How did you get involved with GCC?
I have been with GCC from the very beginning. My brother Eli worked as a cheetah keeper in Namibia where he met Matt Lindenberg (GCC’s Founder), who was doing his masters there. Matt started talking to my brother about this film project he was working on called Rhino Man. My brother suggested that he talk to me as I am in film production. We set up a crowd-funding account and raised more than 12,000 dollars to get it off the ground. We have actually done a couple more Kickstarter campaigns since and raised even more money that has given us an influx of capital over the years to complete Rhino Man which will bring awareness to the work of the rangers.

Did you always want to work in the humanitarian space?
I studied film as an undergraduate and during those years I went to the Middle East to do a mini-documentary in Cairo. I ended up staying for two years and working in the humanitarian space. I was blown away by that world. I continued my studies through distance learning and returned to the US for exams. So I have a degree in business management with a specialty in non-profit. I was fascinated by how we can use business to make the world a better place.

You also work for Friendly Human; can you tell us about this?
Friendly Human really lives up to its name with values to be friendly and
human. We make around 1500 videos per year. Content is key. Some of our projects have 40 videos each, so lots of content. We specialize in authentic human storytelling to show the value of what our clients do.

What is the link between Friendly Human and GCC?
Friendly Human got involved with Rhino Man, so I have been working on the documentary from the beginning. Matt was studying for his Masters in Michigan and when he graduated, he didn’t know where to go, so he came to work for us making films at the same time as working on Rhino Man. He was with us for three and a half years and produced the most videos of all our producers. We have been working together ever since.

What is your role there?
I am Friendly Human’s Chief Operating Officer. The company was started 10 years ago by my great friend Daniel. I was already in the non-profit space, starting my own non-profit when I was 21 years old, and working to provide clean water in Haiti, and Peru. I stayed in touch with Daniel over the years and several years after the recession in the United States hit, he offered me a job. I work on processes and bringing the right people together to make strong and effective teams. We make videos for big US brands, and are almost finished with Rhino Man and I still operate my non-profit. My wife is Peruvian and we go back and forth to our apartment in Lima often. My passion is helping people.

How do you manage to do it all?
I get up early, around 4 am. I have an hour drive to the studio and I use the commute to plan my day in the morning and reflect on the way home on all the different things that are going on in all the different businesses, between GCC, Friendly Human, my non-profit, vidloft.com and another businesses and non-profits I contribute to.

What is your role at GCC?
I am on the board of directors with Matt, Michele, Lee and Josh. I am also acting COO for the specific process-related part of the business. I keep the books, do payroll, compliance contracts, etc. I was recently in Africa to do contracts for the South African Wildlife College and the Africa Foundation as we work to roll out our Future Rangers program in a big way.

What are the biggest challenges facing the organization right now?
I think it is our direction, making sure we stay laser-focused and know which way to run. We have a small team and the more focused we are, the better. It is making sure the team knows what the focus is and how to communicate that. It is the most critical thing. It is a difficult challenge, but the sharper the knife, the more we can cut!

What are you currently working on?
I always think that by providing as much value and building the best team or process to work, we can attract people to the organization. I believe we can build processes and run with them to make change. Right now, everyone is embracing a new communications plan and hopefully, the team will keep adding to it and making it better. We are working really hard to get the Future Rangers program scaled and successful in a digital COVID world, and make sure it is compliant from a data and privacy standpoint, that’s what I am most excited about.

What do you enjoy the most?
I love the unwavering commitment of the people on the team to make an impact. The rangers on the ground are having a big impact, but it is the influence of communication through education that I love. I love the fact that we work well together to make an impact. It gets me up early in the morning and keeps me up working late at night. Ultimately this hard work is contributing to things bigger than myself and we must act now if we are going to save our planet for future generations.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I speak Spanish and love working with my hands and especially repairing cars. I am a Toyota Land cruiser fanatic. I also love traveling, especially with my wife Janin and my son Liam, who is six.

What is your favorite animal?
I love dogs, I always have. But there is one endangered species here in the States that I have a particular affection for, which is the Bobwhite quail. I have the most beautiful childhood memories of raising these birds and reintroducing them into the wild with my father and grandfather.

Has conservation always interested you?

