Margot Raggett with Henry Mwape of the Zambia Carnivore Programme
Remembering Wildlife – Supporting Projects in Africa & Asia
Remembering Wildlife exists to raise awareness of the plight facing wildlife and also funds to protect it.
It is our great honour and pleasure to support hard-working organisations on the ground, ones that are making a real difference. Through sales of Remembering Elephants, Remembering Rhinos, Remembering Great Apes, Remembering Lions and Remembering Cheetahs to date, Remembering Wildlife has donated £947,500 to 58 projects across 24 countries.
Read more about some of those project donations below.
Cheetah Conservation Botswana
Location: Botswana
Donation amount: £16,000
Botswana is one of the last cheetah strongholds, with approximately 28% of the 7,100 left in the wild. However, 80% live outside protected areas, often on agricultural land, which can lead to conflict with communities. Cheetah Conservation Botswana has been working alongside the government since 2003 to help facilitate coexistence between rural communities and carnivore species.
The donation will go towards CCB's research programme, which focuses on monitoring the cheetahs of the Western Kalahari landscape outside of protected areas.
This is a strategically important region for the conservation of the regional cheetah population as it is the heart of their range in Southern Africa. Through track surveys, camera trap surveys and satellite collars, the research programme provides essential information on their behaviours, movements, home ranges, land use preferences, role in human wildlife conflict and conservation needs.
The Serengeti Cheetah Project
Location: Tanzania
Since 1974, SCP field biologists have kept continuous records of individual cheetahs living on the Serengeti plains, using each cheetah's unique spot patterns to track its life's journey from when it is first seen as a young cub. This painstaking, long-term research has provided vital information that underpins the conservation of the species. This research has gone hand-in-hand with training and inspiring Tanzanian scientists to become leaders and role models in cheetah conservation.
Over the last year, due to COVID-19, tourism to Tanzania has fallen by nearly 90%, resulting in a drastic drop in income to support wildlife protection. This donation will ensure that SCP staff are able to continue their work and keep watchover the Serengeti cheetahs at this critical time.
Cheetah Conservation Fund
Location: Namibia
Donation amount: £64,000
Remembering Cheetahs' first donation went to the CCF's Livestock Guarding Dog (LGD) Programme, which is proven to reduce livestock losses to predators.
Studies show that farmers with an LGD are less likely to trap or shoot cheetahs.
CCF breeds Anatolian shepherd and Kangal dogs, which have been used to guard livestock for thousands of years in Turkey, to become LGDs. The pups are placed with Namibian farmers and bond with the herd or flock.
As they grow up, their size and loud bark help to scare predators away.
A second donation went to CCF's vital work in anti-cheetah club trafficking in Somaliland.
N/a’an ku se Foundation
Location: Namibia
Since 2008, the N/a'an ku se Rapid Response Unit has been reacting to requests from farmers apprehensive about predators roaming their properties. The RRU acts as quickly as possible, endeavouring to alleviate landowners' concerns, while simultaneously preventing the unnecessary persecution of Namibia's carnivores and allowing the animals to retain their lives and freedom.
Since the RRU's inception, the persecution of carnivores captured on farmland has decreased by 80% and the donation from Remembering Cheetahs will help ensure the work continues.
Tsavo Trust
Location: Kenya
Donation amount: £3,900
Tsavo Trust believes in conserving the vast wilderness of the Tsavo Conservation Area, which encompasses Kenya's largest Protected Area, home to the country's biggest elephant population and numerous high-value species. It's one of the few truly wild places with significant wildlife left in Africa.
The trust has a unique strategy, in partnership with Kenya Wildlife Service and others, on direct conservation projects as well as engaging local communities in encouraging conservation activities.
The donation has gone towards transporting spare parts from the USA for Tsavo Trust's aerial patrol unit, which is a key activity in its anti-poaching work, alongside Kenya Wildlife Service in the Tsavo Parks.
SORALO
Location: Kenya
There are estimated to be 23 to 30 lions over the age of one in the valley.
A £25,000 grant was given to SORALO’s 'Rebuilding the Pride' project, to fund a new patrol and research vehicle.
A further £3,500 donation has since been made towards camping gear for the rangers.
SORALO
Location: Kenya
Donation amount: £28,500
The first donation to come from Remembering Lions was awarded in the South Rift Valley, home to one of the highest densities of lions in any non-protected area of Africa.
There are estimated to be 23 to 30 lions over the age of one in the valley.
These lions live alongside local Maasai who farm and graze their livestock in the valley, an important corridor between the Maasai Mara and Amboseli.
The SORALO project aims to ensure the South Rift Valley’s ecosystem remains healthy and protected for the benefit of both the local people and wildlife.
A £25,000 grant was given to SORALO’s 'Rebuilding the Pride' project, to fund a new patrol and research vehicle.
The new vehicle will be used for research, monitoring and for the occasional rescue of lost cows, with the aim of minimising conflict.
A further £3,500 donation has since been made towards camping gear for the rangers.
Zambian Carnivore Programme
Location: Zambia
Donation amount: £11,481
The Zambian Carnivore Programme is a not-for-profit Zambian organisation working in close collaboration with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, and dedicated to conserving large carnivores and ecosystems.
