Some of the most important conservation work happens out of the spotlight. It’s the behind-the-scenes effort that makes everything else possible on the ground. The Great Plains Foundation (GPF) is a perfect example. Based in the United States but operating across Botswana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, the Foundation functions as the non-profit arm alongside Great Plains […]
Situated just outside Gqeberha, Addo Elephant National Park was established in 1931 to save the last remaining elephants in the region, and has grown into South Africa’s third largest and one of its most ambitious national parks. More than 600 elephants roam its valleys and spekboom-covered hills, but the park’s significance stretches far beyond its […]
“Conservation is for the people.” It’s a line Kganya Moseneke repeats often, and it shapes every decision he makes at Great Fish River Nature Reserve. As Security Manager on a World Bank–backed rhino protection project of 45,000 hectares, he works in a landscape bordered by 14 rural communities, where protecting black rhinos starts with understanding […]
Rhino poachers don’t have far to travel to reach Nambiti. The reserve sits on a major corridor between Durban, Johannesburg, and Mozambique—an area where neighbouring parks have lost a dozen rhinos in a single night. And yet, for more than a year, Nambiti hasn’t had a single poaching incursion. The reason lies with a community […]
The first time Picket Chabwedzeka left home for the city, it wasn’t to become a ranger or a trainer. It was to juggle plates and textbooks. “I moved to South Africa and was working while studying part-time,” he says. “For three years I lived in Goodwood, studied at Pentech and UNISA, and worked as a […]
In the far eastern corner of Botswana, where the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers meet, and the borders of three countries fold into one another, lies the Northern Tuli Game Reserve: 72,000 hectares of rugged mopane woodland, sandstone outcrops, and some of the highest concentrations of elephants for private reserves in Southern Africa. It is a […]
First light in Kafue National Park arrives with motion. Puku step out of the grass as the light spreads, ground hornbills boom across the plains, and a thin ribbon of river wind glints in the early glow. On the far edges of this vast Zambian wilderness (well beyond tourist tracks), patrol teams are already lacing […]
Each morning, before the sun burns through the mist rising off Lake Upemba, rangers gather in formation at the HQ of Lusinga and the Upemba National Park’s substation. They salute the flag, receive their orders, and set off (sometimes for days at a time) into a landscape few outsiders have ever walked. Their job is […]
In Kenya’s northern highlands, where acacia-dotted plains rise towards the snowcapped peaks of Mount Kenya, the rangers of Lewa Wildlife Conservancy begin their day in darkness. They lace up their Jim Green AR8s, sling their packs over their shoulders, and head out across 62,000 acres of wilderness, one of the most successful conservation landscapes in […]
“When I was ten, I read When the Lion Feeds,” says Paul Stones, who today runs one of southern Africa’s leading safari hunting companies. “From that moment, I knew I wanted to work in the bush.” More than three decades later, that boyhood dream has taken shape as Paul Stones Safari Africa, a professional hunting […]
