This World Lion Day, Disney Shares Latest Efforts Supporting Lions and other Species

Environmental Sustainability & Nature

August 10, 2025

In honor of World Lion Day, the Disney Conservation Fund is proud to share its latest efforts in lion recovery and other important conservation milestones during its 30th anniversary

The Disney Conservation Fund is celebrating its 30th anniversary all year long with new grants and inspiring success stories. DCF grantees have helped protect more than 1,000 species of wildlife and provided millions of awe-inspiring nature experiences to kids and families around the world. The momentum continues this summer with support and celebration of impactful initiatives to protect wildlife, inspire action, and promote environmental resilience.

Protecting Wildlife

Lion Recovery

Last December in celebration of Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, Disney relaunched the global “Protect the Pride” conservation campaign to support the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Lion Recovery Fund (LRF) and LRF’s partners working across Africa to double the number of lions in the wild by 2050.

Building on the campaign’s momentum, and with support from the Disney Conservation Fund, WCN recently hosted a Lion Footprint Forum in Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls to celebrate progress since the first Forum held at Walt Disney World in 2019, and discuss how people and lions can continue to share landscapes safely, sustainably, and with mutual benefit.

Across 95 participants from 68 organizations, the messages were clear: the benefits of the Lion Recovery Fund are reaching communities, habitats, and wildlife across Africa in a meaningful way, but there is more work to be done. Attendees agreed on the need to expand efforts promoting coexistence between people and lions, particularly in the many areas that have not yet been reached by conservation programs.

In a field of work that can be lonely and difficult, attendees left energized, connected, and with fresh strategies to collaboratively address key challenges facing people and lions today.

Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation

Disney and Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE), an organization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), are celebrating the rewilding of four critically endangered female Grauer’s gorillas rescued from the illegal wildlife trade. This is the first time GRACE sanctuary gorillas have been reintroduced to the wild, marking the largest-ever population reinforcement initiative in Africa.

The rewilding aims to prevent the extinction of the Grauer’s gorillas’ isolated population on Mt. Tshiaberimu in Virunga National Park. As their habitats in Africa are starting to disappear, these gentle giants continue to face threats like poaching, deforestation and infectious diseases.

Disney’s involvement with GRACE dates back 15 years to the center’s founding, when support from the Disney Conservation Fund and expertise from Disney cast members helped fund, design, and build the sanctuary. Disney cast members continue to support GRACE’s Congolese staff by lending their expertise to advise on care, conservation, and education outreach.

Grants from the Disney Conservation Fund support are helping leading conservation organizations around the world like GRACE to stabilize and increase the population of at-risk animals.

Inspiring Action: Disney Supports Global Expansion of Great Reef Census

The Disney Conservation Fund is supporting Citizens of the Reef’s Great Reef Census, one of the world’s largest citizen science programs in ocean conservation, to enable global expansion beyond Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to other reef geographies including Hawaiʻi.

In collaboration with local nonprofit Kuleana Coral Restoration, The Great Reef Census conducted in-water surveys and collected reef imagery from O’ahu, Hawai‘i Island, Maui and Kauai to create datasets for volunteer analysis. Assisted by cutting-edge AI, everyday people can now help identify coral types to deliver highly accurate and rapid data to local marine scientists and reef managers.

This global expansion comes at a critical time for reefs worldwide, as coral reefs in more than 54 countries and territories have experienced mass bleaching events since February 2023, causing massive decline in coral cover, according to The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“To drive conservation at the scale now required for reefs around the world, we need to mobilize local reef communities, leading scientists, and people power to target and act on the best places for intervention and conservation impact. The significant support from Disney in scalable marine conservation will be a gamechanger for the Great Reef Census, enabling the project to go beyond the Great Barrier Reef to reefs around the world,” says Andy Ridley, CEO of Citizens of the Reef.

Disney has supported the Great Reef Census project since 2021, and Disney VoluntEARS from around the world have helped analyze tens of thousands of coral reef images. The 2024 campaign was the largest virtual volunteer event in Disney’s history, with more than 18,000 analyses completed by Disney VoluntEARS from 81 locations worldwide.

See more from the project launch day at Disney’s Aulani Resort & Spa here.

Environmental Resilience: Disney Helps Protect the Florida Wildlife Corridor

The Disney Conservation Fund awarded $1 million to the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation during the Florida Corridor Connect Summit at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort to help protect and share the magic of nature across the state. 

The sprawling interconnected network of natural habitats that makes up the Florida Wildlife Corridor stretches across nearly 18 million acres of Florida, offering a lifeline for wildlife and endangered species like the Florida panther, black bear, and manatee. These corridors are also critical for the state’s environmental health, strengthening resilience against storms, protecting water quality and offering recreation opportunities that benefit the wellbeing of Florida communities. And Walt Disney World is a key part, acting as a crossroads that connects east and west coast animal migration patterns and offering a safe space for species to move and thrive. 

The donation will fund conservation efforts by training and coordinating local partners to protect key areas of the Corridor. It will also fund the expansion of access to these beautiful spaces, especially in communities where access is limited. By supporting new trailheads and public entry points, conservation groups hope to make nature more accessible to all Floridians, helping them connect with and appreciate the state’s wild beauty.