Wildlife has always had my full attention. The pivotal moment in my early childhood was when my parents took me for a day trip to visit friends at Sabi Sands Reserve, which borders the world-famous Kruger National Park. We were quite an active family; always hiking, cycling, canoeing and spending time outdoors. On this particular excursion, we were visiting a friend’s lodge having lunch, when two of the field rangers offered to take me with them for a short walk. These weren’t the usual field guides that often interact with tourists, but rather field rangers that the public rarely sees. They offered to have me tag along for the afternoon and we saw lion tracks, hippos, and a Mozambique spitting cobra. They made me walk past the snake with my eyes closed. To this day, I don’t know if they were teasing me or genuinely looking out for my safety, but the experience stayed with me and inspired me at a deep level. I hope our work at GCC can have the same impact on children today. 

As a teenager, did this passion for conversation continue?

I had rather troubled teenage years. There was a bus crash that really impacted the tourism industry and our guest house and my parents’ business folded. We lost the house, my parents got divorced and my sister and I went to the US with our Dad. The years passed and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was into snowboarding and tennis. During high school, I got a scholarship to play tennis. I was in the top 100 in Southern California, but an injury suddenly put an end to that. I also loved flying and wanted to be a fighter pilot so I decided to study mechanical engineering to pursue a flying career, only to find out that I was color blind and would never be able to fly professionally. So, I quit university and decided to return to South Africa to visit my mom. We spent a few days in the bush where we came across some of Africa’s most iconic species like lions, cheetah and elephants. It was during this trip that I became reacquainted with my deepest passion; wildlife and conservation. A few weeks later, I said goodbye to the US, packed up all my belongings and turned in my US green card. The next week I enrolled in a field guide training course at the Southern African Wildlife College.

What was your first conservation job?

During my training at the Wildlife College, a family friend offered me a field guiding job at a 5-star lodge. However, upon qualification, I called the family friend only to be answered by his secretary with the unapologetic fact that the position had been filled. So here I was in South Africa, after leaving everything in the US behind me, with a guiding qualification and no employment to speak of. It was horrible. Around a month later, I was going to join my grandmother for our usual mediation class and it was canceled at the last minute. So, she said “let’s go gambling and have a night out!” So off we went to the casino at Cesar’s Palace at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport. I remember sitting there with my grandmother when I saw Theresa Sowry, the CEO of the Southern African Wildlife College, walk through the immense crowd of people. I ran over to her to say hi and she asked how the job was going. I explained that it didn’t work out and that I was unemployed and she said: “On Monday, come and work with me as a volunteer.”  Theresa was a role model for me and this was the moment when everything changed.

What happened next?

I worked for the Wildlife College for the next six years, first as a volunteer, and then guiding guests and teaching English to children in the surrounding communities. This experience was invaluable as I got an insight into how things work in the local schools and communities. Concurrently, I enrolled at the University of South Africa, and studied in the evenings after long days in the bush. I received a BSc in Zoology and Geography which qualified me to assist in training reserve managers, guides and field rangers. I eventually managed to earn my conservation pilots license, which was one of my most rewarding experiences to date. Those were my formative years. I learned so much. From there, I was offered a Master’s degree scholarship from Grand Valley State University, Michigan. My research was conducted with the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia, and I investigated the introduction of seven captive-raised cheetahs back onto Namibian farmlands.

What inspired you to start your own conservation organization?

My inspiration comes from two places. Firstly, in 2008, I was in the dining hall of the Wildlife College when I saw this Zulu man, Martin Mthembu, one of the most respected ranger trainers, sitting alone. People were constantly going up to him to say hello and pay their respects. I knew this man was someone special, and so I sheepishly asked if I could join him for lunch. Martin was to become my mentor, taking me under his wing. He saved my life three times, twice from lions and once from a black mamba. During his career, he trained over 15,000 rangers throughout Africa and spoke nine languages fluently. He would take frustrated youth and inspire them to create a better life for themselves. He was a shining star where shining stars didn’t exist. He influenced so many people and rangers from all walks of life, and there were countless amazing stories about him. On the 2nd August, 2014, he died tragically in a car accident and I was devastated. I wanted to be a voice and continue his legacy so it wouldn’t be buried with him. I couldn’t stop thinking about all those unpolished gems who had not yet met Martin.

