Our Grantees
Rhinos Without Borders
Rhinos Without Borders is an ambitious initiative aimed at ensuring rhinos thrive in the wild in Africa. Through Project Ranger, Rhinos Without Borders is protecting populations of wild rhinos in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.
Project Rhino
Project Rhino is an association of leading conservation agencies, state and community game reserves, rhino owners and anti-poaching specialists working together to conserve South Africa’s wildlife. Project Ranger is supporting Project Rhinos critical equine patrol units ensuring the horseback rangers can monitor and protect rhinos in South Africa.
Soralo
SORALO believes in maintaining a healthy connected landscape for people and wildlife in Kenya’s South Rift. Through support from Project Ranger, SORALO is able to keep wildlife rangers and scouts on patrol, protecting the fragile ecosystem.
Uganda Conservation Foundation
Uganda Conservation Foundation (UCF) is a not for profit organization which is dedicated to protecting Uganda’s national parks, protected areas and conservancies. Project Ranger’s support has bolstered UCF’s abilities to preserve and protect areas in Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls National Parks.
Enduimet
The Enduimet Wildlife Management Area was established in 2005 with the goal of encouraging participation of rural communities and other stakeholders in taking joint responsibility for and investment in the sustainable management of wildlife and other natural resources. Project Ranger is supporting EWMA’s patrol rangers ensuring the charismatic species that call it home are protected.
Conservation South Luangwa (CSL)
Conservation South Luangwa (CSL) has been working in the South Luangwa National Park for over 17 years. CSL provides direct anti-poaching patrol support, employs community scouts and supports law enforcement efforts as well as offering training, equipment, aerial surveillance, veterinary support and human-wildlife conflict mitigation programs. Covid-19’s arrival meant that a significant pool of funding from tourism that pays community scouts salaries disappeared overnight. Project Ranger’s support has helped to ensure CSL scouts remained employed and able to safeguard South Luangwa’s iconic wildlife.
Pit-Track
Pit-Track K9 Conservation and Anti-Poaching Unit is a South African non-profit specialising in using K9’s and their passionate and disciplined handlers to protect endangered species in the Kruger National Park area (among others). Project Rangers support has allowed them to maintain their operations and avoid staff furloughs in one of South Africa’s key wildlife conservation areas.
Peace Parks Foundation
Thousands of livelihoods have been lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic in both Mozambique and South Africa, resulting in an increased reliance on illegal activities among communities living alongside the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP) on both sides of the border. Support from Project Ranger maintains a 12-man team in Mozambique tasked with reacting to incursions and responding to intelligence provided by Kruger National Park rangers, working to halt a potentially exponential increase in poaching of both white and black rhino.
Gorilla Doctors
Gorilla Doctors is dedicated to conserving mountain and eastern lowland gorillas through veterinary medicine and science. The current COVID-19 pandemic poses a very real threat both because mountain gorillas are susceptible to COVID-19 infection but also because of the pandemic’s impact on tourism. When COVID-19 halted tourism, communities surrounding Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga National Parks in Uganda experienced a significant drop in income. Out of desperation to feed families, illegal poaching in gorilla parks has increased during the pandemic culminating in the tragic death of silverback Rafiki in Bwindi in 2020. Support from Project Ranger has allowed Gorilla Doctors to continue its essential work in Uganda.
Conservation Lower Zambezi
Conservation Lower Zambezi (CLZ) is a non-profit committed to protecting the Lower Zambezi in Zambia which comprises almost 20.000km2of National Park and community-owned Game Management Area. Since its humble beginnings, CLZ’s work has grown to include not only support to DNPW but also an Environmental Education Programme, a Community Scout Unit, a Community Engagement Programme, a K9 anti-poaching unit and a Rapid Response Unit. CLZ is supported in large part by tourism operators based in the Lower Zambezi who have been seriously impacted by COVID-19. Project Ranger was able to help CLZ bridge the gap in their budget resulting from lost tourism revenue and allow them to keep ranger boots on the ground during the pandemic.
Bumi Hills Anti-Poaching Unit
The Bumi Hills Foundation is a non-profit organisation based on the shores of Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe and dedicated to conservation through anti-poaching and community empowerment. Loss of wildlife and environmental degradation is directly linked to the lack of social and economic opportunities for the local population and Covid-19 has only exacerbated that plight. Since early 2020 Bumi Hills APU has experienced an almost complete loss of bed night levies from tourism that directly support rangers salaries. Support from Project Ranger will help maintain those ranger salaries through 2021.
Conservation and Wildlife Fund – Hwange
The Conservation and Wildlife Fund (CWF) is a non-profit trust formed in 2017 to a 4300km2 area at the eastern boundary of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. Its goal is to help communities and wildlife to thrive and support sustainable human-wildlife co-existence. CWF is supported in the majority by tourism operators and its operating budget was seriously curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Project Ranger’s support has enabled CWF to keep their community scouts employed and patrolling by supporting wages and rations.
ICCN
The Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) is the government entity that manages the National Parks and protected areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Through a partnership with the Maisha Group, a key partner of the ICCN, Project Ranger provided a grant for the establishment of a centralized communication and information center for the ICCN. The center will now provide digital tools to investigate cyber crime and aggregate and analyse data from the field to allow significant anti-poaching and wildlife crime law enforcement actions on a national scale.
Bushlife Conservancy
Bushlife Conservancy (BC) is a nonprofit that is dedicated to the protection of African wildlife for future generations in Mana Pools and the lower Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe. The region is at high risk for wildlife poaching activities because of Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) limited resources. The threat to wildlife has been further amplified during the COVID pandemic, leaving both Zimparks and Bushlife’s partner safari camp without funding from tourism and local people desperate. Bushlife provides operational and logistical support to ZimParks as well as employing its own scouts to increase the wildlife monitoring coverage of the area. Project Ranger’s support has allowed Bushlife to maintain and amplify its presence in the eastern part of Mana Pools, a particularly vulnerable section of the National Park.
ATS-K9
Anti-Poaching Tracking Specialists (ATS) is an award-winning rhino protection, anti-poaching, anti-trafficking and wildlife security organization based in Save Valley Conservancy (SVC). Save is one of Zimbabwe’s three, critical strongholds for rhino and home to 25% of Zimbabwe’s black rhino population. Under the protection of ATS, the black rhino population in SVC has seen a growth rate of 7.6% year-on-year (and 10% for white rhino), outstanding results given the environment and lack of resources. The ATS team includes a K9 unit of 11, world class, Malinois dogs and their handlers. Project Ranger has provided several months of salary and operational support to the K9 Unit to allow them to maintain their comprehensive efforts to protect and secure this strategic and biodiverse concession.
Mother Africa Trust
Mother Africa Trust (MAT) operates in and around wildlife areas of Matopos National Park and Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe to protect local wildlife and to support local communities. MAT’s Anti-Poaching Unit undertakes anti-poaching operations in the 6000-acre Ivory Lodge Concession, a buffer between Hwange National Park and communal areas. They remove snares, apprehend poachers and maintain trail cameras. The APU also play an active role in the construction of lion proof bomas, as well as in clean-up campaigns and community anti-poaching outreach campaigns. They APU are a committed workforce that understands the importance of a healthy ecosystem and work tirelessly to ensure that the community will continue to benefit from ecotourism in the future. Project Ranger’s support to MAT supported salaries and training including for a new female ranger unit.
