In 2009 The Ruaha Carnivore Project was established with the aim of gathering data on carnivore populations and reducing human-carnivore conflict. This is an area where the local communities are extremely poor and carnivores frequently attack villagers’ livestock causing extra financial difficulties for them.

Unfortunately this conflict has led to the highest recorded rate of lion killing in East Africa in modern times and support is needed to help reduce attacks and to encourage long term human-wildlife coexistence in this vital landscape. The Ruaha Carnivore Project is working hard to reduce these carnivore attacks by providing predator-proof livestock fencing and by starting the first trial of specialised guarding dogs in East Africa.

In addition they have developed a school-twinning programme, sponsored secondary school scholarships, provided medicines and equipment to rural clinics and subsidised veterinary medicines to local households. In addition, they have provided extensive education about wildlife through village DVD nights and visits to the Park which allow people (often for the first time) to see the wildlife in a non-threatening way.

This work with the local communities educating them about the need for conservation of wildlife has had great success with carnivore killings reduced by 80%. At the moment this work is only in 5 core villages, but the plan is to extend it across all 2 villages in the Ruaha landscape which should provide significant, long term benefits to both people and wildlife.

This vital work has led to the Project’s Director, Dr. Amy Dickman, being recognised by Prince William in the prestigious Tusk Conservation Awards and it would be wonderful to see the work of this essential project rolled out throughout Ruaha.

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Some of these smaller mammals have a saviour in the form of Lisa Hywood in Zimbabwe. In memory of her late father, the Tikki Hywood Trust was formed in 1994 and , although having done work with the larger mammals they are committed to promoting awareness, research and conservation of some of these lesser known species. These include the Aardwolf, the Bat Eared Fox, the Cape Pangolin, Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest, the South African Hedgehog and the Civet. They are also working with the vulnerable smaller cats such as the African Wild Cat, the Serval and the Genet. These are all threatened species and face extinction. Human encroachment, poaching and the use of insecticides all play a part in their demise.

The Cape Pangolin is a remarkable animal – shy, toothless, nocturnal and solitary, it is covered in scales which give the appearance of armour. Unfortunately, the Far Eastern market for these fascinating animals is immense and their meat is considered a delicacy believed to improve the health of kidneys! It is also believed that their scales, which are made of keratin like our fingernails and rhino horn, hold curative powers. But they are also under threat in their own environment as it is traditionally accepted that if you come across a pangolin it must be captured and presented to a chief.

Little or no research has been done into these fascinating animals mainly due to the fact that they are very elusive. But the Tikki Hywood Trust, working with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, have come to an arrangement to circumvent the death of these animals. So now all Pangolins brought to either The President or any person in authority are accepted so that cultural respect can be observed, but the animal is then relinquished to the Parks Authority who, in turn, hand it over to the Tikki Hywood Trust. The aim then is to assess each individual and create a programme for their rehabilitation and release.

This is but a small part of the remarkable and inspiring work the Trust is doing and conservation is not just about creating a safe haven for endangered species, but working closely with communities to provide the education needed that allows for humans to live in harmony with wildlife. Inspiring people like Lisa Hywood will ensure there is a future for these rare and often elusive animals and we are delighted to be able to bring the Tikki Hywood Trust to your attention.

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There are many ways of helping to conserve wildlife but one of the key African issues has to be community education – we need to help projects and charities the local get communities on side so that they see the value in the wildlife, through tourism and preserving the land. This is slowly starting to happen and nothing is more indicative of this than this wonderful video:

If every tribe and community thought in this way perhaps the poaching would start to slow down, however the issue of money is still at the forefront. The poaching fraternity can offer more money to a local tribesmen than any tourism body can, and this is where the wildlife conservationists have it tough – they have to persuade the communities to take less money (although some tourism ventures do see large amounts going to the community they lease the land off) and become conservationists themselves. We’ve probably all been in situations where ‘money’ has affected our decision and thought process, it’s human nature. But it is also human nature, in general, to be kind to fellow creatures and this is where the turning point has come from, the local communities do want to conserve wildlife, and they do see the value – sometimes, again this is still very much a work in progress and you will see that some of our projects work tirelessly with the community to reduce wildlife human conflict.

The loss of habitat is happening at a rapid rate in Africa due to areas not being preserved, or having the financial backing to be preserved – therefore agriculture creeps in and before you know it a once pristine wildlife area is now farms. Over population is world problem, not just an African one and the world is currently battling against this as immigrants desperately look for safer lands in Europe and every country fights against over crowding and lack of resources. Clearly this represents a key problem for the future of wildlife conservation, if the human population continues to grow in size then there will be no space for the wildlife, and there will be serious money required to try and defend it then – although we see this problem as a slightly less immediate one than the poaching / human wildlife conflict issue – maybe we’re wrong? What do you think?

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Madikwe in South Africa is probably the best fenced reserve in the world when it comes to anti-poaching, they have everything they need to save their rhinos, elephants, lion and wild dog from danger. Heavily armed guards, drones, sniffer dogs, helicopters, a well maintained impenetrable fence – they are used as an example to the rest of South Africa as to how to run a fenced reserve but is this the future of East Africa too, where the beauty of the experience comes from the feeling of true wilderness. This is why human wildlife conflict is high on our list of things to work on – if we can help those actually living with this wildlife in unfenced pristine areas of Africa then they will help us, and save the wildlife around them from poaching and harm, and that might just mean we don’t need a fence. Of course this still very much hangs in the balance and no one, including those working on the ground featured on this website can truly say which way the human / wildlife conflict will go. The next ten years are crucial.

Save African wildlife is a phrase that has been seen a lot recently in local press, but has anyone actually done anything – there have certainly been some strong opinions on both facebook and twitter, and we are still seeing huge rants of no consequence on all social media and within the press – we now need you to act, we need you to get behind those working on the ground to save the wildlife and donate to them – no matter how small or large your money will hit the problem right at the heart, and this is our aim. There will always be areas which need more help than others and we want to highlight those that desperately need help, and areas where you can truly make a difference. Africa has to remain wild, if we don’t have the African wilderness what do we have, if we let that go what remains. There are many other parts of the world facing similar problems for their wild areas – but Africa is a land so magical that it’s hard to even imagine, and that is why we can’t let it disappear and need to act now.

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The defenders of our wildlife are those on the ground every day, sitting deadly silent on a moonlit night for any sound or suggestion that a poaching gang is at work, working with the sniffer dogs tracking gangs for days on end through thick bush, never knowing when you might suddenly bump into a gang of poachers – on their side they have a shoot to kill policy from their governments, but you can know for sure that those poachers would rather kill a man than be caught. Many of these defenders of the wildlife are not paid huge amounts of money to risk their lives, but work fearlessly every day just because of their in-grown passion for their land and it’s wildlife.

Sean Hensman from Adventures with Elephants recently featured in a wonderful program about poaching presented by Africa addict, actor Tom Hardy. He proved conclusively after tracking Tom’s scent through the bush that his team of trained elephants could also be useful in anti poaching, their heightened sense of smell allowing them to track poachers further than the sniffer dogs currently used. But the money involved with setting up these kind of operations in other parts of Africa is vast, and then to put your beloved elephants in the line of poachers fire again would be too risky. The Mount Kenya Trust use horses for their patrols, something that seems most natural if you look back at the history of the use of horses in war – these brave animals when trained could be really useful for anti poaching units covering large areas of land.

Through this website you can now see a select group of anti poaching units which are helping to defend the wildlife privately, and you can see exactly what your money buys – you can donate to them and know that your money has truly helped a ranger or anti poaching scout, or an informer or researcher.

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