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 61 rangers and an estimated 610 livelihoods in and around the Charara Safari Area in Zimbabwe.

The role of rangers:

Rangers in the Charara Safari Area (1,692kms²) with the extent of its western shoreline formed by the vast Lake Kariba, are the front line of defence across a biodiverse-rich landscape along Zimbabwe’s Zambezi River hinterland. They patrol and carry out antipoaching operations within the Charara Safari Area, part of UNESCO's Middle Zambezi Biosphere Reserve and the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Area. This vital wildlife corridor between Middle and Lower Zambezi is critical for wildlife survival and particularly as human pressures increase in the area.

How your donation will help:

Your donation will go towards key aspects of keeping the wildlife protection effort underway:

*Regular interior patrolling and all-vital anti-poaching operations:  fuels

*Ranger patrol equipment, especially backpacks and boots.

*Provision of two patrol boats, with fuels, servicing and maintenance

*Training of four boat coxswains

*Rangers will receive six-month dry ration food packs as well as patrol equipment such as boots and rucksacks.

Effects of the pandemic:

The pandemic is starting to hit home in no small way in respect of the rapid rise of poverty levels. Usually, the protected areas generate livelihoods and gender-equal skills-learning opportunities for ranger communities through ecotourism as well strengthening those households’ resilience to risk.  Communities usually employed in tourism, safari hunting, recreational fishing, the houseboat industry, motorboat transport, island lodges, and more have been significantly compromised.  The rapid rise in snaring activity for bushmeat, in illegal gold panning and mining, large scale fishing, and other desperate activities point clearly to COVID-19 and the devastation it is leaving in its wake.

Fortunately, wildlife protection has been designated an essential service since the beginning of Zimbabwe’s COVID-19 lockdown and Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has maintained its patrolling and anti-poaching operations in its protected areas. Continued funding is at risk, however, for ranger resources such as solar powered infrastructure for water and energy, food security through vegetable gardens, patrol rations and equipment, boat and vehicle maintenance, fuel, and ongoing training in anti-poaching and spatial monitoring.

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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.

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