The second inspiration came from a very different collection of experiences. I started to notice that the people working in conservation were either foreign, wealthy and/or privileged individuals who were paying large amounts of money to volunteer and “make a difference”. And while these individuals certainly have an important role to play, local people could never afford to pay these amounts of money for exclusive conservation experiences. It was wrong on so many levels. Local youth were not seeing the animals and they were lacking empathy for them as a result. Sometimes, people are quick to blame others, without rarely putting themselves in their shoes. Thinking from the perspective of an impoverished and uneducated individual; if I had no future, living in a place with poor infrastructure, little food, and my parents were sick, I would do whatever I could to survive. And if the only chance of survival means snaring an impala or killing a rhino, then what would you do? Unless we involve the local people who live next to wildlife, we will never win this war.

You have produced a documentary called Rhino Man; can you tell us about this project?

Rhino Man was the first project I started. The idea was to create a short video to tell the world about the rangers. When we started, very few people were talking about the rangers and about how they were sacrificing their lives to protect the rhinos. It is an important story to tell. The making of this film has been really hard and we still haven’t finished the final product. But at the end of the day, the mission was to honor Martin and tell the ranger story. If it hadn’t been for John Jurko II, one of the film’s directors, the story wouldn’t have evolved in the way it has. There have been so many amazing people that have supported this film since its inception, and I cannot wait for this message to get out into the world!

How has GCC evolved since the Rhino Man project?

During filming, we were always supporting the rangers with backpacks, watches, boots, all kinds of tactical equipment really, which enabled us to build an amazing relationship with the rangers and the management of the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. One day when we were filming in 2017, I noticed that one of the most senior rangers, Anton, was looking really down. I asked him what was up and we sat down with his right-hand man and he shared his concerns saying “How long can we hold the line, buying time? What is the world doing? We work such long hours, for little pay, in dangerous conditions, and this isn’t going to fix the problem.” He shared that he was almost 50 years old and how local children are becoming further and further disconnected from nature and wildlife. Even his own kids were not seeing wildlife very often. He shared with me that this concern was even greater than rhino poaching because who would replace him and his rangers? Will the next generation care more or less about these wild spaces, and would they be more corruptible when bribed? Anton asked GCC to focus more on the youth and to ensure than the next generation of community conservationists cared, had empathy, and wanted wildlife to exist. This is the origin story of the Future Rangers Program.

How does the Future Rangers project work?

Over the last two years, we have been working with four primary schools, next to the Kruger National Park. We partner with a local facilitator who works with each school. The schools teach children from the ages of five to 13 and the facilitators are qualified environmental educators. They are at school every day, and every single kid has one lesson per week. But we want to make sure that the children are not only hearing about it but seeing it too, so we organize game drives, have guest lecturers visit the schools, and encourage extra-curricular conservation activities.

What are you working on right now?

This week is quite exciting as we are starting to work in four high schools. We want to follow the students we have taught in primary school and ensure this environmental program and support continues as the children move through their high school years. High schools are the forgotten land when it comes to environmental education, and this is where we prepare the next generation of leaders entering the job market. To address a gap in the education material, we have built a curriculum with our partners (Africa foundation), which is aligned with the South African government’s standards for education. We now reach over 4,000 children collectively every week. Moving forward, our goal is to scale this program by bringing on more and more implementation partners, who see the value in investing in youth surrounding conservation areas.

What are you most excited about?

I think the four new high schools get me really excited. In our area, this approach has not been done before at this scale and quality. We also have new partnerships with the Africa Foundation and the Southern African Wildlife College. The further along I get on this journey, the more I realize the immense value of partnerships and working together. At the end of the day, we are all on the same team, and embracing this reality is what is required to truly move mountains.

However, it is sometimes the little things that make me excited. At Christmas, we took our team out for an end of year celebration and they all got dressed up and were so proud and we went out to a fancy restaurant. I dropped off one of the facilitators, who is an amazing teacher, home after the party and she told me that she wouldn’t want to be doing anything else than what she is doing right now and I realized that touching one person’s life in a meaningful way is the best reward. Seeing that you’ve made a difference to someone else’s life, that is just strength and pure joy for me.

The current COVID-19 crisis is significantly impacting the tourism industry with an estimated decline in revenue of 20% to 30%. In Africa, it is estimated that the pandemic will cost the sector almost $4 billion. 

COVID-19 impacts field rangers

Additionally, during these difficult times, African wildlife has come under increased threats and pressure. Due to the outbreak, the tourism industry has crashed and there is little to no steady income to fund reserve management, leaving wildlife rangers, who are the only line of defense between African wildlife and the increasing threat of poachers, in a precarious position. 

