Tarangire Ecosystem - African People & Wildlife
Community Game Scouts
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 the pandemic threaten to drive more poaching. With tourism gone, the rangers who care for wildlife lack the resources to do their jobs. The African People & Wildlife-supported community game scout team is joining thousands of other rangers across the continent 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 11 rangers and an estimated 109 livelihoods in and around the Tarangire Ecosystem in Tanzania. 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:
African People & Wildlife supports a team of community game scouts from Loibor Siret, a community adjacent to Tarangire National Park. During this challenging time, the scouts are hard at work patrolling 700,000 hectares of critical habitat along the park’s eastern borders. The efforts of the scouts are essential to conservation in the landscape. The team provides rapid response to human-wildlife conflicts; engages communities in conservation; conducts wildlife counts; searches for lost livestock or people; helps stranded or snared animals; fights illegal activities like deforestation, charcoal production, and poaching; and helps break up wildlife supply chains and organized crime rings.
Impact that 2020 WRC had on Organisation & Rangers:
The WRC enabled African People & Wildlife to maintain a fully functional community game scout team - bringing their effort back up to 100% - at a time when patrols were critical. Recently, we have also been able to increase the team size with WRC support. The resumed activity of the scouts has made a critical contribution to depressing poaching incidents. During the course of their work, the community game scouts have observed 20 unique species with an abundance of over 9,300 animals.
Ongoing effects of the pandemic:
The pandemic brought Tanzania’s tourism industry to a standstill, impacting two of our key stakeholders – rural communities and the Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA). The tourism industry in Tanzania is generally wildlife-based and concentrated in the northern part of the country. When the tourist economy collapsed due to the pandemic, many communities suffered a significant loss of revenue. Additionally, TANAPA was forced to make budget cuts, including reducing support for ranger patrols. The overarching concern is that the pandemic is leading to increasing unemployment and consequent increases in motivation to partake in illegal activities.
Since the pandemic began, the Community Game Scouts have responded to poaching and numerous human-wildlife conflict incidences. In addition, data collected by African People & Wildlife between 2015 and 2020 show that the number of attempted retaliation killings against lions in certain landscapes has risen sharply since the beginning of the pandemic.
How support in 2021 could help:
It is absolutely critical to keep boots on the ground in 2021, particularly while the devastating impacts of the pandemic continue to negatively impact the conservation sector in Tanzania. In a time of limited resources and increased threats to habitat and wildlife, cooperation between the different patrol teams in the Tarangire ecosystem is essential. To support neighboring ranger teams and cover gaps in patrol areas, we plan to increase the land covered by the community game scouts while also providing them with continued training, improved communications and increased vehicular support, and enhanced rapid-response protocols.
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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.
Photos courtesy of Erika Piñeros
