This organisation was founded back in 2003 by leading conservationist Lawrence Anthony where after his passing, it was renamed to “Lawrence Anthony Earth Organisation” to honor him. The mission statement of the organisation is as follows:

“The Lawrence Anthony Earth Organization is an independent, non-profit group which seeks to reverse the dwindling spiral of the plant and animal kingdoms and our environment through education and action.”

The organisation does not work alone all the time; it often collaborates with international environmental groups on projects of mutual interests. These projects include topics on rhino poaching, protecting wildlife in warzones and environmental education worldwide. To learn more, you can visit their official website.

Besides kicking off these projects, the organisation also played a vital role in establishing two different game reserves in Zululand and Kwa Ximba respectively. These two reserves were developed to involve remote African tribes in the conservation of their living space through wildlife tourism. By showing the locals that tourism brings economical benefits, they are more encouraged to sustain their surrounding wildlife and the African bush. Thus, poaching has been successfully reduced and is also currently viewed upon as socially unacceptable where they will be tried in the local Zulu court.

The establishment of these two reserves helped to create more employment opportunities for the local tribes people. For example, the Royal Zulu biosphere is the product of joining Thula Thula to Hluhluwe–iMfolozi Game Reserve. This required an extension of 3500 hectares of Thula Thula’s North West boundary into the other game reserve which was urgently required as the family of elephants that resided in Thula Thula was growing in size and thus, needed more space. After agreed collaboration with the five chiefs from the five surrounding tribes, the extension was allowed on the condition that there was an exchange of employment opportunities and skill development for the locals.