“As field rangers, we are going through salary cuts, so we are not getting the money we usually get for our families,” explains Fikile Mathebula, Security Operations at Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. 

Thanks to GCC’s close relationship with the rangers, our team members on the ground quickly became aware of the rangers’ struggles to feed their families and reached out to supermarket chain Hoedspruit Spar to find solutions.

Hoedspruit Spar Answers the Call

GCC Founder Matt Lindenberg began to reach out to local companies to find solutions for the wildlife rangers, who were not only working days on end without seeing their families, but who were also now worrying about how to feed their families on reduced wages. Hoedspruit Spar, a South African grocery store chain with a culture of caring and community involvement, immediately answered the call, offering GCC the needed groceries at discounted rates.

“We were so honored and thrilled with how quickly Hoedspruit Spar responded to the call,” says Matt Lindenberg, GCC Founder. “As a company dedicated to supporting their local communities, both through community involvement and local sourcing, they were ready and waiting to do everything possible to meet the needs of the rangers and their families.”

GCC GoFundMe Ranger Relief Appeal

On April 30th, GCC set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise the necessary funds to feed 50 families for six months. The incredible response was beyond anything GCC could have imagined with the target sum of $15,900 being met in under 24 hours.

Donations have continued to flood in, with $21,200 raised as of June 2020. These additional funds have enabled GCC to extend assistance to the staff of the Timbavati Foundation, the general staff of the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, and the rangers working in the neighboring Thornybush Private Nature Reserve.

Food Deliveries reach the rangers 

To date, two food deliveries have been made to 50 families. More than 250 people have benefited from each delivery, as there are five people per household on average. Each package weighs 57kg/125llbs and will last a family for one month.

The contents of each Spar Hoedspruit package are as follows:

• 10kg Maize
• 10kg Rice
• 10kg Flour
• 10kg Protein (Chicken)
• 1kg Pasta
• 4 tins of beans
• Assorted Vegetables
• 2L Juice
• 2L Cooking Oil
• 100 x tea bags
• 5kg Brown sugar
• Soup
• Spices
• Bath Soap
• 3kg Washing Powder
• Toothpaste
• Dishwashing soap
• Tissues

A Heartwarming response

“It has been incredible to see the reactions of these families, and what it means to have this support during such a challenging time,” Lindenberg continues. “In the last few days of deliveries, we have seen fathers and mothers break down in tears of joy with the surprise of receiving these packages. For these families to know that they are supported, loved, and cared for during this time means the world to them, and everyone who has been involved in this campaign should know how immensely valuable their contributions have been.”

GCC would like to thank everyone who donated to this important cause. Your generosity has made a huge difference to the rangers whose continuous work and courage are essential to keeping South Africa’s wildlife safe.

If you would like to contribute, donations are still being accepted at: https://globalconservationcorps.org/covid-field-ranger-food-appeal/

Like us, many non-profit organizations (NPOs) are founded upon unique and compelling missions that then propel the meaningful work that they seek out to do. For-profit companies, on the other hand, traditionally start off with a product or service that they can offer, and then find ways to differentiate those offerings against those of their competitors in brand execution and messaging. Why is it then, that NPOs can’t work in the same way?

Unfortunately, a great number of NPOs do not realize that they also need to differentiate themselves from others within their space to truly achieve success. This was the reality brought to light by Reckon Branding, and their proposed goal for our engagement with them.

The Approach

When working on our rebrand, Reckon guided us toward finding a unique, ownable space within our industry that would provide us with a more competitive edge. This would in turn create an identity that better embraced our goals, and also represented the brand more accurately to larger organizations. In this day and age, when individuals and organizations alike will be very mindful about where they invest their time and money, it has become especially crucial that we weave an authentic story around our brand that easily communicates our essence, culture, goals, and values to our audiences.

Reckon Branding began by working closely with our leadership team. They conducted interviews with key stakeholders within the organization, our partners, as well as volunteers to identify what was unique about the Global Conservation Corps. They also dug deep into the brands of other organizations within the same space as us, so as to create a competitive analysis. Did the others have clear CTAs? What type of immediate impressions did they give off? Were they approachable? Corporate? Organized? Personal? The results of these efforts gave us the foundational information and inspiration that we needed to allow Reckon to begin creating some bold new brand concepts and visuals.

