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. Today this landscape holds around a quarter of Kenya’s entire population — and it is still growing. KWS leads the recovery; Tsavo Trust has supported it in the field, every day since 2013.

Our Support • 2013 – 2026

$5.62M

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 national recovery plan; WRTI guides the science. Tsavo Trust is one of the field partners KWS relies on to protect it — and everything we provide is at KWS’s request. Day after day, on the ground and in the air, we help keep this sanctuary secure.

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 radio room in the bush to one of the main hubs of the expanded sanctuary.

A Complete Support Package

Not isolated projects. Every component the programme needs.

An integrated, end-to-end field operation in support of KWS, spanning security, infrastructure, monitoring and daily logistics.

Aerial Security & Surveillance

A fleet of fixed-wing aircraft and an R44 helicopter. 3,317 dedicated rhino flight hours over 380,675 km, under KWS direction.

Ground Security & Monitoring

Seven mobile field teams. 869,907 km of rhino-area patrols, 11,530 snares removed, 1,700 arrests supported.

Infrastructure

Sanctuary headquarters and the three-phase field base, plus nine sand dams, boreholes, pipelines and watch towers.

Vehicles & Machinery to KWS

8 Land Cruisers, 2 intelligence vehicles, tractors, a water bowser, pumps and ongoing KWS fleet maintenance.

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.