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.

The role of rangers:

Rangers provide crucial protection to wildlife in this area including critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable species. The rangers are dedicated to wildlife protection and protection of community natural resource assets alongside and in support of the government. They are local people with local knowledge working in their own communities under the command of the government, and are well equipped and trained to combat wildlife poaching. These rangers are at the coal face of wildlife protection 24/7. As a result of their efforts the landscape has seen a 96% drop in the number of elephants killed for ivory in Northern Rangelands Trust member conservancies since 2012.

How your donation will help:

Funding would be used to continue paying salaries for rangers in the field. This support will enable their continued deployment and continuity of community led conservation efforts. At a household level, every salary also provides critical livelihood support to the families of our rangers.

Effects of the pandemic:

Due to its remoteness and the long-term insecurity of the region, northern and coastal Kenya has received little governmental and institutional conservation support to protect its exceptional biodiversity. The species protection provided by community conservancy rangers is the only reliable and consistent anti-poaching intervention in the region. Should the deployment of these rangers be discontinued, even in the short term, wildlife poaching will intensify and the remaining populations of endangered and critically endangered species in this area will be lost, affecting the probability of continued existence of these species in the wild as a whole.

The salaries and rations of the 91 community conservancy rangers protecting wildlife in the region are funded by grants and donations to NRT. However, tourism has ceased and grant and donation funding to NRT has been disrupted and delayed following the COVID-19 global health crisis. This has presented an urgent funding emergency and rapid intervention is needed to fund ranger salaries and rations for the second half of 2020 to ensure continued community anti-poaching operations. There has been an increase in frequency and quantum of bushmeat poaching in the landscape, although ivory and rhino poaching has been contained while the rangers are still being fully deployed.

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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.