The Results

Reckon moved forward into design with the following newly-developed brand positioning statement as a kind of north star to guide their efforts: “To protect the endangered wildlife of Africa, we invest in the people of Africa. By educating Africa’s youth, we’re giving them the knowledge and experience they need to appreciate, embrace, and protect the animals around them. It takes people to save wildlife—The Global Conservation Corps does both.” Within their toolbox, they also made use of our brand’s main attributes that they defined: passionate, driven, and accomplished; as well as some key words that spoke to our tone and personality: approachable, honest, trusting, worldly, clear, established, positive, humble, and unique. These traits are carried throughout our brand’s entire essence, it’s in how we are seen, heard, and perceived in our communications.

After conducting these in-depth branding exercises, research, and then reviewing their visual inspiration boards and several distinct brand activation concepts, we selected a new logo and identity. Reckon provided GCC with a flexible new logo system, a brand style guide, identity kit, brand assets, a brand-friendly, hand-rendered illustrated icon suite, as well as a brand activation playbook to empower and keep our team aligned as we launch our new brand.

As we move forward in today’s competitive world, we feel confident, proud and inspired by the rebrand that Reckon brought to fruition for GCC. Our goals, mission and company DNA is now firmly entrenched in a holistic and trustworthy brand, which seeks to continue improving the world for both people and wildlife.

GCC’s Program Director, Kate Vannelli, was lucky enough to be invited as a panelist for a Deep Dive session on capacity building in conservation. Kate is part of a conservationist network called WildHub, where conservationists can share expertise, challenges, and insights. All of the panelists featured in the capacity building session are members of Wildhub and work across the world on innovative conservation projects. Panelists included: Trang Nguyen (WildAct, Vietnam), Shaleen Attre (IndianSnakes, India), Eva Rehse (Global GreenGrants Fund, UK), Jessie Panazzolo (Lonely Conservationists,  Australia) and Sheherazade (Tambora Muda, Indonesia). The panel was moderated by Allison Catalano, Phd Candidate, Imperial College London, and organized by Thirza Loffeld, Community Manager, WildHub, UK. It was truly a global discussion!

During the panel, Kate introduced the long-term capacity building objective of GCC’s Future Rangers Program and discussed how GCC implements the process. Kate was also able to join the other panelists in answering questions regarding community engagement, conservation education and various related topics.

Overall, the session registered more than 300 sign-ups, and (due to the zoom capacity cut-off at 100 people), had 100 attendees. The link to the full recording of the session can be found here, as well as a larger overview of the Future Rangers approach that Kate wrote to accompany the talk, here.

Kate was honored to be featured on a panel with so many amazing women in conservation. Kate and the entire GCC are grateful to Thirza with WildHub for the great opportunity to join the global conservation conversation and spread the word about GCCs work around the world! The inspiring stories and initiatives happening in conservation right now are truly uplifting.

Recordings of the entire summit will be posted on the Smithsonians’ Earth Optimism website soon.

Written by Sophie Furley, Chief Editor GCC

Every year on April 22nd, over a billion people unite worldwide to celebrate Earth Day and express their concerns about the state of our planet. This year marks the 50th anniversary of this worldwide event and despite an inability to physically mobilize, the protest is well and truly on(line).

How Earth Day started

In 1970, a graduate student from Harvard, Denis Hayes, organized the very first Earth Day, catching the attention of the media and bringing 20 million Americans – 10% of the US population at the time – into the streets of America to show their concern for the planet. “That first Earth Day was so important, in part because we brought together a huge basket of different issues: urban air pollution, freeways cutting through neighborhoods, leaded paint, DDT, the Santa Barbara oil spill, rivers catching on fire,” explains Hayes on earthday.org.

The very first Earth Day is credited with launching the modern environmental movement which brought about the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. “The legacy of the first Earth Day was a fundamental restructuring of the American economy. The legislation of the 1970s was possibly the biggest change in how the American industry operates in the nation’s history,” notes Hayes.

Earth Day 2020 focuses on climate change

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day at a time when billions of people are in lockdown due to COVID-19. This could be seen as a possible dampener to the celebrations for this historic date, but the pandemic also reinforces the message on many levels, as taking care of nature is the first step to preventing future diseases. Biodiversity protection can not only prevent novel diseases from emerging in the first place but also stop them from making the jump to humans.

