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 donation will help an estimated 14 rangers and an estimated 150 livelihoods in and around Northern Tuli Game Reserve in Botswana.

Role of Rangers:

Anti-poaching units are tasked with protecting the conservation integrity of the reserve. Rangers use information gathered during patrols, night activities, and other field activities and use it to combat wildlife crime impacting the reserve.

Conservation areas are changing and developing all the time, forcing its’ custodians to be fluid, responsive, and forward thinking to face the real and significant challenges brought about by human population growth and the need for resources and land.

How a donation would help

Apart from ensuring that our rangers are kept employed, we are currently facing additional challenges due to the increased poaching and changing tactics.This requires us to up our capabilities through sourcing additional equipment, which will allow us the capacity to place a third ranger team into the field and cover more ground on an ongoing basis. It will also better equip us to stay out in the field for longer, enhance our night operation capabilities, and more effectively train team members to deal with the new challenges we face.

Effects of the Pandemic

Incident rates of both subsistence and commercial poaching of game meat has increased, and organised syndicate poachers are moving further into the reserve, where there is less surveillance, to poach game.

Subsistence poachers are keeping to riverine areas where they can keep watch over snares and have sentries in place. Illegal border crossing by smugglers has also increased dramatically, with mostly food being transported between RSA and Zimbabwe.

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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.