Wild lions are faring well in certain circumstances. But let’s not kid ourselves—overall, they aren’t exactly on the winning end of the conservation spectrum.

What’s more, the press revolving around their uncertain fate has been written and rewritten, thousands of times, thousands of different ways—all by a veritable who’s who of conservationists and pundits.

I could write at length about the ever growing challenge of human expansion and land conversion, which continues encroaching on lion habitat. But you probably already know that.

I could devote a page to the deceased Zimbabwe lion whose name you’re all too familiar with, complete with the debate about the benefits (or lack thereof) of hunting to conserve wildlife. But despite it being a critical conversation, you definitely already know about that!

Finally, I could write an article about the dangers humans and lions pose to one another; that lions stray from reserves from time to time and make off with a cow, goat, or even injure or kill a person, and that retaliations from locals can result in the poisoning of an entire pride.

But once more, you already know that.

Protecting Lions Means Asking Relevant Questions

I soon realized that there were more important questions concerning lions than merely asking myself what subject was worth highlighting. For instance, can humans realistically exist in a relative state of balance with lions? If not, then why not? And if yes, then how?

Not long after jotting those down, another question came to mind in three slightly different ways: What can we do to further protect lions? What would I do to protect lions? What would you do to protect lions?

That last question is for the kid living in London, Nairobi, Cairo, or upstate New York, or perhaps the retiree who’s been reading similar articles in National Geographic magazines. You may love lions too, but merely loving them won’t save them.

Many conservationists have been working to answer that important question for quite some time. In some cases there’s been tremendous success, while for others, abject failure.

The reason I’m asking you, the reader, is because in spite of the polemics, fundraisers, or social media slogans in support of lions, we sometimes forget that conserving them means coming up with actual solutions.

Now that the question has been posed, and not forgetting the countless number of folks already tirelessly working out how best to save wild lions, why not try proactively weighing in?

But before doing so, permit me to jot down several common sense essentials that might aid you in your response.

Protecting Lions Means Knowing the Facts

Why are wild lions in danger? The short answer is habitat loss and not enough prey, which field researchers will verify. I won’t get into specifics, but if lions are to survive in an ever-developing world, addressing habitat loss and ensuring a stable prey base must be the main priority, which also means figuring out how conserving them can best benefit local communities who rely on land too. Another issue related to habitat loss is the fact that lions are a threat to humans and their livestock living near and even outside of protected areas. Taking that into account, it’s understandable that many African people don’t want to foot the bill for lion protection while losing their lives and livelihoods in the process. Human-wildlife conflict is another multifaceted problem that must be remedied if lions are to remain. Then there’s hunting, which many believe is the coup de grâce. In reality, hunting is more towards the bottom of the lion’s list of obstacles. Hunting seems one of the larger problems because it’s drawn more media attention in recent years than the bigger challenges lions currently face. The reason, simply put, is that hunting is wildly contentious since it tugs painfully on many an animal enthusiast’s heartstrings. To summarize, the idea of killing an animal to save the species seems incompatible with conservation to some, though hunters and some conservationists contest that it greatly offsets habitat loss; land that aside from being unfit for tourism, could become livestock pastures or fields of agriculture with more wildlife being killed in the process if left alone. I’ll admit that I have mixed feelings about hunting, and there’s certainly evidence pointing to cases of gross mismanagement, not to mention the targeting of genetically healthy lions which can lead to infanticide, none of which casts it in a particularly positive light. But emotions aside, wild lions need those who are willing to address hunting holistically. If lion protection truly needs hunting as one of several measures in the conservation toolkit, then the evidence will back it up with verifiable facts. If not, the same applies. Hunting will no doubt be further addressed at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES in Johannesburg, South Africa, this coming September. Protecting Lions Means Remembering Asiatic Lions It’s easy to forget that lions once roamed throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia. This touches on a smaller subspecies of lion more closely related to the small population living in West Africa. While wild lions in Africa number somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000, there are only about 523 Asiatic (or Persian) lions left in the world, all living in India’s 545 square mile Gir Forest National Park. For these lions, the struggle for survival and real possibility of extinction goes well beyond the basic difficulties of human-wildlife conflict and habitat loss. Changes to their environment through natural events such as wildfires, infectious diseases, and inbreeding are all very real threats that could wipe out the entire population in one disastrous blow.

For this subspecies, the difference between life and death is the continuing efforts to mitigate all of these risks, which includes growing the population, and most importantly, remembering that their survival is of equal importance to that of their African brethren.

Protecting Lions Means Staying Positive Negative news and fear-based media seems to define our world nowadays, a concept I learned when a former professor once stated, “if it bleeds, it leads.” While I perish the thought of a world without lions, and while we shouldn’t sugarcoat the challenges, the ordnance of negative conservation stories being endlessly fired out into cyberspace can hurt the cause. “Unfortunately for many, the task ahead seems too big,” African wildlife filmmaker Kim Wolhuter said in an interview. “We keep feeding people with so much negative about our natural world they can’t cope. They think their little help just isn’t going to make a difference. We need to change our approach and be more positive.” It’s important to be intentional in counterbalancing the grim news with real stories of success. Take the Lion Guardians for example. By turning rural Kenyans and Tanzanians from poachers to protectors, there has been a 90 percent drop in retaliatory lion killings in East Africa, a number of community rangelands transformed into lion refuges, and a significant increase in community conservation participation. Lions have also been reintroduced to Malawi’s Liwonde National Park and Majete Wildlife Reserve, as well as in Rwanda’s Akagera National Park, thanks in large part to the continued efforts of African Parks, a nonprofit organization that deals exclusively with some of the toughest protected areas on the continent. From lion-proof bomas (enclosures) for cattle to more active community involvement, it is these stories that should be amplified, not only for the betterment of lions, but for the people around the world standing in solidarity for their continued protection.

Protecting Lions Means Getting Involved