Help Support Female Ranger Teams in Africa

The woman using data to reduce human-wildlife conflict.

African wildlife is facing mounting pressures; habitat loss, climate change, human-wildlife conflict and poaching continue to threaten ecosystems already under strain. Rangers are stretched thin, with experts estimating the world needs 1.5 million more to meet global biodiversity targets by 2030. Traditional conservation methods alone are no longer enough.

Increasingly, women are combining local knowledge with technology to help both wildlife and communities thrive. In doing so, these tools are not replacing humans – they are amplifying them to help rangers respond faster, work smarter, and strengthen coexistence between people and wildlife.

For Ruth Chitindi from Conservation South Luangwa (CSL) in Zambia, conservation begins with data. Ruth spends her days helping communities coexist more safely with wildlife using SMART technology – a digital conservation tool transforming how incidents are recorded and responded to. In landscapes where elephants, lions and other wildlife move through farming communities, conflict can be inevitable. Crop destruction, livestock predation and, in the worst cases, fatalities on both sides are an ever-present reality.

Before digital systems were introduced, CSL rangers relied on handwritten records, which made it harder to track and analyse. Today, CSL is the first in Zambia to use SMART technology to record human-wildlife conflict in real time. Using the data, Ruth helps conservation teams identify hotspots and focus support where it is needed most. Alongside targeted mitigation efforts informed by the data, human deaths linked to human-wildlife conflict dropped from 12 in 2023 to zero in 2025.

“Passion for conserving wildlife and helping people is what drives this success,” says Ruth.

Thank you for your donations to help us support this vital work.

Links:

• How Many Elephants Website
• World Female Ranger Week Website