There’s a road that runs along the edge of Ruaha National Park, scrubland sits on either side, red dust rises into the air from passing traffic as it moves between the villages that sit along this boundary. It’s busy with people and you can spend a few days here and never think about the national park just a few kilometres away.
The park feels distant and self-contained but isn’t. Wildlife moves freely across the boundary into community land. People live alongside it and the realities of sharing space with large mammals such as lions and elephants are part of daily life. Yet for many people living just outside the park, it’s something they haven’t experienced at all.
We’ve been working with one of our impact partners, Lion Landscapes, in this part of southern Tanzania for several years, focusing on the realities of living with wildlife and supporting ways to ensure that large carnivores are assets for the communities living alongside them. Their work includes employing community liaisons to patrol village lands, addressing coexistence challenges, using ecological monitoring systems to guide conservation decisions, and linking conservation to income opportunities.
Alongside that, they give people the opportunity to experience the park.
Implementing Change
Over the past few years nearly 800 community members from surrounding villages have had the opportunity to visit Ruaha. Despite living on the boundary, many had never been inside the park itself.
During the park visits the groups experience a typical safari game drive, stopping at the river, watching elephants at waterholes, and seeing species such as lions up-close from the safety of the vehicle.
For most local people, interaction with wildlife on village land is brief and often negative. An elephant in a field at night damaging crops, or a lion taking livestock. It’s not surprising that those experiences shape how wildlife is viewed.
Spending time inside the park doesn’t remove that reality but does change how wildlife is seen, even if concerns about lions near villages remain which is understandable. Living alongside predators is not romantic when it is a threat to your livelihood.
Programmes like this don’t remove conflict but have been proven to reduce the likelihood that it escalates. Participants report a stronger understanding of how the ecosystem functions, how wildlife moves, and the importance of protecting it. The value of the park becomes tangible as something seen and felt, and people begin to recognise that the same animals they encounter on village land are part of a wider system that supports tourism, employment, and shared benefits.
Participants return to their villages with stories of their own experience. They talk about what they saw, what they learnt, and how the park connects to their lives. In a place where information is best shared through conversation, these stories make a difference in how people think about wildlife.
Starting Young
The same idea is behind our Twende Porini programme. Running since 2015 this in-house initiative welcomes children from surrounding communities into Asilia camps to experience first-hand what a safari is all about. For many of them, it is their first-time viewing wildlife without it being linked to conflict or risk.
The most recent programme was held at Ol Pejeta Bush Camp in March this year. The rhythm of the day following a familiar safari format with early morning game dives, spending time in the bush to sit with guides and talk through what they were seeing. Educational sessions are also incorporated into their stay, teaching them about environmental awareness and caring for nature.
The objective of the programme isn’t to turn everyone into a guide or a conservationist, but instead the purpose is to change the starting point. When children grow up close to wildlife but only encounter it through conflict, that shapes how they think about it. Spending time inside these areas gives them something else to draw from.
Why this approach works
There is a common misconception that conflict with wildlife is driven by a lack of care. In reality, it is driven by cost and when the cost of living alongside wildlife outweighs the perceived benefit, tolerance disappears.
Programmes like those run by Lion Landscapes and our own Twende Porini don’t replace the need for practical solutions, such as stronger bomas, better livestock management, and rapid response teams. What they do is add another layer, helping people see where the benefits come from, how ecosystems function, and the role they play.
Back in Ruaha
The sun drops quickly in Ruaha. Light fades across the riverbed, and somewhere in the distance, a lion calls. The sound carries further than expected. For those who have spent their lives outside the park, that sound has always represented a threat, something to be concerned about. For those who have now sat inside the park and listened, watched, and understood a little more, it means something slightly different, something that may just create a pause around escalation in the event of conflict.
When you choose to travel with Asilia, you are actively choosing to contribute towards the Positive Impact initiatives we operate and support across East Africa.