A rare glimpse of hope

COVID-19 has also brought us a rare glimpse of how the planet can heal in a short space of time, with incredible images of dolphins swimming in the crystal-clear waters of Venice’s canals and clear blue skies above China’s most polluted cities, not to mention the strange site of wild goats sauntering through the main street of Llandudno in Wales, and lions napping on the main roads of South Africa’s Kruger National Park.

The link between climate change and biodiversity

Climate change and biodiversity are inextricably linked. On the one hand, climate change is a major driver behind the extinction of species as animals struggle to survive with rising temperatures, and on the other, the loss of wildlife stops the spreading of seeds that allows trees to flourish. The disappearance of large animals can also result in shrubs and smaller species of trees taking over from larger trees that are far more efficient at absorbing carbon dioxide.

GCC’s message for Earth Day

In celebration of Earth Day 2020’s digital edition, GCC is presenting a video interview with Fedrick Ndlovu, a field ranger who has spent over a decade protecting the wildlife in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. Ndlovu has witnessed first-hand reduced rainfall, drought, and rising temperatures as well as the effects climate change has had on both animals and humans. His account offers a unique and powerful insight from a small corner of the planet that is suffering like so many other places.

Earth Day and education

Education was at the heart of the very first Earth Day with students and educators taking a stand for a cleaner planet and this continues today with the Earth Day Network’s education program, whose mission is to increase awareness and build environmental and climate literacy in students around the world.

GCC and education

Education is also at the heart of GCC and its Future Rangers Program, which engages students from the ages of five to 18 to build their appreciation of nature through incentive focused learning. In the Greater Kruger National Park area, unemployment for young people aged 18-24 is over 75%. “No one grows up wanting to resort to violence, poaching or illegal activities to provide for their families. But in these desperate times, poaching has become a somewhat accessible way to secure some type of income” shares GCC Founder Matt Lindenberg. “We believe that education and opportunity creation is the key to reducing poaching and developing the next generation of responsible leaders who will care about our planet and its wildlife.”

GCC joins Earth Day 2020 in the biggest fight that our planet has ever faced by continuing its important work to bridge the gap between communities and conservation by raising awareness for climate change and biodiversity.

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The Clash of COVID-19 and Conservation

Healing Our Planet

So what does a global pandemic and conservation have to do with each other? Many things. Personally, we might be thinking about the impact of COVID-19 on our health, our job security and personal freedoms. Some of us have taken those freedoms for granted, for a long time. In conservation, we generally work with limited funds and make up for it with passion, zeal and personal interest. If I asked a room filled with conservationists, most people in that room would likely agree with me. We do it for love and not money. But without any money at all, well then we find ourselves in very interesting times.

Today, the conservation sector is intimately connected with the broader economy of South Africa and many other tourism-centric countries including Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe. Many of the countries I have mentioned rely on international tourism to sustain their conservation areas, with each US dollar, Euro, Pound, and other international currencies helping to pay critical salaries of field rangers, trackers, field guides, conservation managers and workers from local communities. Whether building game fences, repairing roads, educating school children through environmental education programmes; the tourism dollar helps sustain it all. Every trip to a national park, reserve, and lodge in Africa likely has a positive impact on species survival (not just the lions, leopards, and cheetahs), sustaining rural families, employment opportunities, putting children through school and helping build homes. Formal conservation and protected areas are often located in rural areas with high levels of poverty and lack of infrastructure that many of us take for granted. Without a thriving tourism economy, the entrenched poverty can be a recruiting ground for desperation and criminality.

One of the more recent crises that have emerged in these areas has been the illegal wildlife trade. This trade is synonymous with commercial poaching, industrial-style wildlife farming and transnational criminal networks that perpetuate growing violence and criminalize vulnerable communities and individuals. We know that these syndicates create local systems of communication, patronage and sadly corruption—moving poached animals, horns, tusks, firearms, people and more across borders. Rachel Kleinfeld, a leading researcher in the study of violence, has estimated that more people are dying because of violence within societies than at war and the most significant proportion of it, is from organized crime. With the stabilizing force of tourism being shut down indefinitely in these communities, who will be tasked with holding the conservation line?

