Stop the Loss

Stopping the loss of large carnivores, their prey and their habitat

Lions and other large carnivores face numerous threats. Many are directly killed by people, and many others die when their habitat and prey are lost. Animals such as lions can attack humans and their livestock, so people understandably kill them either to prevent such attacks or to retaliate if they occur. These killings often use poisons or snares, which can also kill many animals, such as critically endangered vultures. People often also kill animals such as lions for traditional reasons, as it gives them status and wealth in the community. Meanwhile, wildlife habitat and prey are lost when people see more value in land uses such as farming rather than conserving wildlife areas.

Our Priority Species

Our Approach

We work closely with local people and organisations to understand the main threats to wildlife and habitat, and to jointly develop ways of reducing them.

In order to stop the loss, we:

Train and employ local people in jobs such as Lion Extension Officers or Lion Rangers to help people better protect themselves, their stock and reduce the need for them to kill wildlife.

Conduct Poison Awareness Training to help people understand the danger that poison poses to people and livestock and reduce its use.

Lion Defenders routinely walk transects early in the morning to examine the spoor of preda

Employ local warriors as Lion Defenders to help us understand and reduce traditional lion killings.

Work with local livestock producers through our Lion Friendly Livestock programme, to incentivise livestock production practices that reduce livestock predation and regenerate rangeland soils, habitat and biodiversity.

Work with local people to jointly develop agreements under our Community Camera-Trapping + programme, to reward wildlife presence and behaviours which reduce threats to wildlife and habitat.

Work with relevant people to remove snares and treat poisoned animals, when requested and possible.

With our partners we were able to achieve the following across our landscapes in 2025:

Trained over
400 local
people
in Selous to reduce
poison use

Employed over
50 local
people
to reduce the main threats to large carnivores in their communites

Trained over
100 partner
personnel
to reduce the key
threats to large carnivore

Supported local warriors in preventing

5 illegal

lion hunts

Our Latest Impact Report

Key Threats to Large Carnivores

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