Protecting the Big 5 in South Africa

Introduction 

Wildlife conservation is the practice of protecting wild plant and animal species and their habitat. Today on earth we are facing a mass extinction of our wildlife. Research tells us we loose one species every hour and this is an alarming number.

Report 

We work with a number of projects locally across South Africa and the famous Kruger. Empowering teams to provide eyes and emergency response to poachers we aim to do everything in our power to keep these animals safe 24/7. As well as our anti poaching teams we educate local children to drive awareness and help protect as well as run many smaller high risk and innovative projects to ensure we protect these animals as much as possible. Due to the high risk of poaching we keep our work confidential. $15 donation funds food for our sniffer dogs who assist our hard working poachers who work tirelessly to protect white rhino from poachers on our reserves. And $50 assists with our monthly GPS and camera traps programs for our essential research initiatives which promote conservation and research efforts in the area 

Thank you for your support

Dear Supporters,

It's been a little while since our last update but don't worry we have not stopped our hard work! I'm, sure everyone is hearing time after time how the global pandemic has caused issues over the past 18 months and this certainly is true when South African tourism came to a stop but a great move for us is that our project become self sustainable and is now fully supported by the local farmers that own the reserve we was working with. 

Over the past few months our project team in South Africa have been hard at work with a number of new initiatives to take our project to the next level and we are now excited to share with you the next developments of this project. We are excited to be working with a number of local small NGOs and passionate community members to use some innovative approaches to help protect the big 5 and wider eco-systems and ensure that land is not lost and these wild animals have the healthy habitats needed. 

Alongside working on these projects to help protect and preserve the wildlife and environments on a day to day basis we are taking an active role within the township communities that are near these wild habitats and educating and engaging young people. We feel that working with young people at an early stage we can help the community grow and access jobs in the future in conservation that in return will help tackle poverty and many other global issues. We also know that through education and empowering these young people they will play a vital role in helping to protect them long term so that one day our grandchildren and their grandchildren will also be able to visit Africa and see all Big 5 on a safari. 

We have one final shot at saving our planet and today is the day we must stand up and make a difference, please help us by sharing our project, the issues and solutions with your friends and family and if you can please help us fundraise and donate to keep this project alive. 

It is GlobalGiving Bonus Day on 14th July where your donations are matched. $100 - $499 donations will be matched 15%, $500 -$999 will be matched at 30% and $1,000 and above are matched with 50%. This is a great opportunity for our project so if you can please save the date!

Thank you,

Tyrone and the Action Change Team

Dear Supporters,

What a few months it has been in South Africa and for our amazingly beautiful big 5! Hopefully you are aware what the Big 5 consists of by now but just to remind you it is our South Africa Lions, our beautiful and often rather shy leopards, our lovely rhino's that are always running from the terrible poachers, the huge elephants and our entertaining Cape buffalo. 

Your gifts to our project go directly to our team that are working to protect and save these animals in very large reserves within South Africa. The upkeep of these are huge and until last year a large percentage of funding came from tourism which dropped to zero for over 9 months due to the global pandemic. With reserves running out it has certainly been a challenging few months but we continue to work hard and do as much as we can within the limited resources. 

Sadly the other week we did lose three of our white rhino's to poachers, it's been a long time since we have seen a successful attack and that is down to tourists being on the reserve (extra eyes) and our anti poaching team that is funded through your donations. It was a horrible few days for us finding them but we are committed to setting up our operations to try and protect the rest of our rhino family. 

On a good note donations over the past 3-4 months have helped us get our beloved Toyota Hilux back up and running, she cost around $1,200 to get back up and running and she is very very old but without her on the reserve we couldn't respond to emergencies, while this seems expensive a new/used one will be around $15,000 and something we will begin fundraising for this year.

On top of getting our wheels back we also managed to fundraise through charity challenges and your donations of $2,300 to fund a wild dog collar that comes with 12 months emergency support and satellite navigation. With these we get daily monitoring and research and real time search which is very important as we recently released these dogs back onto the reserve and the need to track them was essential as they are notoriously cheeky animals and love breaking out through the huge fencing. 

It's certainly been a super busy few months and our funding is now at the lowest it has been for years but we are all still here working hard to ensure the protection and safety of all our wildlife.  Please if you can share our news and project with your networks and help us raise the needed funds for 2021.

All the best,

Tyrone and our team in South Africa.

Dear Supporters,

With the recent quarter two Global Domestic Product (GDP) announcements shared from the Statistics South Africa website, the effects of this tumultuous pandemic have now been officially put onto paper, and labelled a “severe punch in the gut” for South Africa’s economy. Recreation and culture, as well as restaurants and hotels took massive hits, with expenditure declines of 86% and 99.9% respectively. The government now warns that this pandemic could cost the jobs of 400,000 workers in the tourism industry alone.

