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 44 rangers and an estimated 308 livelihoods in and around the Mariri Concessions at the Niassa Special Reserve in Mozambique.

The role of rangers:

The Mariri scouts consist of five teams that patrol the community based Mariri concession in the middle of the Niassa Special Reserve. These teams monitor local traders and fishermen while protecting the area from elephant and bushmeat poachers, illegal gold miners, and logging. In 2019 these teams patrolled a total of 27,700 kilometres on foot across Niassa's vast Miombo woodlands. They also assist with fire management, ecological monitoring, and elephant and buffalo conflict around the Mbamba village, a community of approximately 2,000 people living inside the reserve.

Effects of the pandemic:

The community-based tourism trails camp at Mpopo Island remain closed for 2020 and all schools/teacher visits to the Mariri Environmental Centre were cancelled. The environmental education team has switched to COVID-19 awareness campaigns. Craft groups have been producing face masks instead of traditional curios. Social distancing and travel restrictions imposed with longer leave schedules. The 14,400 days of seasonal work for Mbamba village has been concentrated on community development and human-wildlife conflict mitigation (digging elephant trenches etc) to reduce movement between camps.

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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.