Ranger training funded by the Wildlands Conservation Trust (Wildlands) for between 25 and 30 community rangers from three community owned reserves, Somkhanda, Tshnini, Usuthu Gorge, and the Dalton Private Nature Reserve, has provided practical skills for members of the community. It has also helped to entrench the concept of sustainable ecotourism with local people hoping to realize the benefits of reserves developed in the wake of land claims, and better protect the wildlife in these reserves against poaching. These communities derive direct benefit from ecotourism jobs in the reserves, and indirect benefits from related spending by tourists.
According to Wildlands Conservation Programmes Director, Dr Roelie Kloppers, the training is an NQF-accredited field ranger course presented by the Game Rangers Association of Africa. “The 25-day continuous course at Somkhanda covered all aspects of being a field ranger. The training was funded through Wildlands with US$100,000 donated by Paul Newman’s “Newman’s Own Foundation” (www.newmansownfoundation.org). To carry on the actor’s philanthropic legacy, Newman’s Own Foundation donates all net royalties and profits after taxes it receives from the sale of Newman’s Own products to charity. To date, Paul Newman and Newman’s Own Foundation have given over $300 million to thousands of charities around the world. Apart from covering the cost of the course, community rangers received a full kit including uniforms and equipment such as boots and binoculars. In addition, funding was also provided for on-going workplace training allowing rangers to gain essential skills over a one-year period.
Andre Botha, chairman of the Game rangers Association of Africa which subcontracted the training to one of its foremost providers, African Field Ranger Training Services, points out that it is vitally important to train new field rangers in a context where poachers are killing almost one rhino per day. “Given the level of threat to our wildlife, there will probably always be a place for these skills. We evaluate each individual to ensure the person is both physically and intellectually suitable, before we start with the actual course material,” Botha explains. The training itself focuses mainly on law enforcement, informing the new field rangers of what they are empowered to do, and operational skills such as bushcraft and tracking that enable them to enforce relevant legislation.
Saziso Ephraim Ndlovu, a Wildlands employee trained alongside the community rangers says the training was challenging. “We learned patrol and ambush tactics for day and night patrols, and gained knowledge of nature and how to protect it through poaching prevention. I would like to become a field ranger – I enjoy law enforcement and I’d like to help stop poachers from stealing our wildlife.”
Kloppers says training local community members as rangers is vital for the effective conservation of these areas. “Our philosophy is not simply to provide a local reserve with game, fences and some equipment,” says Kloppers. “We believe in ongoing partnerships to ensure that local communities have the capacity to maintain an area on their own before they are left to do so.”
Apart from paying rangers’ salaries on an ongoing basis, Wildlands also assists with fundraising and business models to enable communities to help themselves – as their capacity to do so is developed. Communities retain ownership of the land while learning to manage it better.
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)