The Wildlife Ranger Challenge 2021
Kunene Region - Save the Rhino Trust is raising money for Tusk Trust
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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. Save the Rhino Trust’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 92 rangers and an estimated 500 livelihoods in and around the Kunene Region in Namibia. 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:
Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) and rhino ranger teams are deployed at strategic points in order to deter poachers and monitor the rhino population. The teams, after being dropped off in the field by vehicle, work on a patrol cycle - mostly foot based - of up to 20 days collecting important rhino data.
Each rhino sighting is verified by photo identification of the animal, a GPS way point and a completed rhino ID form. This information is regularly shared with the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism and is ultimately used to assist decisions related to national black rhino population management in Namibia.
Impact that 2020 WRC had on Organisation & Rangers:
2020 brought significant challenges. Being the only specifically rhino-related support NGO in the region, SRT was expected to send teams into areas which were, pre-COVID, frequented by rhino-tourism activities. Added to this was the reduction in donations to SRT from tourism partners and other partners.
2020 WRC provided critical funding which allowed us to continue to deploy our teams during this difficult time. Specifically, funding contributed to ranger's salaries as well as patrol incentive payments, helping to keep rangers motivated.
Without this support, 2020 would have been a much darker year indeed.
Ongoing effects of the pandemic:
Namibia's tourism sector remains in dire straits due to the pandemic. This affects SRT in two ways; conservancy rhino rangers are active in ~50% of rhino monitoring patrols and are paid using funding generated from tourism. We are unsure of whether conservancies will be able to pay their rangers in the second half 2021.
Secondly, the need to cover areas left vulnerable by the absence of rhino-tourism brings significant extra cost, placing more burden on SRT's resources and human capacity.
In 2020, after 2.5 years without a single reported rhino poaching incident we lost four animals in two incidents. The loss of these rhinos was devastating for SRT. While we are unable to relate the poaching directly to the pandemic we are aware that syndicates have taken advantage of lock-down measures imposed during most of 2020 and that continued economic hardships related to the pandemic are likely to increase poaching.
How support in 2021 could help:
During the past 36 years SRT has shown a direct link between an increase in patrol effort and a reduction in poaching. We believe that in order to keep poaching to a minimum it is critically important to keep teams in the field.
SRT's rangers are the front line of rhino conservation in north-west Namibia. WRC support will be used to maintain and increase patrol effort, ultimately ensuring these rhinos - the largest free ranging population on the planet - are kept safe.
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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 Marcus Westburg