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As a Registered Charity it is our duty to ensure that all of the work that we undertake matches our charitable objectives. We work to carry out these objectives through the support of both in-situ and ex-situ conservation work.
'1) To promote for the benefit of the public the conservation and protection of lions by:
A) Supporting conservation projects in such ways that are charitable.
B) Conserving and protecting the natural habitat of lions.
C) Supporting and publishing research into the conservation and husbandry of lions
2) To advance the education of the public in lion and wildlife conservation by such means as the trustees decide including through the support and publishing of research.'
Strategic Plan 2024 - 2027
Our Conservation & Education Strategy
After six years since our first strategy had been written, trustees have written a completely new strategy that assesses the state of lions in the wild, our previous efforts and to plan our conservation impact for the next three years. This new strategy also sees our three previous focus areas changing into two conservation goals and two education goals. ​
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This has been launched on World Lion Day 2024 (10th August) exactly three years after our previous conservation strategy review. Our new goals are:​
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1. To support local communities at homestead level to promote coexistence with the local lion population.
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2. To assist efforts to monitor and protect lions at a wider population level to support a healthy lion population.
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3. To support access to conservation education projects for local communities, particularly for children, to promote the importance of coexistence with wildlife and the importance of lions within their ecosystem.
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4. To work with zoological institutions and to assist them with educational efforts for their visitors, and to support them in increasing their in-situ conservation impact.
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​To read our new strategy review fully click on the PDF viewer to the right and zoom in closer. To read our previous conservation strategy and our 2021 review please click on the icons to the right to learn more about our previous work and focus.​
Conservation Strategy
2018
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Conservation Strategy Review 2021
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Why do lions need our help in the wild?
Fossils discovered in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania, revealed that early humans and lions were co-occurring around 3.5 million years ago. The lion population once spread across most of the African continent and into parts of Europe and Asia but over time persecution, over-exploitation and changes of land use have driven this once widespread iconic species into significant decline. As near as two hundred years ago lions were still found in places outside of Africa like Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey but by the 1900's only a tiny population remained and was found and protected in the Gir Forest in Northern India. This small sub-population famously known now as the Asiatic Lion, which has since recovered to approximately 650 individuals, is a very small reminder of just how far this species once reached.
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The African Lion has been listed by the IUCN as Vulnerable since 1996 and was recently reassessed as such in 2023. The African lion population has suffered a decline of 43% over the 21 years prior to the previous assessment in 2014, published in 2016 (1993-2014) which is approximately three lion generations. The current population trend is listed as decreasing with an estimated number of mature individuals between 23,000-39,000 with a continuing decline of mature individuals. The West African Lion has been listed as Critically Endangered since 2015 with the most recent survey suggesting that only 404 (269-583) remain in this region. The African Lion now lives in less than a quarter of its historic range and are currently distributed in approximately 78 habitat patches in 27 counties and since 2002, five countries have lost their entire lion populations. The main threats to lion populations in the wild are now listed as indiscriminate killing, generally as result of conflict with local communities and in retaliation or pre-emptive killing of lions to protect livestock and human life, prey base depletion and habitat loss and conversion.
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The state of Africa's wild lion population is incredibly concerning as multiple pressures around small population success such as inbreeding, resistance to disease are now becoming more prominent. Pressure with local communities is now one of their top threats as lions and people are pushed closer and closer together. Therefore conservation efforts to try and preserve lions are critical to their long term survival in the wild.
What impact have we made so far?
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Click the button above to see a timeline showing all of the progress that we have made so far in our mission to protect and monitor lions in the wild through our conservation and education projects since our inception in 2017.
Every year our trustees will publish an Annual Review. This will contain the same information as the Annual Report that we complete for the charity commission but will be presented in a more reader friendly manner. We intend to make the work of the charity as transparent as possible so that our supporters can have complete faith in its operation. For more information and to read our Annual Reviews please click on the PDF button below for the chosen year.
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
