Growing the Pride: Disney Celebrates National Geographic’s Lion with Continued Support for Protect the Pride 

In 2019, the Walt Disney Company announced a global conservation campaign to raise awareness of the crisis facing lions and other wildlife across Africa. The Lion King “Protect the Pride” campaign focused on protecting and revitalizing the lion population, with Disney lending its support to the Wildlife Conservation Network’s (WCN) Lion Recovery Fund (LRF) and their vision to double the population of lions across Africa by 2050.   

Building on success from the campaign’s relaunch in 2024 celebrating Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, this month, Protect the Pride roars on. In celebration of the new National Geographic series, Lion, the Disney Conservation Fund continues support of the Lion Recovery Fund and the efforts of local communities to conserve lions on behalf of the world.   

Disney’s investment of more than $5M in the LRF to date has helped the fund expand its impact to support more than 400 conservation projects across 26 countries focused on stabilizing and recovering lion populations through locally led solutions. 

LRF supports organizations doing essential work to protect lions, enabling institutions large and small, international and local, to access funding to address the lion crisis. Projects have positively impacted lions across more than half their range in Africa, helping to protect habitats, prevent poaching, employ community members in sustainable livelihoods, and educate kids and families about coexisting peacefully with wildlife. 

These efforts have been guided by in-person gatherings hosted by WCN with support from Disney to bring together experts from a wide range of geographies and expertise to drive connection, collaboration, and strategies to help people and lions share landscapes safely, sustainably, and with mutual benefit. 

To join National Geographic and Disney in helping create a future where lions and communities thrive together across Africa, visit www.lionrecoveryfund.org.  And to inspire young people to learn even more about lions and their impressive role in our natural ecosystem, explore the free family activity packet celebrating National Geographic’s Lion. 

How Disney is Making an Impact for Lions 

$5+ million invested

Since 2019, Disney has contributed more than $5 million to support lion conservation through the Protect the Pride campaign. This support has helped employ thousands of people across Africa and brought together communities to co-develop solutions that benefit both people and wildlife. 

195 Conservation Leaders

Disney teamed up with the LRF to convene more than 100 leading conservation experts at the Lion Footprint Forum in 2019, the first meeting of its kind in 20 years, aimed at expanding collaboration to grow conservation impact for lions. A second Forum took place in 2025, bringing 95 participants together to advance strategies for human-lion coexistence.

105,607 snares

Thanks in part to the Protect the Pride campaign, at least 50 percent of the sites in which the LRF is investing show stable or increasing populations of lions. In addition, LRF support has helped remove 105,607 snares that could harm wildlife.

The Disney Conservation Fund has been a recognized leader in conservation efforts for decades and has worked with Wildlife Conservation Network for over 20 years. To date, Disney has invested more than $140M in global conservation efforts since 1995, and combined efforts to support lions through Disney’s The Lion King, Mufasa: The Lion King, and National Geographic’s Lion represent one of the biggest single-species wildlife conservation initiatives in Disney’s history.