National Geographic has created an emergency fund to help avert a potential conservation disaster: the complete loss of lions in and around Amboseli National Park, one of Kenya’s most important tourist destinations. As they teeter on the brink of extinction, these lions do not have the luxury of time. The decline in the lion population in this region has reached a critical status that needs addressing on a major scale.

In partnership with Explorers-in-Residence Beverly and Dereck Joubert, filmmakers and conservationists who have worked in some of Africa’s most remote wildlife areas for more than 25 years, National Geographic is committed to this urgent conservation issue. In addition to the fund, National Geographic is providing an emergency $150,000 grant to the Maasailand Preservation Trust, co-led by Richard Bonham and Tom Hill. The grant will aid the trust’s Predator Compensation Fund, which provides compensation to local Maasai herdsmen for livestock killed by lions in and around Amboseli National Park.