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Conservation · Northern Kenya

Ewaso Lions

Protecting lions and other large carnivores by putting the people who share their landscape at the center of conservation.

Partner Since 2026 · Northern Kenya

Where people and lions thrive together

Founded in 2007, Ewaso Lions is a Kenyan conservation organization working to secure a future for lions and other large carnivores across northern Kenya. Its approach begins with a simple principle: lasting conservation depends on the people who live alongside wildlife every day.
Across a 4,530 km² landscape spanning Samburu, Isiolo, and Laikipia Counties, Ewaso Lions works with warriors, women, elders, herders, and children to reduce human-wildlife conflict, protect livelihoods, restore habitat, and build local leadership in conservation.

When the organization began, only 11 lions were known in the ecosystem, most confined to protected areas. Today, more than 60 lions share this landscape with the communities working to protect them.

Lions in the ecosystem

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Conservation landscape

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Community conservancies

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Lion prides monitored across the landscape

Our Work

Conservation led by the people who live with lions

March to the Top supports Ewaso Lions and its community-led approach to protecting northern Kenya’s lions. Rather than separating wildlife conservation from the needs of local people, Ewaso Lions brings them together; combining scientific research with practical programs designed and led by the communities that share the landscape with large carnivores.

Its work reaches every generation. Samburu warriors help monitor lions and prevent conflict. Women lead habitat restoration and conservation education. Children experience wildlife through immersive conservation camps. Veterinary programs protect domestic animals while reducing disease risks to wildlife.

The result is conservation built from within the landscape – not imposed from outside it.

Community-Led Conservation

A role for every generation

Warrior Watch

Samburu warriors become conservation ambassadors, monitoring wildlife, alerting herders to lion presence, and helping communities prevent livestock losses before they lead to retaliation against carnivores. 

Mama Simba

Designed by Samburu women, Mama Simba gives women a leading role in wildlife conservation through environmental education, habitat recovery, cultural engagement, and community outreach. 

Lion Kids Camp

Five-day immersive camps introduce school-going and herding children to Kenya’s wildlife through safaris, classroom learning, theater, games, and hands-on conservation experiences, building the next generation of wildlife leaders. 

Kura’s Pride

Ewaso Lions works with communities to improve the health of domestic dogs and other animals, reducing disease transmission to wildlife and strengthening the relationship between healthy livestock, healthy communities, and successful carnivore conservation.

Why It Matters

Lions cannot survive inside protected areas alone

Fewer than 2,500 lions remain in Kenya. Habitat loss and fragmentation increasingly bring lions into areas occupied by people and livestock, where a single livestock attack can threaten both a family’s livelihood and a lion’s survival.

Because lions range far beyond the boundaries of national reserves, their future depends on what happens in the surrounding community lands. Protecting lions therefore means more than protecting habitat, it means giving the people who live with them the tools, knowledge, and ownership required to make coexistence possible.

Ewaso Lions is proving that those two goals do not have to compete. Strong communities and thriving wildlife can be part of the same future.

Protect northern Kenya’s lions

Support community-led conservation that protects wildlife while strengthening the people and livelihoods that make coexistence possible.

100% of your donation reaches conservation work in Kenya. The March family covers all March to the Top overhead costs.

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Ewaso Lions

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