Celebrate World Lion Day With Disney
Can you believe it’s been an entire year since the release of Disney’s live-action The Lion King. Last year in the lead-in to the film, The Walt Disney Company made a huge push through the Disney Conservation fund to make even greater strides to protect lions and their habitats across Africa.
As we celebrate World Lion Day, Disney has decided to share with us some of the progress that’s been made over the past year!
The “Protect the Pride” global conservation campaign which launched last year has a focus on protecting and revitalizing the lion population across Africa by raising awareness and contributing to the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Lion Recovery Fund (LRF.)
To date, Disney’s support of the LRF has led to the following milestones:
- Funding of 44 lion conservation organizations
- Support for 107 projects
- Covering 21 African countries.
- Campaigns now cover 50% of the African lion population.
- Funding has been designed to benefit lions, their habitats and their prey.
This fund has directed support to partner organizations across Africa with the following areas of focus:
- Discovering New Prides – In Tanzania, the Ruaha Carnivore Project and the Frankfurt Zoological Society are working with Tanzanian authorities and other partners in the Selous/Nyerere ecosystem to examine lion population dynamics and discover threats to the cats.
- Securing the Last Lions – Panthera is providing funds and equipment for the dedicated rangers in Niokolo-Koba National Park to bolster protection of Senegal’s last population of lions.
- Empowering Communities – SORALO is working with Maasai communities in Kenya to secure safe spaces for lions outside of national parks, promote peaceful coexistence with people and support sustainable, pastoral livelihoods.
- Creating New Parks – In the Central African Republic, African Parks is establishing a new, vast protected landscape around Chinko Nature Reserve to reduce ecosystem degradation and provide the resources for lion prides to grow in the center of the continent. The vastness of this landscape (21,000 square miles) means that the area has arguably greater potential for lion recovery than anywhere else in Africa.
- Reaching Across Boundaries – LRF and Disney are funding collaborations to protect interconnected landscapes for lions to be able to move and thrive, such as the work of Kalahari Research and Conservation and Cheetah Conservation Botswana, who are working with communities to sustainably manage lion habitats and prevent human-lion conflict in Botswana.
Looking for ways to celebrate lions with your family, or help Protect the Pride?
There are a handful of awesome ways that you can help Disney in their efforts to protect the Lion population:
- Learn more about the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Lion Recovery Fund
- Help your family get to know the animals that inspired your favorite characters through free activities to try at home in “The Lion King” Activity Packet
- Pick up a copy of The Art and Making of “The Lion King” to learn about Disney Publishing Worldwide’s contribution and Disney’s commitment to conservation
- Be inspired by Simba, Nala and their friends, add “The Lion King” to your movie collection today on Digital and Blu-ray, or stream it on Disney+
Also be sure to head to Disney’s Animal Kingdom during your next Walt Disney World visit to find out more about the incredible animals that call Disney home as well as further details on Disney’s incredible conservation efforts!
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