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The results of our 3 year Conservation Incentive Payments (CIP) trial are out.
KopeLion and the TAWIRI lion research project presented them to stakeholders, including community leaders, NCAA, TANAPA, TAWIRI, MNRT, and tourism operators, in Karatu, and to present them to all the villages that participated.
Largely supported by The Lion Recovery Fund and others, we additionally thank the 6 villages who participated, the NCA Authority, and KopeLion staff, Ingela Jansson, Adam Pekor, William Ole Seki and Ololotu Munka who poured their hearts and time into the project.
95% of respondents reported that they were satisfied with the CIP program, 97% reported that they had a more positive view of lions as a result of the CIP program, and 99% reported that they would like the CIP program to continue in their village.
Human-lion coexistence was greatest where the CIP program was piloted – during the three years of the pilot, there was not a single retaliatory lion killing, hunt, or attempted hunt in the CIP villages, despite 29 such events in KopeLion’s wider area of operations’.
Funding for education elevated the CIP programme, – a conservation intervention can only help promote coexistence if people are aware of the benefits they are earning from wildlife. Here, awareness of the CIP program was extremely high, with over 90% of respondents from CIP villages reporting having heard of the program or the fact that their village was earning money from the lions on their land. Anecdotally, we noticed a substantial uptick in both awareness of and enthusiasm for the program once the participating villages began using their earnings to support students to attend secondary school.
Download the CIP Final Report
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Kope Lion
KopeLion Inc. (short for Korongoro People’s Lion Initiative) is a non-profit NGO registered in USA and in Tanzania. Our mission is to foster human-lion coexistence through participatory research and sustainable community-based conservation.
A lion pedicure and more!![]()
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KopeLion's newest 'corridor of tolerance' through Kakesio is currently booming with lions.![]()
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It is so useful to be able to understand lions in this area, to enable us to reduce any conflict with people and livestock, keep everything safer and ensure connectivity across lion landscapes.![]()
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KopeLion's Ilchokuti, Ndoyai, recently located lions and sent in their position. With news that the collaring team were on their way, despite having no phone charge left, he climbed a tree and stayed with them until dark, when the team finally found him.![]()
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Ndoyai, together with the TAWIRI lion research team and NCA's veterinary officer, Dr Wambura, then assisted to collar a large male lion. In the company of one other male, he is about 7+ years, and was found with an odd looking ear, a large puncture wound on his thigh and an injured pad from a claw that could not retract. After some first aid and putting on a GPS collar, he was soon up and about.![]()
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The three Kakesio Ilchokuti have had a refresher training on using the telemetry set to locate the collared lion, and he was spotted 10 days later with his companion, and full bellies after killing a buffalo.![]()
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We look forward to sharing their adventures and hope they take a trip to the crater!![]()
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#livingwithlions #corridortoftolerance #communityconservation #humanwildlifecoexistence #ngorongoro #ngorongoroconservationarea #ngorongorodistrict #ngorongorolions #kopelion #ngorongorocrater
Catch up with what we’re doing in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in the newsletter below, as we navigate the many challenges, ensure that people, livestock and lions survive each other, and keep testing sustainable human wildlife coexistence tools to find a model that works!![]()
Thank you for your support.
We're seeing lions in the new 'corridor of tolerance' in Kakesio.![]()
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Despite the vast and tall purple flowering Gutenbergia cordifolia, Ndolok spotted these juveniles out on the plains.![]()
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Our recent follow-up household survey by Ace Africa (after working in Kakesio for 1 year) showed that 'given the importance placed on livestock for economic and practical value, it is interesting to note the value placed on land for both livestock and lion as shown in the fig. in photo 2. There has been a significant change in attitudes towards the importance of land for lions, with 23% disagreeing at the time of the baseline to only 1% disagreeing at the time of the follow up. This indicates the project has successfully educated the community about the importance of sharing land and ‘co-existence.’![]()
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The Donald Slavik Family Foundation @lionrecovery Lion Recovery Fund @iucnsos IUCN Save Our Species @eu_partnerships Eu.partnerships ![]()
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#humanwildlifecoexistence #CommunityConservation #corridortoftolerance #Lionconservation #livingwithlions #Ngorongoro #Ngorongoroconservationarea #kopelion #Ngorongorodistrict #ngorongorolions ![]()
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Photo credit: Ndolok Kitiliya
