CLAWS Conservancy (Communities Living Among Wildlife Sustainably) works to promote co-existence between communities and lions in Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Area, Northern Botswana.
In 2013, 50% of the known lions were killed through poisoning and shooting in retaliation for devastating livestock losses. Following this, CLAWS Conservancy established a community engagement programme called ‘Pride in our Prides’ to mitigate this conflict and develop innovative approaches to promote co-existence between communities and lions. The first of these is the deployment of satellite collars programmed with geo-fences; pre-programmed lines of co-ordinates that send alerts when lions approach villages.
In the pilot phase 1000 alerts were sent to livestock owners reducing conflict by 50%. Lion killing has since dropped from over 20 in 2013 to less than 3 individuals per year with over 15 cubs since 2016. CLAWS Conservancy is now working, with the support of Tusk, towards wider adoption of the system across other portions of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area where lion conflict is a significant problem.
Species Protected: African Lion
CLAWS © Andrew Stein
CLAWS
CLAWS Conservancy - Mayenga and cubs
How Tusk works with Our Project Partners
We provide critical funding to enable our project partners to grow and increase their impact on habitat and wildlife, while also enabling, nurturing and supporting collaboration between them, for greater synergy and impact.
We help to increase awareness and wider support for our partners’ efforts, while also sharing important conservation messages, from the vital and varied roles of wildlife rangers, to the benefits of community-driven conservation, both within Africa and internationally.
CLAWS Conservancy has been a Tusk partner since 2019.
This Project Makes a Difference Through…
Human-Wildlife Co-Existence
Local Population Employed: 35
Area Protected: 1,325,000 ha
