Supporting Wildlife Rangers in South Luangwa

SUPPORTING [ WRITER: Besnart Manda ] [ PHOTOS: Conservation South Luangwa ] WILDLIFE RANGERS In South Luangwa

The Wildlife Ranger Challenge (WRC) is a multi-million-dollar fundraising initiative set up to support the male and female rangers from across Africa’s protected areas, who are enduring drastic cuts in salaries and resources due to the devastating economic impact of Covid-19, and yet are still working tirelessly to safeguard the continent’s wildlife.

Tusk and NATURAL STATE partnered with the Game Rangers Association of Africa, The Thin Green Line, and the International Ranger Foundation to launch this pan-African challenge so that rangers across Africa could raise funds that would help thousands of their colleagues, enable them to support themselves and their communities and to protect African wildlife such as elephants, pangolins, rhinos, and lions.

The Scheinberg Relief Fund, the amazing match-funding donor of the WRC, generously committed $1.35 million of matching funds in support of rangers to raise a total of $5 million and get thousands of rangers back to full capacity.

Last year Conservation South Luangwa participated in the challenge and raised $368,137. This was through our fundraising from many generous donors and 25% match-funding from the Scheinberg Relief Fund through Tusk. Every contribution, no matter how small, helped us reach this amount.

This support was critical to CSL at such a precarious time and because of it, and other support, we were able to keep all our rangers and scouts employed all year and keep wildlife poaching to a minimum. The funds that were raised were used to pay ranger salaries, provide anti-poaching patrol food rations and first aid, fuel for patrol deployment, and essential equipment.

Rachel McRobb, CEO CSL recently shared “We are not out of trouble yet as we fly in to the second half of 2021, and are still feeling the economic impacts from COVID-19, in some cases, even more so than in 2020. We are once again taking part in the Wildlife Ranger Challenge 2021 to raise funds and keep our rangers fully employed to protect the wildlife in South Luangwa Valley. Our team consists of four rangers who will be taking part in a 21km half-marathon carrying a 22kg backpack on the 18th of September, in solidarity with rangers across Africa.”

Our 2021 team is a combined team of DNPW and CSL rangers/scouts, who are all part of South Luangwa’s elite Quick Reaction Force (QRF) team. They are Ken Chanda - DNPW Wildlife Police Officer, James Phiri - CSL Community Scout, Ceaser Chenda - DNPW Wildlife Police Officer who is the only scout taking part for the second time in the WRC, and last but not least the experienced Sailota Kumwenda, a CSL Community Scout who graduated in 2007. The Scheinberg Relief Fund is matching all donations until the 30th of September. If you donate US$100, we will receive US$125, with another $75 going to The Ranger Fund to be distributed across Wildlife Ranger Challenge participating organisations. This helps channel funding where the need is greatest.

Please join us in protecting South Luangwa’s wildlife by:

- Donating to our 2021 Wildlife Ranger Challenge team so we benefit from the Scheinberg Relief Fund match-funding via our just giving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising conservation-south-luangwa-2021

- Registering to run or take part in the mini challenges. Find out more at wildliferangerchallenge.org/register

- Sharing the updates on social media and raising awareness of the Wildlife Ranger Challenge.

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