Here we enter the realm of the silent guardian – the Field Ranger. Unlike regular police and military forces around the world, most field rangers lack adequate resources and funding. They are often at the back of the queue when needing equipment, training, and support. The unwanted arrival of COVID-19 has now put field rangers under increasingly heavy risks and added stresses. Firstly, COVID-19 has heavily reduced tourism income for many parks and reserves due to lockdowns and travel restrictions. This means less financial resources for reserves and ultimately an impact on conservation activities, including the essential services of field rangers. Practically, this might mean layoffs or salary cuts.

In South Africa and some of the countries in the region, COVID-19 has redirected the police to focus on human movement and other mitigation actions. This means less dedicated time to collaborate with rangers and management to investigate wildlife crime, processing new cases, and follow-up court action. Thus, the deterrence action by law enforcement becomes lessened for commercial poachers, which increases the risk of incursions and potential wildlife poaching.

The local restrictions on certain goods, training, and services also put limits on what field rangers and conservationists can do to sustain their reserves. The costs for non-medical items unrelated to COVID-19 goes up, as transport and logistics are far more restricted. Things like GPS’s, smartphones, field kits and similar are hard to come by.

And probably the hardest blow to field rangers is throughout this national lockdown, their inability to see or visit their families. When South Africa issued the national lockdown on the 26th March, 2020, rangers were forced to make a difficult decision; hold the line inside the reserve, or remain with their families until the lockdown ended. There could be no middle ground, as the transmission of COVID into reserves could compromise the health of an entire security division, leaving a reserve and its wildlife unguarded. The majority of rangers within the greater Kruger Park area remained true to their commitment to conserving these wild places, while their families remain vulnerable during these times. With the lockdown already having been extended once, rangers can only hope that their loved ones remain safe, healthy and able to source adequate food, water, and medical support if required.

In a country blessed with such rich fauna, flora, biodiversity and natural beauty, it would be wise to remember the “thin green line” during this time. Without rangers, tourism, employment, and all the intrinsic beauty nature holds, might not be there after this storm. So next time you visit a national park or protected area, be sure to sincerely thank the individuals who held the line, for us all.

Read the article here!

Written by Kate Vannelli, Program Director – GCC

I left the bush outside of Kruger National Park, South Africa, just as borders began to close around the world. I had been working on a National Geographic grant to design an impactful conservation education program to combat poaching, with the Global Conservation Corps’ ‘Future Rangers Program’, and from the time I arrived in South Africa until the time I left, everything had changed drastically.

My fieldwork had been straightforward and relatively smooth, thanks to GCC’s incredible team. The Future Rangers Program was being well-received by partners in the area, and we were getting excited feedback on our ed-tech solution to a persistent problem; tracking the success of environmental education. I was working in a place I love, with wonderful people, and seeing wildlife on a regular basis, so the snippets of news that were beginning to multiply regarding COVID-19 felt quite distant. Then the world came to a screeching halt.

When I first heard of this virus, I didn’t feel surprised; a virus that scientists suspect is connected to the consumption of wildlife is spreading, quickly. From my experience in the field of conservation and my knowledge of the wildlife trade, this had seemed like the inevitable outcome of our treatment of wildlife. It had happened before, and would happen again. What was a surprise to me is how the world has mobilized.

The irony of this was that we are working on a program aimed to use education to combat poaching, an issue which has sprung from lack of economic opportunity, exclusion and desperation, and an issue that is unfortunately expected to increase due to COVID-related economic collapse. Poaching is just one of the many complex challenges facing wildlife today. As conservationists, we’re digging in our heels against the 6th mass extinction, borne from the gross mistreatment of the natural world by humans. From my perspective, this pandemic is a heartbreaking symptom of a much, much larger problem. The best way to combat this problem? Education is where we start.

I reflected on the state of the world as I retreated to Denver through near-empty airports on my way to quarantine myself. Strangers smiled and said hello (from a distance), people cracked uneasy jokes in spaced-out lines, and there was an unusual sense of camaraderie in the face of a daunting global challenge. As someone who is constantly worrying about the state of our natural world, I had a bracing moment in the Atlanta airport. We can do this. We have it in us to mobilize globally for the greater good. We’re all coming together now, and I truly believe we can carry on our camaraderie and cooperation, for our natural world, for our rapidly disappearing wildlife, and for our planet, to which we owe our continued existence.

