LION GUARDIANS
Lion Guardians is a conservation organisation dedicated to finding and enacting long-term solutions for people and lions to coexist. Founded in 2006, Lion Guardians began with five Guardians in one small area within the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem. Currently, there are Lion Guardians-based projects successfully running in several countries and in our core area of Amboseli, their operations span over close to a million acres. They are committed to workable solutions that are scientifically-driven and transferable across areas.
Lion Guardians’ conservation model is adaptable to various cultures and wildlife species. Founded on local value systems, community participation and science, it is based on a decade of research and rigorous measures of success. Their approach involves recruiting young, traditional Maasai and other pastoralist warriors to learn the skills needed to effectively mitigate conflicts between people and wildlife, monitor lion populations, and help their own communities live with lions. By actively engaging in their solutions-based conservation model, people who were once lion killers are transformed into lion protectors.
Over the years their sphere of influence has grown over ten-fold. From one site in Kenya to multiple countries and to thousands of people. Their core site in the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem spans over 3,600 sq. kms. Here their guardians actively mitigate conflict and monitor lions living in non-protected areas. In addition, they have scaled their impact by co-developing Lion Guardians based projects across Africa and training other organisations on various aspects of the Lion Guardians model.
Lion Guardians Core Values
Participation and community-oriented: The participation of local communities as full and active partners in all of our work.
Trust: Relationships of trust within our organization, with our partners, our donors and supporters, and with all of the communities with whom we work.
Science-based: Conservation programs based on science, and the integration of social and biological sciences, including traditional and indigenous knowledge.
Valuing co-existence: Strong links between local cultural values and conservation programmatic elements.
Collaborative: Partnerships and collaborations are key to achieving long-lasting and broad conservation and livelihood impacts.
LION GUARDIANS AND THE SAFINA LION CONSERVATION FUND
Lion Guardians is where our support for conservation started and in December 2017 we made our first donation of $1500 towards the sponsorship of a Lion Guardians' salary which we have continued annually donating the same amount each year. Over the years we have sponsored three lion guardians which have included Longoi Ole Parsitau until he retired in 2018 from then on we have sponsored Kuya Kipampa from 2019 to 2023. Longoi is pictured bottom left and Kuya is pictured bottom right.
The relationship between the herdsmen of Africa and the lion is complex. Lions are both a source of anxiety, because they kill livestock, and a source of pride, as they are symbols of strength and courage. African herdsmen have coexisted with lions and other wildlife for hundreds of years; this situation is changing radically. Recently, increasing demands of a growing human population has led to elevated levels of lion killing. Lion Guardians draws its strength from using indigenous culture and traditional knowledge rather than attempting to change the culture. Transforming people who once killed lions into Guardians developed out of years of working with Maasai communities to understand the motives of lion killing. Lion Guardians demonstrates that conserving and protecting lions through participatory monitoring, ownership, education, and employment brings prestige and status to a Maasai warrior.
As of January 2024 we have now started the sponsorship of Olubi ole Lairumbe also known as Mitiaki which means "brave warrior" more information can be seen about Mitiaki below.
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For more information please follow this link to the Lion Guardians website. We are proud to support this great organisation and in total we have donated £8080.68 that has gone towards the sponsorships of these Lion Guardians in this community based programme. We would like to thank everyone at Lion Guardians who has communicated with us over the years and specifically Kuya himself for sending us letters through the Lion Guardians administration team that have been truly wonderful to receive. We look forward to continuing our support for this brilliant organisation long into the future. We would also like to credit John Merishi, Phillip J Briggs and Lion Guardians for the photos used on this page.
