Co-existence and connectivity for lions across northern Tanzania

Lions roam large across northern Tanzania, one of the largest savanna ecosystems in the world. People and livestock also live there. KopeLions works to help those people, their livestock, and the surrounding lions co-exist and thrive. They do this in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), home to approximately 100,000 people (mostly pastoralists) and a key 'hub' for the dispersal and connectivity of Northern Tanzania and Southern Kenya's Maasailand lion meta-population.

But in NCA, intensifying human-wildlife conflicts has been tough on the lion population. In the last decades, the lions have begun to disappear entirely from their former ranges, separating the famous Ngorongoro Crater lions from the Serengeti. The area’s mission for harmonious coexistence is collapsing, with both people and wildlife losing out. KopeLions is working with the people of NCA to change this.

KopeLion has a vision of lions surviving and thriving alongside the pastoralist communities of Ngorongoro and other northern Tanzania landscapes through monitoring lions and their behaviour, engaging with communities to support their co-existence with lions, and using scientific data and traditional ecological knowledge to develop effective conservation tools. KopeLions runs a similar program to Lion Guardians, employing local Maasai Warriors, known as Ilchokuti, to monitor lions, find and retrieve lost livestock, warn herders of the presence of lions, treat wounded livestock, and prevent retaliation killing. Since 2017, they’ve observered 12% more lions on community lands in NCA.

With a long-term goal to ensure that the recovery of the lion population in northern Tanzania is a community choice and enterprise, KopeLion endeavours to promote the overall will to protect and expand these lionscapes by working closely with the communities, local government authorities, and tourism businesses.

In 2018, the first lion from Ndutu Conservation Area, successfully traveled through a 'corridor of tolerance,' which allowed it to migrate up to the Ngorongoro Crater. KopeLions worked with communities to establish this corridor, and now other lions are using this same route.

KopeLion's work has made it possible for male lions to safely disperse between Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti National Park, allowing for more diversity in breeding across prides. Restoring this connectivity is rebuilding the genetic health and abundance of the lion populations in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area by restoring the historical link between the Ngorongoro Crater (1) and the Ndutu (2) populations through the multi-use pastoralist areas (3).