KopeLion, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania July 15, 2025

We traveled to Tanzania earlier this year on a research trip organised by Nomad Tanzania. (See blog posts here and here.) One of the highlights of our trip was visiting the Ngorongoro.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) was established in 1959 as a multiple-use area, and allowed for both wildlife conservation and the traditional grazing practices of the Maasai people. In 1979, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The NCA is the only conservation area in Tanzania that protects wildlife while allowing human habitation.

In 2009, the Ngorongoro Wildlife Conservation Act placed new restrictions on human use of the Ngorongoro Crater, displacing traditional Maasai pastoralists. Attempts to preserve both the natural and cultural values of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area has inevitably led to tensions.

Human-wildlife conflicts have been particularly tough on both people and lions. The lions in the NCA need to be able to roam free, including between the crater and the Serengeti National Park – an area now densely populated by displaced people who also need to be free to roam with their livestock. This has resulted in lions being killed and, in the last decades, the lions have begun to disappear entirely from their former ranges, separating the famous Ngorongoro Crater lions from the Serengeti.

Nomad Tanzania is committed to supporting local charities, and while we were staying at Entanmanu Ngorongoro, they arranged for Kimani from KopeLion to come and talk to us.

KopeLion – Korongoro People’s Lion Initiative – started in 2011 from a collaboration between lion researchers and the people of Ngorongoro. The goal is to develop and implement a sustainable model for positive coexistence between resident Maasai pastoralists and the lions in Ngorongoro.

The aim is to bring together local communities, the tourist industry and government authorities, so they can work together to reduce conflict, increase people’s tolerance of the lion, and safeguard and monitor lion populations within the area.

KopeLion helps both the people and the lion in several ways, including employing warriors from the local community to monitor and track the lions daily. These wardens prevent conflict events, warning herders about the presence of lions and moving people and livestock out of danger. They find and retrieve lost livestock most vulnerable to attack, treat wounded livestock, and use conflict resolution skills to prevent retaliation against lions when attacks against livestock occur.

KopeLion has built a successful ‘corridor of tolerance’ between the crater and the Serengeti by engaging with the Ngorongoro people. It is hoped that their model for coexisting will increase the number of lions in the NCA and decrease their negative economic impacts on the local people.

If you’d like to find out more about the fantastic work KopeLion is doing, or make a donation, please visit their website: https://kopelion.org/

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