Support those on the Front Lines of Wildlife Conservation

The COVID-19 crisis has increased risks to already vulnerable wildlife conservation efforts.

With tourism shutdown across most of Southern Africa for the foreseeable future, staff are laid off, anti-poaching units underfunded, and most research and management have come to a screeching halt. Many of these activities are funded through ecotourism revenues, conservation levies, and general donations.

With little traffic through these areas, poaching, both organized crime for rhino horn and ivory, and subsistence poaching for bush meat has increased. There is a distinct need for increased presence of anti-poaching units (APUs), feeding schemes to reduce desperation in villages surrounding wildlife areas, and to keep research and management efforts going.

The COVID-19 crisis shows the interconnection of the issues we work on, such as wildlife conservation, food security, and forced migration. We’ll be sharing more about this on our blog in the coming weeks.

Your support will make a difference for Africa’s wildlife, wild spaces, and rural communities. It is vital that communities see value in wildlife alive more than dead.

The following is a list of organizations that were doing amazing work pre-COVID-19 and need our help to continue their work.

In the meantime, please consider supporting these organizations:

Project Rhino – This multifaceted organization is involved in many aspects of conservation and rural community support. From anti-poaching units, to RhinoArt programs for rural youth, to food security, they do it all and are a very strong organization.

Click here for more information on Project Rhino.

Click here to support general Project Rhino efforts.

Click here to learn more and watch a video about their specific COVID-19 Campaign.

Zululand Conservation Trust – In addition to their regular conservation work, this exceptional organization is also providing COVID-19 relief meals to rural communities surrounding wild spaces, helping to prevent desperation, which leads to increased poaching.

Click here for more information on the Zululand Conservation Trust.

Click here to support the Zululand Conservation Trust.

WildlifeACT – WildlifeACT’s unique business model fills a gap between a wildlife reserve’s capacity for management and research and the need that exists. They run voluntourism programs and student programs to finance ongoing research and management in several reserves in Southern Africa. They have particularly exciting wild dog and vulture programs, but do everything from community food support to wildlife tracking and monitoring. As their main revenue source relies on tourism and open borders, their ongoing management and research programs are massively constrained.

For more information on WildlifeACT, click here.

For their specific COVID-19 plan and campaign, click here.

Zululand Rhino Orphanage – Sadly, the need for rhino orphanages is only likely to increase during and after the COVID-19 crisis. Rhino poaching is one of the most horrendous and barbaric exploits of humankind. This terrible reality makes the need for this organization absolutely dire, as it fights to save the traumatized orphans of a critically endangered species.

For more information about the Zululand Rhino Orphanage, click here.