An approach to conservation that integrates science, culture, education and enterprise development to protect a rare endangered animal and to help alleviate poverty in surrounding communities.

The Global White Lion Protection Trust (White Lion Trust / WLT) is a South African based non-profit conservation and community development organisation, established in 2002 by author and conservationist, Linda Tucker. The White Lion Trust's conservation ethos integrates science, culture, education and enterprise development to protect the rare endangered White Lion and to help alleviate poverty in surrounding rural communities. This integrated approach is the only way to realise wildlife conservation objectives whilst creating long-term environmental, social and economic sustainability for South Africa's vast rural poverty nodes.

The White Lion Trust works with local and international funding institutions, private donors and corporate business sponsors to fund its conservation and development initiatives. Among these initiatives is the White Lion Eco-Educational Program with local schools in the Maruleng Municipal area. In 2007, the White Lion Trust took 25 learners from the Acornhoek region to Johannesburg to show-case their play, titled "White Lion - Madiba" for Dr Nelson Mandela. 

It is the White Lion Trust's intention to develop practical self-funding enterprise projects to sustain its culture and community development programs so that conservation funds can be allocated to their specific purpose: i.e. to fund the reintroduction of White Lions to their natural distribution range and to facilitate the world-first genetic study to identify the White Lion genetic marker. This process will ultimately assist in establishing the frequency of occurrence of White Lions in the wild in the Greater Timbavati Region and help to secure formal protection for these rare beasts through appropriate legislation. Operating in the greater Timbavati wilderness region (on the cusp of Limpopo and Mpumalanga), the White Lion Trust is accountable to its Trustees and a panel of global advisors with representatives from the South African Government, local and international conservation groupings and the South African business sector.

The White Lion Trust's research objectives are in accordance with those of the IUCN: i) we aim to restore the natural biodiversity of the area where we operate; ii) we aim to enhance the long-term survival of a species; iii) we aim to provide long-term economic benefits to the local community; iv) we aim to re-establish a key-stone species in both the ecological and cultural sense; and v) we aim to promote conservation awareness. In 2002, when the White Lion Trust was first established, there were no known White Lion individuals remaining in the wild in the Greater Timbavati and this had been the status for the past decade. With a critical need to supplement the White Lion gene in the wild, the White Lion Trust launched its world-first White Lion Reintroduction Program. Today (2009) the Reintroduction Progam can be considered successful as the founding pride hunts self-sufficiently and is reproducing without human intervention.