Since 2004, after more than a decade of prior research on the cultural and ecological importance of White Lions, Linda Tucker has been securing critically strategic land to ensure their survival and flourishing together with the interconnected biodiversity associated with their ecosystem.

By 2024, the Global White Lion Protection Trust had succeeded in securing 8 different pieces of wilderness land identified under 4 territories:

• The Heartlands (1000ha)
  • Tsau and Tula, two adjoining properties which span the arterial Klaserie river that supports the Greater Kruger ecosystem, and lies on the Nilotic Meridian.
  • Shidolo, the Sacred Site of the ancient Baobab Tree, directly bordering the greater Timbavati wilderness. Shidolo is separated from Tsau and Tula by a public road.
• Sunlands (400ha) – situated to the North of The Heartlands, bordering the Greater Kruger, this property was acquired to prevent an industrial, monoculture farming development that was threatening the Klaserie river, which is of critical importance to the entire downstream ecosystem.
• Northern Territories – Malachite (3500ha) – by acquiring four neighbouring properties, we have created a Protected Nature Reserve of Sacred Lands where iconic inselbergs mark the landscape, near the Olifants river. These lands form part of a critically important wildlife corridor in the region, supporting the essential vision of the Kruger-to-Canyons Biosphere.
• Southern Territories – Mbube (700ha) – meaning “LionStar”, this property houses the headwaters of the sacred Timbavati river, another arterial river nurturing the central ecosystem of the Greater Kruger.

Our land strategy involves further acquisitions in addition to the ongoing regeneration and protection of land.

1. LAND ACQUISITION 

FUNDING TARGET – US$13,500,000.00 (±R250,000,000.00)

Since acquiring the founding lands in 2004, the Trust has exerted significant influence on regional landowners and conservation authorities to review and reform their extractive, consumptive and commercially-driven policies and practices. These practices include trophy hunting, high-impact tourism, agri-industrial enterprises and housing development.

Although our long-term goal is to drop fences to neighbouring wildlife properties creating larger ‘open systems’, it would be irresponsible to do so while trophy hunting remains legitimised and promoted in these areas. The Trust therefore has initiated a strategy to secure land of critical strategic importance to protect not only the White Lions but also their greater ecosystem. This includes properties bordering The Heartlands as well as land within the Greater Region. If we fail to extend the White Lions’ ancestral territories, the White Lions and their associated ecosystem are at risk of continued exploitation, with devastating results, many of which are irreversible.

To this end, we have set up a Land Acquisition Fund, to ensure that we have the funds available when strategic land comes onto the market. This funding target is set to match our previous Land Acquisition Fund received in 2020, which enabled us to make highly strategic decisions. This urgently needs to be matched so we can expand the biodiversity conservation frontier and critical wildlife corridors which support the entire ecosystem within the K2C biosphere.

2. LAND REGENERATION

FUNDING TARGET – US$800,000.00 (±R15,000,000.00)

Nature knows how to regenerate herself – it is our role to promote this regeneration by dismantling damaging processes and implementing supportive ones. Permaculture, a design system based on natural laws, enables us to do this.

The application of Permaculture Design Principles allow  for the creation of productive, ecologically stable landscapes together with the living communities thereon. It is a management strategy that assesses the available natural resources and the state of the environment (water cycle, nutrient cycle, succession, and energy flow) whilst assimilating the human needs and deliberately integrating various elements to nurture a diverse, healthy, and ever-growing ecosystem. With a regenerative mindset, Permaculture converts negative human impact into a positive contribution with lasting, productive action, helping to transform the consumer driven era into a life-affirming model that consciously promotes life in all her forms, naturally leading to a state of abundance.

Our immediate and long-term vision is to create flourishing ecologically sustainable environments throughout our organisation. Although the initial capital investment is relatively high, Permaculture becomes very cost-effective over time, as closed-loop systems begin to utilise outputs from one function as inputs for others, working with Nature to ensure enduring ecological sustainability.

