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 6 rangers and an estimated 60 livelihoods in and around the Mau Eburu Forest Reserve in Kenya.

The role of rangers:

Community scouts work together with rangers drawn from both the Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya Forest Service and are equipped with GPSs, digital cameras, a Land Cruiser 4X4 vehicle and camping gear, enabling them to conduct patrols deep inside the forest for up to two weeks. 

During the patrols, teams target illegal activities such as logging, charcoal kilns, snaring, and wildlife trapping. They also monitor wildlife abundance and distribution, gather intelligence information, participate in forest fire fighting.The team also responds to local intelligence reports to enact dark sting operations to catch would-be wildlife or forestry criminals. 

How your donation will help:

Due to budget constraints brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, foot patrols have been reduced to one day per month and de-snaring operations have been reduced as well. Activities may be suspended altogether if the financial situation is not improving.

Additional funding will allow foot patrol and de-snaring operations in Eburu to the level they were before COVID-19.

Effects of the pandemic:

COVID-19 has impacted tremendously on the financial situation of Rhino Ark, and our forest conservation partners. Law enforcement; maintenance and construction of perimeter wildlife fences; and community engagement activities have been reduced. For example, The Rhino Charge, the main source of funding for Rhino Ark, has been postponed forcing the charity to reduce its core programming budgets and staff salaries. Tourist revenue for the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has dropped by 96%, triggering budget cuts to government forest security programmes. As a consequence, alpine forests have been left under-manned and under-protected.

At the same time, rural people have experienced a COVID-19-related economic collapse, leading to reduced livelihoods. To compensate for these losses in incomes, there has been an increased number of individuals entering the forest to engage in illegal activities.

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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.