Wildlands and WWF-SA support ZAP Wing

The Rhino poaching crisis continues to plague South Africa, with more than 1050 Rhino already poached during 2014! KwaZulu-Natal is home to the second largest wild Rhino population left in Africa after the Kruger National Park (KNP). Over 3 000 White Rhino are found in northern KZN alone, spread out across a large number of provincial government, private and community owned game reserves. Because of this, no single, overall security plan can be implemented to protect every Rhino, but as the KNP intensifies its anti-poaching efforts, KZN is being increasingly targeted by poaching syndicates from both Mozambique and within SA’s borders.

It was therefore necessary to implement anti-poaching initiatives that can support both government and private/community game reserves to counter rhino poaching. The Zululand Anti-Poaching Wing (ZAP-Wing) is a good example of a region-wide anti-poaching intervention that benefits a large Rhino population spread over 300 000ha of government, private and community-owned reserves. It is also the first integrated Public-Private Partnership in South Africa to combat wildlife crime from the air: Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, 17 private game reserves and leading KZN-based conservation NGOs have joined forces to implement this intervention, which has been operational for the past 2 years. The conservation NGO sector continue to throw their full weight behind these initiatives. The Wildlands Conservation Trust and WWF-SA recently donated a much-needed vehicle to the coordinators and pilots of the ZAP-Wing programme, allowing a more efficient management of the programme. It is through collective action that we will win this battle against Rhino poaching.

African Wild Dog Population expands due to Conservation efforts on Somkhanda Game Reserve

Somkhanda Game Reserve, a 12 000 ha community owned reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal, managed by the Gumbi community and Wildlands Conservation Trust, has become part of conservation history yet again. A pack of five African Wild Dog were released onto the reserve over the past weekend (29/11/14), made possible by Wildlands through a project funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Global Nature Fund (GNF) and further supported by the Green Fund (Farming the Wild project), with the aim of increasing habitat for endangered species, whilst at the same time increasing the tourism potential of the reserve, ensuring financial viability over the long term.

The community and their leaders were part of the decision making process and hope that by having a population of these incredible animals the reserve will be placed on a firm footing to compete in the wildlife tourism market. Through KZN-WAG (the KwaZulu-Natal Wild Dog Advisory Group), a Wild Dog management plan was formulated to ensure that the reserve meets all the criteria for reintroducing a Wild Dog pack. This has been made possible through a strong partnership between the Gumbi community, Wildlands, Wildlife ACT Fund and the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Carnivore Conservation Programme, all doing their part to ensure a smooth introduction of this species.

The pack was first introduced into a boma on the reserve which was specifically designed for Wild Dog. The three females came from Madikwe in the North West Province and they were bonded with two males from Zimanga Game Reserve, also located in Zululand KZN. “By placing them in the boma before the release, the dogs have an opportunity to form a strong bond with each other which is vital for their success post release,” commented Mark Gerrard of Wildlands. “The reserve has gone through a period of restocking, with a number of antelope species being introduced through the BMZ project. This will ensure that there is sufficient prey on the reserve to sustain the pack of Wild Dog.”

On Saturday 29 November, members of the local Gumbi community, staff of the DBSA (Development Bank of Southern Africa) & DEA (Department of Environmental Affairs) Green Fund, Wildlife ACT Fund and Wildlands trustees arrived to witness the release of the Wild Dogs onto Somkhanda Game Reserve. This was a rather stressful time for the dogs, who, at first refused to leave the security of the boma, however, after leaving them alone and removing the disturbance, the dogs eventually moved out of the boma and onto the reserve, a first for a communally owned game reserve, and another lifeline given to this endangered carnivore.

The pack will be closely monitored by both Wildlife ACT’s full time monitoring team and tourists visiting the reserve through African Insights Science on Safari programme. “It is important that these animals are monitored closely over the next few months to ensure that they settle on the reserve,” said Dave Gilroy, Reserve Manager.

Fundraising efforts for the R204 000 needed for the monitoring of threatened species at Somkhanda for a year-long period are being coordinated by Different Life on its online charity crowdfunding platform, Different.org (http://different.org/projects/save-rhinos-dogs/). “We love the fact that along with its wildlife conservation objectives, Wildlands is passionate about partnering with local communities and empowering them to preserve and protect their environment in a sustainable way, and we want to help them increase their fundraising reach using our crowdfunding platform,” said Ryan Sobey of Different.org.

“We are so grateful to our partners and donors for their support – we really could not have done this without you. It is also extremely exciting to be able to contribute to the survival of the Wild Dog species,” concluded Gilroy.

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