• Sunlands Permaculture Hub: The Trust’s recent land acquisition in 2022 was highly strategic in stopping an extensive industrial citrus farming development from contaminating the arterial Klaserie river, which serves a vast section of the Kruger National Park. The Trust now protects over 12.2km of river frontage, and has secured the water rights well beyond the needs of our planned operation, at a volume of 19,860,000 litres per annum, which amounts to an additional cost of R398,000.00 per annum. Our intention is to keep the water in the river, and not allow the extraction rights to be sold to potential exploitative businesses upstream. Sadly, the developers had already cleared over 200 hectares of indigenous bushveld in their preparations to plant citrus trees. This land now needs regenerative support as, if left unsupported, a full-scale monoculture of sickle bush (an indigenous pioneer tree) will take over, greatly reducing the potential biodiversity of the land, becoming inhospitable to humans and animals alike. Our vision is to create a Permaculture Hub and Biodiversity Appreciation Centre surrounding the existing dilapidated building complex, and to pioneer a 200-hectare Indigenous Food Forest system on the degraded land. In time this will be opened to the Greater Kruger Park system, becoming a viable product yielding forest as well as an oasis for the varied biodiversity that would be welcome to traverse the space.
  Capital required for 5 years of creating the Sunlands Permaculture Hub amounts to R10,000,000.00. This hub will serve as a future income centre for the Trust, providing ethically processed indigenous medicinal and nutritional products to the high-end lodges in the area. In addition, we will be able to supply these valuable products at affordable prices to our underserved local rural communities who currently have little to no access to these health promoting agro-products. Furthermore, the hub presents an opportunity to transfer these agro-processing skills to community members.

• Staff Camps Permaculture Regeneration: Our ecocentric approach extends to the many staff camps existing on our properties, which are being modified through regenerative design thinking. In time our camps will become biodiversity hotspots for insects, reptiles, amphibians and birds to call home, characterised by productive perennial plants, (providing food, medicine and soil regenerating capacity for the greater ecosystem and our people), restorative water management to promote penetration (increasing the water table and decreasing risk of erosion) and optimal management of all fresh waste through composting processors. Costs for this transformation will be minimized due to our staff’s ethos and involvement. Furthermore, the Sunlands Permaculture Hub will supply most of our plants and fertility inputs, saving on costs.

• Ongoing regeneration of the Land: Due to historical mismanagement, both in the region and on several of our properties, ongoing land regeneration is currently required. These interventions include measures to prevent rampant soil erosion, ecologically sensitive clearing of invasive vegetation, replanting of indigenous trees, improving soils, and applying sound water management principles on all 4 of our territories.Owing to overgrazing and other soil disrupting practices, the pioneer plant, sickle bush, has taken over large tracts of land. As Permaculturalists, one of our primary goals is to fast-track regeneration by building soils and creating a diverse array of plant species that ultimately lead to ecological balance.We require a dedicated bush clearing and wood chipping team to move between our properties, opening up the bush to allow more sunlight for other plants (grasses, shrubs and trees) while creating wood chips to rebuild the soil, or to be added to the Permaculture Hub as an invaluable   mulch or composting input.
  This team will need to be equipped with a vehicle, a trailer, an industrial wood-chipper, various necessary tools and a solar powered mobile camp. The funds required to cover salaries and all equipment for a three year period amounts to R4,400,000.00. Thereafter the team will operate as a income centre for the Trust, offering their valuable services to other landowners in the region.

 3. LAND PROTECTION

FUNDING TARGET – US$270,000.00 (±R5,000,000.00)

Each of our properties has a different risk profile and until we achieve a world in which lions, land and people flourish in harmonious coexistence, we need to ensure the protection of Nature and her sentient beings. At the Global White Lion Protection Trust we achieve this through three fundamental strategies: daily celebration of Nature, construction and maintenance of our fences (“force-fields of love”) to ensure the land’s safety, as well as effective counter-poaching interventions. While the first strategy carries no cost, the other two are financially onerous on the Trust.

• Our force-fields of love (Fencing): The Trust has installed so-called predator-proof fencing on the perimeter of our borders to ensure our Lions’ safety, as well as the protection of other wildlife populations, creating a “force-field of love” around their Kingdom. To date, more than R12,000,000.00 has already been invested into the installation of these security and protection measures. The use of high-spec materials, solar-powered electrification and modern construction methods also allows for better management of other wildlife populations.
  The fences require daily inspections and continued maintenance to ensure that the force-field of love is never dropped. The combined exterior fencing for our properties amounts to almost 73 km, and this excludes the acclimation and relief bomas on each property, the Kenyan fencing around all camps and the corridor fencing erected to reduce the risk of lions reaching national roads.
  The Trust’s annual costs for necessary upgrades and maintenance (excluding new installations) of fences amounts to almost R500,000.00 per annum. This amount will vary depending on various land acquisitions and the state thereof.

• Counter-poaching teams: In our area, poaching has reached pervasive proportions. Generally, poachers are either highly organised and well resourced, targeting specific animals such as Lion, Rhino and Pangolin for the illegal global trade or they are poorly resourced and highly opportunistic, setting snares and hunting with dogs for ‘bush meat’ to be sold to the local communities. Both present a huge threat to the safety of the wildlife in our region. Proactively clearing snares and monitoring roads, fencelines and river crossings, the counter-poaching units play a vital role in ensuring the protection and safety of our sacred White Lions and all the other species living on their Land.