Tsavo West National Park

Helping to secure the future of Kenya’s black rhino

By the early 1980s, poaching had all but wiped out Tsavo’s black rhino. An incredible rhino conservation success story, led by KWS, has unfolded over the last four decades and today this landscape holds over quarter of Kenya’s black rhino population — and it is fast growing. KWS leads the recovery; Tsavo Trust has played a support role in the field, every day since 2013.

Our Support • 2013 – 2026

$6M

Invested by Tsavo Trust in support of the programme since 2013

25%

Of Kenya’s black rhino population lives in this landscape

2×

Growth in the free-ranging population under KWS-led protection

Since 2013

Continuous, unbroken field support to KWS

A National Stronghold

Tsavo West is one of the most important places on Earth for the eastern black rhino. It holds a Key 1 population of this critically endangered species (Diceros bicornis michaeli), the highest priority for its recovery in Kenya. In December 2025, the protected range was consolidated into the Tsavo West Rhino Sanctuary: a single 3,200 km² landscape, and now the largest rhino sanctuary in the world.

KWS leads, in line with the recovery and action plan for the black rhino in Kenya; WRTI guides the science. Tsavo Trust is one of the reliable field partners – day after day, on the ground and in the air.

This is long-term conservation at scale. Protecting a landscape this size is not a single project but a continuous, coordinated effort, one that depends on KWS’s leadership, sustained funding, and partners willing to commit for the long haul. What that support looks like in practice is set out below.

Building the IPZ Base

From a tin hut field outpost to one of the main hubs of the expanded sanctuary.

Rhino Support

Not isolated projects. Every day presence to support management.

A summary of field rhino support since 2013.

Aerial Surveillance

Two Super Cubs and a Cessna 182 fixed-wing aircraft and an R44 helicopter. Several thousand hours and hundreds of thousand kilometers covered to support this program.

Mobile De-snaring & Monitoring Teams (Tembo Teams)

Seven mobile field teams. Each with a dedicated vehicle and equipment. Patrol effort has translated into over one million kilometers of patrols, several thousand snares removed, and several hundred arrests supported.

Infrastructure

Two field sanctuary bases and the three-phase field base, plus nine sand dams, two boreholes, pipelines, watch towers and road maintenance.

Vehicles & Machinery donated to KWS rhino projects

8 Land Cruisers, 2 intelligence vehicles and water pumps.

Rhino Monitoring & Capture

Individual rhino identification, monthly reports to KWS & WRTI, five ear-notching and transmitter-fitting exercises, and ten years of the annual night censuses.

Ranger Uniforms & Equipment

1,200 complete KWS ranger uniforms, 400+ camera traps, GPS units, scopes, binoculars, solar power and communications equipment.

Tourism & Sustainable Financing

Construction of a rhino viewing platform generating tourism revenue for KWS, plus fundraising missions since 2016 – which has attracted over 10 new financing partners to the rhino space through Tsavo Trust.

Administrative & Daily Support

One 4x4 water bowser, two tractors and trailers, monthly fuel allocations, Starlink internet connection for the field base, ranger welfare support, and sanctuary Needs Assessment workshops.

Human Wildlife Conflict Mitigation

33 kilometer elephant exclusion fence, fencing models within adjacent communities, predator proof bomas, HWC community meetings and workshops, consistent responses to HWC needs.

Community Partnerships

Rhino conservation extends beyond the Park boundaries. Tsavo Trust holds a formal partnership with the County Government of Makueni, a formal relationship with the Taita Taveta Wildlife Conservancies Association and a stewardship role with Kamungi Conservancy on the northern boundary of Tsavo East. Each anchors work across the wider landscape that Tsavo's rhinos depend on.