Hwange National Park Buffer Zone - Painted Dog Conservation
The Wildlife Ranger Challenge 2021
Fundraising for Tusk Trust
Story
About the Wildlife Ranger Challenge:
Covid-19 has created a temporary safer world for Africa’s wildlife. But the floodgates are opening as the economic impacts of Covid drive more poaching. With tourism gone, the rangers who care for wildlife lack the resources to do their jobs. Painted Dog Conservation’s ranger teams are joining thousands of others across the continent taking part in the Wildlife Ranger Challenge, a series of physical and mental challenges, culminating in a 21km virtual race on Saturday 18th September.
You can join them! Show your support and sign up to run or walk with the community game scout team from wherever you are in the world: WildlifeRangerChallenge.org/registration. Now is the time to go the extra mile to support our rangers!
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Your contribution will help support 61 rangers and an estimated 200 livelihoods in and around the Hwange National Park Buffer Zone in Zimbabwe. Every dollar we raise via JustGiving will earn an additional 25% match!
Your donation also helps to unlock vital funds for other ranger teams across Africa; the Scheinberg Relief Fund will donate the equivalent of 75% of the amount raised to the Ranger Fund!
The role of rangers:
Anti-poaching units scouts carry out patrols on a daily basis throughout the Gwayi Conservancy and buffer zones surrounding Hwange National Park. These units work collaboratively with Hwange National Park and Forestry Commission officials in carrying out joint patrols and thus supplement the work of Zimbabwe's National Parks. With joint efforts and resources, their collective anti-poaching efforts can maximise efficiency and cover as large an area as possible - patrol areas are currently more than 10,000 square kilometres.
Impact that 2020 WRC had on Organisation & Rangers:
Funding for rangers allowed PDC to maintain their traditional level of anti-poaching unit deployment, which relies heavily on vehicles for rapid deployment and resourcing the scouts in the field.
Three active community volunteer anti-poaching units were established as a direct result of PDC’s community-based conservation efforts. The funding for the rangers enabled PDC to engage with these volunteer groups even more directly and reward them to carry out much-needed patrols to increase the protective footprint on the ground.
Ongoing effects of the pandemic:
Despite some breakthroughs in vaccines against Covid-19 most employers (these are mainly tourism) around Hwange are either still closed or operating at a minimum scale. Unemployment remains rife hence wildlife poaching has remained high. This is a result of both desperations from dwindling income opportunities for local people, and opportunity, with rangers unable to work in some protected areas, giving poachers more access.
How support in 2021 could help:
This request for emergency funding will support Painted Dog Conservation’s existing and long-running anti-poaching units to address the increased threat of poaching.
This said, we are painfully aware of the uncertainty of the impact that the pandemic can and will have on funding an organisation such as ours. Thus while the need to at least maintain if not increase anti-poaching efforts is desperately real, PDC is having to cut or at least be cautious with operational costs, which directly impacts APU deployment, leading to a reduction in the geographical area we can cover.
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Tusk Trust Limited is a charity registered in England and Wales, No: 1186533, and a company registered in England and Wales, No: 11948023.
In the US, “The Friends of Tusk Fund” donor advised fund is administered by CAF America (Tax ID 68-0480736)
Donors who pay tax in the UK can enhance their donation through Gift Aid, meaning that for every £10 raised, Tusk can recover an additional £2.50 for the cause from the UK Government.
US supporters wishing to make a tax deductible donation please click here.
Main photo courtesy of Painted Dog Conservation
