Conservation-led luxury travel company andBeyond and non-profit parks management organisation African Parks are celebrating six years since a successful conservation collaboration that brought back lions to Rwanda. In 2015, andBeyond donated five lionesses from Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa to be translocated to Rwanda as part of an African Parks project aimed at reversing the local extinction of the species in Akagera National Park.
Lions became locally extinct in Akagera and in Rwanda in the early 1990s, as the country experienced a period of
intense upheaval during and after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. As the country struggled to meet the needs
of returning refugees, Akagera National Park suffered, with wildlife being hunted out and displaced by cattle. In
2010, African Parks entered a long-term partnership with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) to help them
professionalise park management and help rehabilitate Akagera.
To create a safe place where both people and wildlife could thrive, African Parks implemented their park
management strategy, including the introduction of effective law enforcement within the park, as well as a strong
community engagement programme through which people could start benefitting from the park. As part of the
drive to significantly reduce poaching, a specialised canine unit was deployed in 2015 and poaching reached an alltime low. As the time drew nearer for the reintroduction of lions after their 20-year absence, Akagera began
running a comprehensive sensitisation programme in the communities surrounding the park to help inform
neighbouring communities about the significance of lions in the natural environment and hot to prevent human-lion
conflict.
Years of preparation came to a head in June 2015, when five lionesses donated by andBeyond, accompanied by two
males donated by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, undertook the long journey from South Africa to Rwanda. As a sign of
community support, children and other community members lined the road entering the park to cheer and welcome
the return of lions to Rwanda. Settling in successfully, the pride saw eleven cubs born in the first year after their
reintroduction, more than doubling the park’s lion population within the first twelve months. In 2017, two additional male lions arrived from South Africa to ensure the genetic diversity of the population.
“We are proud that our lionesess have contributed towards creating a stable lion population within Akagera,” says
Simon Naylor, Conservation Manager at andBeyond Phinda Private Game Reserve. “With our long history of lion
conservation and company ethos of Care of the Land, Care of the Wildlife, Care of the People, it was a natural
choice for us to become involved in a translocation of this significance. Studies have shown that Phinda’s lions are
the second most genetically diverse population in South Africa, and this has formed a solid foundation for the
growth of the species at Akagera.”
andBeyond Phinda has a long history of lion conservation in South Africa. It was one of the first private game reserves in South Africa and the first in the province of KwaZulu-Natal to introduce lions, thereby extending their
historical range. Since the first 13 lions were introduced in 1992 and 1993, Phinda’s lion population has grown
substantially enough to help establish other lion populations in private game reserves in the Eastern Cape, Zululand, Mpumalanga, North West and the Limpopo Province, as well as neighbouring Mozambique. The reserve is also a founding member of the Lion Management Forum of South Africa (LiMF), which aims to promote best practice
in lion management and conservation in Southern Africa, generating industry norms and standards for lion conservation.
“The return of lions to Rwanda was a very significant milestone for conservation in the country,” says Ladis Ndahiriwe, Akagera Park Manager. “Lions are critical to healthy functioning ecosystems and they have also helped
drive tourism, whereby both the ecosystem and communities are benefitting. We’re extremely proud of our
relationship with the RDB in helping to transform Akagera, and andBeyond was essential in helping us restore the
country’s lion population.”
In order to mark the anniversary of the translocation, andBeyond has once again collaborated with African Parks to
create a limited edition itinerary that follows in the footsteps of the original five lionesses. The Return of the Lion
Expedition, is hosted by Simon Naylor, Conservation Manager at andBeyond Phinda, and Drew Bantlin, Conservation
Manager at Akagera. The trip explores the unique wildlife conservation challenges of both destinations and includes
a host of hands-on conservation experiences. At andBeyond Phinda Private Game Reserve travellers will discover
the processes undertaken to select and capture the lions for translocation, while also joining in an unforgettable
conservation activity such as a lion or cheetah immobilisation, an elephant or rhino initiative or tracking the
reserve’s rare pangolin. At Akagera, guests will track and participate in the monitoring of the reserve’s new pride
of lions, gaining an understanding of the park’s conservation management plan, while exploring some of Africa’s
most untouched wilderness areas.
This itinerary is scheduled to travel from 05 to 14 October 2022 and costs USD 11 950 per person.
