Community Outreach

Although species such as lions are valued around the world, most wildlife films and storybooks are aimed at people living far away from them. This is a major issue, as it is the people living closest to wildlife who need to be most engaged and passionate about conservation. It is also these voices that conservationists need to listen to and learn from the most, in order to jointly develop conservation action which is most likely to benefit both people and wildlife long-term.

Wildlife film showings

Lion Landscapes works in various ways to exchange knowledge and information with local communities. We show wildlife films in local villages, which always generate huge interest and are a great opportunity for open discussion. Unfortunately, many of these films are in English, which makes local communities feel excluded, so we encourage film-makers to make local language versions of films wherever possible.

Bilingual Conservation Storybooks

To address the issue of local people feeling excluded, we have written multiple storybooks, which put local people in their rightful place at the heart of the conservation story. These are in English and local languages, and are a wonderful tool for community engagement.

Wildlife Clubs and Park Trips

We work through local schools to establish wildlife clubs, where interested students share their knowledge about wildlife and learn about potential conservation careers. For wildlife clubs and other villagers, we also conduct park trips into local protected areas, where people can experience wildlife first-hand in a non-threatening way, and learn about the roles of rangers and other staff. These are hugely popular, and can really change perceptions of animals which people may only have experienced as a threat on village land.

All of this work builds local interest in conservation, allows us at Lion Landscapes to learn more about local perspectives and help shape the most appropriate conservation strategies.