About the Wildlife Ranger Challenge: 

COVID-19 has brought tourism revenue to a halt across Africa, threatening the important work and livelihoods of the rangers who protect iconic African wildlife such as elephants, pangolins, rhinos, lions, and more. Ranger teams are now uniting around the Wildlife Ranger Challenge, a running race with one goal: to raise money to support thousands of their fellow rangers. Now is the time to go the extra mile—it’s time to race to support our rangers. Every dollar donated will be matched by the Scheinberg Relief Fund, doubling your generous contribution.

Your contribution will help support 546 rangers and an estimated 5460 livelihoods in and around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

The role of rangers:

There are two groups of rangers in and around BINP
1. Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers who are mandated by the government to provide monitoring, surveillance and protection of BINP, its wildlife and resources.
2. Community scouts who are volunteer community members identified by UWA and trained as Human and Gorilla Conflict Resolution teams and Gorilla Guardians. These community scouts also help monitor the health of gorillas through routine observation of habituated gorillas and non-invasive collection of fecal samples for zoonotic disease analysis at the Gorilla Health and Community Conservation Centre.

The two organizations and groups of rangers and scouts already work very closely together and have a long-standing MoU in place. Their collective work is vital to the health and safety of BINP’s endangered mountain gorillas, reducing hunting and poaching, and building community trust in biodiversity conservation.

How your donation will help:

Additional funding will support improved surveillance and monitoring equipment for the UWA rangers, to help counter the increase in poaching—stealth cameras will help rangers identify and arrest poachers more easily. In addition, GPS devices will enable more accurate tracking and monitoring of gorillas to help in understanding their movements in and out of the park which would enable timely response to human and wildlife conflict and effective protection strategies. 

Funding would also help supply food and tents that will enable rangers to sleep near poaching hot spots together, with mobile toilets that will support prevention of zoonotic disease transfer. Community scouts will be provided with field items for enabling them to stay longer with the gorillas, including gum boots, rain gear, and food.

Effects of the pandemic:

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a total collapse of international tourism to Uganda, particularly in BINP, where a ban on primate tourism has halted the lucrative gorilla tracking activities. Frontline communities, previously heavily dependent on tourism for employment in lodges and income from sale of crafts, porter services, meals, accommodation and tourist related community experiences and products, have been plunged into poverty and desperation, creating an emergency situation for BINP, its wildlife and endangered mountain gorillas. Whilst gorillas are not poached for their meat in Uganda, they can become seriously, or fatally, injured by snares set to capture other wildlife or speared. 

On June 1, 2020, the lead silverback of Nkuringo habituated gorilla group was speared to death by bush-meat poachers. The only gorilla killing by poachers since 2011, this tragedy – the product of intensifying poverty as a result of the COVID-19 crisis – illustrates the urgent need for the project. Wide scale unemployment and loss of income, coupled with a massive decrease in tourism-generated funds for wildlife surveillance - UWA has cut its budgetary allocation to field operations by 50% to prevail through the revenue crisis  - subsequently placing BINP and its wildlife at serious risk. 

In addition to the threats posed by poaching and hunting, mountain gorillas, which share 98% of genetic material with humans, are at imminent threat of COVID-19 transmission and very urgent action is needed to reduce this possibility, including reducing the likelihood for humans to illegally enter the park. A COVID-19 outbreak amongst BINP’s gorillas could decimate the entire population, with long-term impacts for the species as well as the protection status and funding for the whole park.

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Tusk is registered with JustGiving in the UK (or GoFundMe.com in the USA). Our online fundraising sites allow you to create a sponsorship form with easy access for your supporters, knowing their money is going directly to Tusk. UK tax-paying donors can enhance their contribution by agreeing to Gift Aid their sponsorship (for every £10 you raise, Tusk will receive another £2.50 from the Government provided you are a UK taxpayer). US supporters wishing to make a tax deductible donation can do so via GoFundMe.com.