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 106 rangers and an estimated 530 livelihoods in and around Kafue National Park in Zambia.

The role of rangers:

The Department of National Parks and Wildlife rangers, supported by Game Rangers International, are on the front line in the defence of wildlife and wild spaces across the Greater Kafue Landscape. 

Rangers patrol by foot, vehicle, and boat, with Specialised Anti-Poaching Units that react to intelligence to inform operations. All of these operations deter illegal activity, apprehend poachers, sweep for snares and assist with prosecutions. They are also on hand to deal with instances of human-wildlife conflict, helping protect both wildlife and communities.

How your donation will help:

Additional funding would allow Game Rangers International to fully support one team of the Nkala Anti-Poaching Unit. This would include training, equipment, rations, and operational support for the unit, as well as financial support for the rangers. This includes salary support, recovery and performance incentives, and medical insurance.

At a time when poaching is on the rise with no end in sight, it is more critical than ever to the protection of Kafue’s wildlife that Ranger operations do not decrease. The result of ceasing support for the rangers would be catastrophic.

Effects of the pandemic:

The pandemic has exacerbated issues of human-wildlife conflict, including poaching. Firstly, as a result of increased pressure on the economy, focus and funding is shifting away from efforts to limit encroachment, allowing human presence to increase in the area. Secondly, financial support for law enforcement efforts is declining both from governmental and charitable sources. Thirdly, a significant decrease in tourism has created a reduced presence in the area and has increased pressure on local incomes, both of which directly result in increased poaching and increased human-wildlife conflict. To illustrate the scale of the problem, it is estimated that the Zambian Government will have lost $90m in tourism revenue by the end of 2020.

All of this leads to an increase in workload for the already overstretched rangers. Even in the last few months, there has been an increase in apprehensions, as well as the average size of bush meat confiscation —indicating that the pressures described above are already having an impact. According to most models and evidence, Zambia is still some months away from its peak, so this problem will continue to worsen.

As this continues, operations will have to be scaled back and financial support to some of our rangers will have to decrease, or cease altogether. As well as the obvious impact this will have on communities, a further effect will be that there are fewer conservation law enforcement operations at a time when poaching is on the increase, resulting in devastating consequences for wildlife.

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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.