue.

“I tell people to come to Kenya, but listen more carefully to travel advisories. At this moment there are Britons here in Kenya enjoying their holiday. You just have to be careful, like anywhere else in the world.”