Lion Landscapes and Ruaha Carnivore Project are joining forces and will continue as Lion Landscapes. Your donation will benefit all our programmes.
There are now fewer wild lions left in the world than rhinos
With around 24,000 wild lions left in Africa today, that makes them rarer on the continent than rhinos, elephants or gorillas. Lions have disappeared from over 90% of their historic range, and their numbers have nearly halved in just 20 years. The main reasons for this alarming decline are loss of habitat, loss of wild prey, and conflict with local people.
Today, more than half of the wild lions remaining live in unprotected rangelands, shared with people and livestock. To secure lions and other large carnivores in the wild, we must make their conservation valuable to the people who share the landscape with them.
Save wild lions.
Promote Coexistence.
Secure local livelihoods.
Lion Landscapes is a UK registered Charity that works with local communities and conservation partners to create landscapes where both large carnivores and local people can thrive. We operate in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia in important lion landscapes. A Lion Landscape is a landscape that supports a viable population of wild lions, or any other pinnacle carnivore species. To do this it must also support healthy wild prey populations, healthy habitat, and benefit local people. Our conservation and research work focuses on what is required to manage a landscape so local communities, their livestock and lions can co-exist.
Our vision is a world where people and viable populations of lion coexist and thrive. Our mission is to ensure that ecosystems support people, lion and their prey for future generations.
Find out more at lionlandscapes.org
Empowers Africa has partnered with Lion Landscapes in order to provide a cost-effective solution to fundraising in the United States by acting as their fiscal sponsor. Any donations made here will be granted to Lion Landscapes.
Empowers Africa uses Stripe to process credit card donations. Stripe has very stringent security rules which may lead to declined credit card transactions. If you are experiencing trouble processing your donation, kindly contact Nadia Derelieva at (917) 328-1611 or via email: nadia@empowersafrica.org
Lion Landscapes Campaigns
Research & Monitoring
Understanding the challenges large carnivores face living in landscapes shared with humans and their livestock is crucial to provide data for future conservation planning. In collaboration with academic institutions and fellow lion conservation organisations, we conduct extensive field research to help provide data for effective carnivore conservation and management in important lion landscapes. We collect long-term data-sets to monitor key populations and dynamics on the landscape, and the effectiveness of our conservation activities using collar data, camera trapping images, formal surveys and SMART data collection by the Lion Rangers, Lion Defenders or Community Scouts. We also use data sharing to actively protect local livelihoods, by providing local livestock owners with real-time lion movement data via a mobile phone app so that they can avoid encounters.
Education, training and wildlife management capacity building
Many of our programmes work to build local capacity to address the main conservation challenges threatening lion landscapes. In all sites, we provide training and education programmes, equipment and management support to locally based rangers or community members, that allows them to reduce human-wildlife conflict, protect local livelihoods and sustainably manage their natural resources e.g. Community Coexistence Training, Lion Rangers, Lion Defenders. We also provide scholarship and mentorship programmes to ensure young Africans receive the education and support they need to be able to succeed in conservation careers.
Conservation Enterprise development
To secure lions and other large carnivores in the wild, we must make their conservation valuable to the people who share the landscape with them. We develop new wildlife-based income streams in partnership with other parties that complement traditional sources of funding such as philanthropy and wildlife tourism. For example in Zambia we have partnered with BioCarbon Partners to develop Lion Carbon – a scalable and sustainable biodiversity conservation model, which links payment to local communities to long-term wildlife and habitat protection agreements. In Kenya we are working with Livestock owners to develop criteria and markets for Lion Friendly Beef. Diversification of income streams linked to the conservation of carnivores and other wildlife, builds resilience into lion landscapes.
Community conservation agreements/benefit sharing
For long-term conservation – and for the welfare of local communities – it is vital that wildlife becomes a true asset to the people who live alongside it. We have developed benefit sharing programmes that link benefits that local communities want (e.g. education, veterinary care, boma building materials etc) to wildlife conservation agreements which reward positive conservation behaviours (and penalise damaging ones). For example our Community Camera Trapping/Wildlife Bednights programme and role in developing the BaoTree platform. Linking benefits to the active conservation of wildlife by local communities incentivises positive behaviour changes that benefit biodiversity and the community as a whole.
Read more about Community Conservation Agreements/Benefit Sharing
General Donations
If you do not have any specific project in mind and wish the organization to use their own discretion, please click here.
Donations can also be made by check or wire transfer:
Checks should be made out to “Empowers Africa” and should be mailed to:
Empowers Africa
2 Beekman Place, Ste. 18B
New York, NY 10022
www.empowersafrica.org
(917) 328-1611
Kindly note in the memo section of the check that funds are for Lion Landscapes. Or email us at info@empowersafrica.org.
For wire transfer details or more information, please email us at info@empowersafrica.org.
Empowers Africa has been approved as a U.S. public charity, contributions to which are tax deductible for U.S. federal income tax purposes under Section 501(c)(3) [EIN: 32-0403737] of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.
Thank you for your support!