The funds generated by tourism, which go on to support some 23 million livelihoods all but dried up during the harsh COVID-19 lockdown period. Wildlife-based ecotourism was estimated to be worth approximately R323 billion annually to South Africa’s GDP (2013), much of which contributed directly towards the management of protected areas. Many people think the lockdown and restriction of human movement around the world would benefit nature and be a step in the right direction. The unfortunate reality is that without international revenue being directly injected into South Africa’s conservation sectors through ecotourism, the biodiversity of our wildlife and the protection of their habitats is at serious risk. With lower conservation capacities and increased threats to wildlife and ecosystems, any positive outcomes that may have arisen during the lockdown will all be for nothing. 

GVI Limpopo have also felt the negative consequences of this pandemic, as our base here on Karongwe was unfortunately put into an inevitable hibernation period and all operations since March have all but come to a standstill. Just because we have no participants joining us on our daily monitoring and reserve work projects doesn’t mean the work has stopped though. Anti-poaching patrols have almost doubled since the lockdown, requiring additional funds to keep their vehicles on the road, which our Saving the South African Rhino fund has assisted with. We are also still in close communication with reserve management in regards to sharing wildlife information and reporting on the reserve, and assisting with locating our focus species where possible. Sadly we also had to hit the pause button on our camera trap project, delaying our hyena identification project across the reserve. From here, we hope that soon South Africa will lift the ban on international travel, of course with a high priority on health and safety protocols, so that we can once again welcome participants through our doors and begin our monitoring operations.

In the meantime, we are still continuing our fundraising efforts to finalise the purchase of the Wild Dog satellite collar, as they are due to be released onto the reserve any day now. From the 14th - 18th of September, the Little by Little Campaign is a five-day crowdfunding campaign designed to help all partners of GlobalGiving around the world cultivate a robust network of small-dollar donors. All eligible donations up to $50 per unique donor per organization will be matched at 50% during the campaign, and funds will not run out! Although it may seem insignificant, numerous contributions at lower amounts during this time could help us quickly reach our goal, so we appeal to our donors once more to help our cause and contribute directly towards the protection and monitoring of this endangered species.

Once again, from the bottom of our hearts we would like to thank all our sponsors and readers for following our conservation journey in the heart of the South African savanna. We hope wherever you are around the world that you are safe and well, and we look forward to reporting on more positive impact stories in the months to come!

Love, 

The GVI Karongwe Team

Dear Supporters,

As we’re progressively making our way through the crazy year that is 2020 so far, it’s important that we remember to reflect on the things that we can control – like still being able to make a positive impact in our small corner of the world. 

We are so excited to update our donors and readers on the great work we’ve been able to do in the field with the help of the GVI Trust, as well as our ongoing efforts to try and safely monitor the latest and greatest additions to the reserve!

Camera Trap Protection

An amazing effort was made by a previous participant of ours, Kendra Carano, who helped us raise over US$1000 over a short period of time in order to purchase seven missing camera trap cases so that all 52 of our camera traps in the field could be properly set up and protected! As you may recall, back in March 2019 our biggest sponsorship to date by René Koopman – owner of Imvubu Lodge on Karongwe, saw the purchase of over 40 camera traps to add to our surveying arsenal. 

Karongwe Hyena Report

Thanks to our primary camera trap study, which included 26 traps located in both the northern and southern areas of the reserve, our fantastic Science Officer Kayla was able to put together a progress report on what we’d discovered so far about our spotted elusive friends. So far, we have been able to identify five individuals by their spot patterns, including one new cub and some new additions to the Karongwe clan, as well as their favourite hang-out spots and some interesting behaviour at the dens. What’s more exciting is we managed to even capture images of a brown hyena (Hyaena brunnea) on the reserve!After sharing our report with partners and stakeholders in February, and the purchase of the missing camera trap cases, Kayla began the exciting first step into starting the pilot study of our spotted hyena camera trapping project by placing camera traps within a pre-set grid in the field, as well as at known hyena hot spots and old den sites. The results we obtained before we sadly had to push the pause button on our project already showed some very promising data, and we look forward to getting straight back into it once our program can open its doors once more.

Satellite Collar Fundraiser

The newest edition to GVI’s track-able animals consists of a small pack of Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus) soon to be released on the reserve from the safety of a boma. GVI are responsible for tracking our focus species on the reserve, twice a day every day - namely the male lion, the cheetah brother coalition, as well as the female cheetah. The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), who GVI already work quite closely with in conjunction with the cheetah metapopulation project, have recommended the use of satellite collars, rather than VHF radio collars. This is especially important when you are tracking elusive species such as the Wild Dog, who can be fast-moving and cover large distances quickly! With the help of the GVI Trust, we are fundraising to purchase the much-needed satellite collar, something you can imagine does not come cheap - but is a crucial piece of equipment which will ensure the safety and protection of this endangered species. Our target includes the collar itself, as well as the servicing fee for 12 months with 3 hourly readings a day!

Every contribution, no matter the size, will help us reach our target and contribute back towards the conservation and monitoring of species that desperately need our help.

Once again, from the bottom of our hearts we would like to thank all our sponsors and readers following our conservation journey in the heart of the South African savanna. Without your help we would not be able to conduct effective research and monitoring of our endangered and vulnerable species on the reserve.

Love, 

The GVI Karongwe Team