In Kenya’s sweltering northern Samburu county, a destructive drought exacerbated by climate change and degraded barren lands are wreaking havoc on people and wildlife. After four consecutive years of failed rains causing some of the worst conditions in 40 years, elephants — either dead or alive but starving — have become commonplace among Samburu’s villages. How to better protect fragile ecosystems from a warming climate, including Kenya’s savannah grasslands, will form part of discussions at this week’s United Nations biodiversity conference — known as COP15 — in Montreal in Canada.