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. African People & Wildlife is taking part in the Wildlife Ranger Challenge, a running race with one goal: to raise money to support thousands of rangers across Africa. Now is the time to go the extra mile to support our rangers!

On October 3rd, the community game scouts will compete in a half marathon to help raise much-needed funding for Africa’s rangers. 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.

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Your contribution will help support six rangers and an estimated 60 livelihoods in and around the Tarangire Ecosystem in Tanzania. 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 the community game scout team:

African People & Wildlife supports a team of community game scouts from Loibor Siret, a community adjacent to Tarangire National Park. During this challenging time, the scouts remain hard at work patrolling four areas totaling 914,289 acres of critical habitat along the park’s eastern borders. The efforts of these dedicated game scouts are essential to conservation efforts in the landscape. The team provides rapid response to human-wildlife conflict events; engages communities in important outreach activities; conducts twice-monthly wildlife counts; searches for lost livestock and people; helps stranded or snared animals; fights illegal activities like deforestation and charcoal production; thwarts poaching; and helps to break up wildlife supply chains and organized crime rings.

How your donation will help:

Your donation will be used to support community game scouts in three key areas. 

• The first area includes emergency community outreach activities. During the pandemic, the role of the Community Game Scouts is particularly important. As trusted community members, they are increasing their outreach to rural families, continuing community service activities, and providing public-health related education.
  
  
• The second area involves increasing patrolling activities. This includes conducting routine patrols; responding to incidents of human-wildlife conflict, rescuing lost livestock and/or missing herders; responding to reports of poaching and other illegal incidents; and conducting routine wildlife counts.
  
  
• The third area involves working with a rapid response team of Tanzania National Parks Authority rangers to define a set of emergency pandemic protocols. These protocols help to establish the conditions under which the Community Game Scouts should request support during specific incidents and/or situations.