The Maasai are perhaps best known for their coming-of-age ritual in which young morani warriors venture into the bush draped in bright red waistcloths, armed only with spears, to kill a lion as a traditional test of manhood.

Nowadays, however, this practice is on the wane. Maasai adolescents — like their peers elsewhere in Africa — tend to be more adept with soccer balls and video games.

Former Maasai nomads are becoming sedentary, many taking up farming, and the population in the region is booming. These changes have put increasing pressure on the region’s wildlife as well, which frequently finds itself in conflict with humans over limited resources.

Lions come into villages at night to kill livestock, and the Maasai retaliate by killing lions, not in the traditional way with spears, but more often with poisoned meat and guns, sometimes wiping out whole prides at a time.

Laly Lichtenfeld of the African People and Wildlife Fund, nicknamed “Mama Simba” (“Mother Lion”) by the Maasai for her advocacy for wild lions, came up with an ingenious plan to build new fences to protect the cattle, and thus reduce the incidence of lions coming into conflict with humans.

Maasai Elvis Kisimir suggested using living trees instead of the originally envisioned wooden poles which would have a tendency to rot and require regular replacement.

The Living Wall team strip limbs from the myrrh trees in the dry season, let them dry out, and then stick the limbs in the ground and wait for the rains, when the seemingly dead poles sprout to life.

Then they affix the chain link to the growing trees. As the tree root systems spread, they prevent honey badgers and hyenas from tunneling under the fence, while the thickening tree canopies prevent lions from getting in from above.

With hundreds of such livestock enclosures now in use, Elvis and his crew cannot put them up fast enough to meet the rising demand.

Via Discover for additional photos and the full story.