White Lions
“This successful initiative would not have been possible without the generous assistance of Leslie Temple-Thurston, Brad Laughlin and CoreLight’s circle of LionHearted donors. Over the decades, this circle has been immovable in its ongoing support for the frontline conservation efforts of the Global White Lion Protection Trust, as it pioneers the new paradigm for global conservation today.”
The Global White Lion Protection Trust (GWLPT) has reintroduced the sacred White Lion into its endemic range in Timbavati, South Africa—the only place on Earth where White Lions are born by natural occurrence. Timbavati in the local Shangaan language means the place where the Star Lions came down.
Despite their critically important ecological, cultural and spiritual value, these luminous genetic rarities have been forcibly removed from their ecosystem over the past six decades. Consequently, they were technically extinct in the wild when the GWLPT commenced its heroic reintroduction efforts in 2002 against virtually impossible odds.
How the White Lions Regenerate Their Ecosystem
Founded by Linda Tucker, after nearly ten years of intensive research into both the scientific and cultural significance of the White Lions, the GWLPT has built up a strong and consistent record of creating mutual benefits for Lions, Land and People. The GWLPT continues to bring to the world important scientific data and leads calls for the legal protection of Panthera Leo, particularly the critically endangered sub-species, known as the White Lion.
The GWLPT is a non-profit organization situated on 4,400 acres of protected endemic bushveld. Their carefully phased, ground-breaking, scientific program has reintroduced three prides of White Lions, which have integrated with wild golden lions, all of whom now roam freely in their ancestral heritage lands.
In May 2021, the South African government announced that it intends to shut down the notorious Captive Lion Breeding industry. For Linda Tucker and the GWLPT, who have been campaigning against this industry for decades, this is a landmark moment. However, there is a long road ahead in dismantling an estimated 450+ captive breeding operations, housing over 11,000 stricken lions. As a leadership organization on the frontline of conservation today, the GWLPT is restoring the White Lions to their endemic heartlands and charting a way back to right relationship with our planet.
CoreLight leads retreats at the GWLPT, and Brad Laughlin is an occasional faculty member of its White Lion Leadership Academy. Please visit CoreLight’s events page for details of upcoming events.
CoreLight also accepts donations in USD on the Global White Lion Protection Trust’s behalf, and issues donors with a 501(c)3 certificate for tax deduction purposes in the US.
