You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

Imagine, every night when you go to sleep, you hear the distant sounds of lions roaring, slowly rocking you to sleep.

And then one day, those sounds all but vanish.

That was the experience of conservationist Safe Hamisi, who grew up in rural Kenya.

In his talk, he says that conservation efforts have failed, not because we don't care about the nature around us,

but because we've ignored the economics of the people living closest to it.

He makes the case that protecting nature pays off,

with examples of community-led and market-based conservation models

across the African continent.

Thank you. models across the African continent. Picture this. You are a five or six-year-old. Getting ready to go to bed and then suddenly you hear these

lion roars. This is how it was in the early 70s,

in my village in Taveta, in Kenya,

on the southeastern slope of Mount Kilimanjaro.

It was scary then, as it might be now,

but looking back,

I see it as something powerful,

a beautiful reminder of how close we lived with nature.

Sadly, the nighttime roars and the many animals that once roamed our village are gone.

What happened in my village has happened across Africa.

Our forests, savannas, grasslands and wetlands are disappearing very fast,

and the hardest heat places are community lands where people and wildlife lived side by side.

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