In the end, we’re all fighting for the same thing. We want safety for our friends, family, our communities, and the world we love. That’s what this pandemic is immediately threatening, and this is what is threatened by climate change and loss of wildlife as well. We’re all on the same side. COVID has given us the ability and perspective to look at all impacts of human behaviour on this planet, and I remain faithful that this international disaster serves as a potential turning point towards a more balanced future.

Over the past few months a stark realization has begun to sink in: our bodies are getting sick because our planet has been sick for a long time. The COVID-19 pandemic of today is merely another in a line of global pandemics – ebola, SARS, MERS, and bird flu – and there is no reason to believe this trend will stop anytime soon.

While the starting points and the symptoms of each pandemic may differ, the underlying cause is the same: human behavior is weakening the ecosystems that often serve as a buffer between humans and animals that are infected with diseases. As John Vidal, a long-time environmental journalist, and Kate Jones, the Director of the Biodiversity Modeling Research Group at University College, London, recently noted, “ The disruption of pristine forests driven by logging, mining, road building through remote places, rapid urbanisation and population growth is bringing people into closer contact with animal species they may never have been near before.”

Another massive driver of diseases is the trade of wild animals for food, medicine, and to satisfy exotic tastes in luxury goods. The start of the Covid-19 virus has been traced to a “wet market” in Wuhan, China where stores were selling a variety of wild, caged animals such as wolf cubs.

The resulting transmission of disease from wildlife to humans is now a massive – and wasted – cost of human economic development. Instead of investing in our future, we will be spending precious time and scarce resources reacting to the spread of deadly diseases. The Covid-19 virus alone will have a global economic impact well in excess of $1 trillion – just in 2020. That does not account for the lasting economic consequences that will go on for years and, more significantly, the human tragedy that has touched each of us.

Finding a Balance

Despite the inherent risks posed due to increasing contact between humans and wild animals, we simply cannot halt the illegal wildlife trade or stop economic development that uses natural resources or encroaches on ecosystems. With increased international trade laws and dedicated law enforcement, the illegal wildlife trade has moved further into the shadows of the economy, causing decreased regulation of wildlife and associated zoonotic diseases. And as the world approaches a global population of 8 billion, increased resource consumption and anthropogenic land use both heightens the demand for wildlife products while also drastically reducing wildlife habitats.

However, a handful of concrete steps can be taken to ease the damage we are inflicting on ecosystems and begin to rebuild boundaries between humans and animals.

First, we need to absorb the knowledge of indigenous populations. According to research by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), a quarter of global land area is occupied by indigenous populations and those areas are seeing less environmental degradation than the rest of the planet. Indigenous populations know how to co-exist with ecosystems and generate sustainable economic and social development in the process. The UNEP report found that ecosystems in and near indigenous communities are declining at a much slower rate than other ecosystems.

Second, we can deploy better scenario planning with tools already at our disposal. Organizations such as the Natural Capital Project have developed data-driven, scenario modeling tools that help community leaders and developers of projects such as hotels and roads collaborate to find areas within ecosystems that minimize impacts. Furthermore, by starting the decision-making process with data, impacts can be measured over time – which allows for changes in practices if unexpected environmental damages occur.

Third, we need better collaboration across all sectors of the economy. Perhaps even more fundamental than collaboration there must be a greater appreciation for the connectivity that sustains all of us. Communities need the economic benefits that come from commercial activity. Not all business is bad and, when appropriately managed, it creates value for society.

Companies must better appreciate that Earth’s natural resources have a finite limit. If (or when) we run out of bedrock resources such as clean water, timber, and farmable land, economic activity will cease to function as it will become impossible to produce goods and services. Rather than consuming natural resources with pure self interest in mind, businesses must do more to reinvest in nature and give it the time and space it needs to regenerate. They must also better appreciate the mutual dependence between local communities and ecosystems. Therefore, it is in everyone’s best interests to approach economic development from the perspective of connectedness rather than one of competing interests.

We Have an Opportunity

The one thing everyone agrees on at the present moment is that society will never be the same. The way we live, the way we interact with each other, our definitions of value, the role of corporations and government in society will all change.The opportunity is before us to use this “great reimagining” to foster a society that, as Jeremy Lent recently wrote, creates life instead of creating wealth. In that process we must find a way to strike a balance between social and economic development and nature. If not, the next virus – and the crisis that comes with it – is just around the corner. More lives and more livelihoods will be lost – and the cost will be ever greater.