The Masai Mara ecosystem in Kenya holds a population of around 470 lions and is a critical stronghold for the species. Conservation efforts in the area have been greatly bolstered in recent years by the formation of community-owned conservancies around the Masai Mara National Reserve. These conservancies effectively double the conservation area and provide critical … Continued
The Greater Maasai Mara Ecosystem (GMME) in Kenya is home to about 500 lions and is of critical importance to the conservation of the species. Wildlife in the GMME is subject to a number of key threats, such as human-wildlife conflict. High densities of people live adjacent to the wildlife areas of the GMME, resulting … Continued
African Parks has rapidly expanded their portfolio over the last 3 years and now manages an area of 51,351 square miles, an area 16 times the size of Yellowstone National Park. African Parks has worked hard to increase their operational revenue from tourism. However, this year’s tourism revenue has ceased completely as a result of … Continued
Landscape and Conservation Mentors Organization (LCMO) is a small, grass-roots conservation organization that runs the WASIMA campaign: a multi-pronged campaign that engages local community commitment to stop illegal lion killings in South Western Tanzania. A key element of this campaign is to establish village by-laws to outlaw the ritual hunting of lions by young Sukuma … Continued
Chobe enclave is an area of community land surrounded by protected areas on all sides in Botswana and borders the Zambezi region of Namibia. Unsurprisingly, the area is subject to intense human-lion conflict and has substantial potential to act as a major sink for lions in adjacent protected areas. LRF issued a grant to WildCru … Continued
Chizarira National Park and the adjacent Chirisa Safari Area are two of the most neglected Protected Areas (PA) in Zimbabwe. National Parks Rescue (NPR) is working to support the efforts of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to manage Chizarira. The area has a solid founder population of lions and has potential for … Continued
Game Rangers International (GRI) provides support to law enforcement in the Game Management Areas (GMAs) to the east of Kafue National Park. The Kafue ecosystem is vast – 66,400 km2 with enormous potential for lion conservation. However, it is severely impacted by bushmeat poaching resulting in lions being far below their potential carrying capacity in … Continued
Eastern Central African Republic (CAR) represents one of the wildest places in Africa. Low human population densities and vast wilderness areas mean that there is significant long term potential for lion conservation. However, in recent years, wildlife and lion populations have been decimated through the activities of transhuman pastoralists. Since 2014, African Parks have been … Continued
SMART law enforcement monitoring is a valuable tool to help protected area managers manage their anti-poaching rangers. SMART allows for easy detection of poaching hotspots and of anti-poaching effort and for rapid reporting. Panthera and North Carolina Zoo have a major regional SMART-training program. They are already assisting 6 LRF grantees with SMART training. This … Continued
Endangered Wildlife Trust were granted to convene the lion conservation and science community to create a set of guidelines for managers for the surveying of lions and their prey. At present there is a great deal of discord within the scientific community regarding survey methods, with the effect that the validity of surveys is often … Continued