Our donation will be used by their Luangwa Lion Project for anti-snaring work, combatting traffic in lions, training of future Zambian lion conservationists and outreach to local communities.
The Luangwa Valley is one of ten remaining lion strongholds left on the continent and has Zambia’s largest lion population.
Anna Tolan with Margot Raggett in the school
Chipembele
Location: Zambia
Donation amount: £3,827
Chipembele is an inspirational wildlife school with a mission to teach Zambian children and communities the value of wildlife and their environment, so they may be conserved for present and future generations.
Remembering Wildlife visited the school in June and met co-founder Anna Tolan. The donation is going to be put towards the running of the centre. In honour of Remembering Lions, a special all-day session focused on lions will be developed and delivered to multiple children throughout 2020.
African Parks
Location: Benin
Donation amount: £7,654
According to a newly-proposed classification, West Africa has by far the rarest lions.These belong to a distinct sub-species, and are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as Critically Endangered.
Remembering Wildlife is supporting the work of African Parks in Pendjari in Benin. African Parks took over the management of Pedjari in 2017.
It is estimated that over 100 individual lions reside there, facing threats from poaching, poisoning and hunting.
The Wildlife Conservation Society
Location: Nigeria and Uganda
Donation amount: £32,500
We are supporting the work of The Wildlife Conservation Society in Yankari National Park in Nigeria as well as their work in Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda, over in East Africa.
The donation will be split between the two and used for Lion Protection Patrols and collaring, using data to identify core areas used by lions in order to intensify patrol effort in those areas.
The lion population in Yankari is estimated to be less than 20 individuals that are extremely vulnerable to extinction. In Murchison Falls, our funds will be focused on lions in the less accessible northern sector, which is exposed to high levels of snaring. Our funds will cover four collars in each site for two years.
EAGLE
Location: Uganda
Donation amount: £7,654
The illegal trade in lion skins is very active in Uganda, which is endangering lions in East Africa. Our donation will be used for activities of the small team in Uganda, including undercover investigations, arrest operations, legal follow up and media efforts to maximise the deterrent value of enforcement results.
Ruaha Carnivore Project
Location: Tanzania
Donation amount: £15,300
The Ruaha Carnivore Project is part of Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU).
This landscape supports around 10% of all remaining wild lions. Our donation is being split between two projects there, community camera trapping and Lion Defenders.
Community camera trapping is an innovative way of encouraging villagers to capture data of wildlife in their area, with images earning points and - subject to no retaliations - points mean prizes!
Every three months these points are converted into healthcare, education and veterinary benefits, demonstrating a direct link between wildlife conservation and community benefits.
Lion Defenders employs local Maasai and Barabaig warriors to defend rather than hunt lions, as a way to prove their status. They work to detect and prevent traditional lion hunts, are given literacy training and also new skills in GPS and radio-telemetry.
Lion Defenders are now seen as attractive prospects for husbands in a way that previously, lion hunters were.
African People & Wildlife
Location: Tanzania
Donation amount: £7,654
African People & Wildlife partners with local communities to create effective, sustainable solutions that improve the lives of rural Africans while protecting the natural world.
Our donation will help to pay for a vehicle to strengthen lion-related conservation activities, after two of their vehicles recently broke down beyond repair.
Margot Raggett meeting with Niels Mogenson, Senior Programme Scientist, with a lion collar
Mara Predator Conservation Programme
Location: Kenya
Donation amount: £11,481
Remembering Wildlife met with KWT's Mara Predator Conservation Programme to discuss the issues facing lions in the Maasai Mara and surrounding areas.
Our donation will be used to collar three disbursing young male lions, to find out why so many disappear once kicked out of the pride, never to be seen again.
Lion Light Deterrent Systems
Location: Kenya
Donation amount: £2,800
Our donation will contribute towards Lion Entry Deterrent Light systems for BOMAS of Kenya, a tourist village in Langata, Nairobi.
The systems will be installed in hotspot areas and will identify lion collars, with the aim of mitigating suspected retaliation killings.
The Maa Trust
Location: Kenya
Donation amount: £3,827
The Maa Trust is a
With human/wildlife conflict the biggest threat of all to lions due to ever-expanding populations, our donation will be used to fund two mobile healthcare clinics in the area, with a focus on family planning and sexual reproductive health.
The Soft Foot Alliance
Location: Zimbabwe
Donation amount: £15,300
The Soft Foot Alliance is led by Brent Stapelkamp, who spoke so passionately at the Remembering Lions launch at the Royal Geographical Society last October (pictured here).
The funds will be used to develop educational materials that clearly communicate simple methods of wildlife protection, landscape regeneration and improvement of people's lives. We will also be supporting the building of a community centre.
The Last Great Ape
Location: Cameroon
Donation amount: £7,800
The Last Great Ape organisation is a wildlife crime law enforcement network that aims to protect elephants, apes, pangolins and other threatened wildlife species from trafficking.
The organisation has significantly increased the level of wildlife law enforcement in order to deter would-be poachers and traffickers.
The results have been dramatic - shifting the country from a decade without a single wildlife prosecution to one major trafficker being prosecuted per week. This has been consistently maintained for 15 years.
The Jane Goodall Institute UK
Location: The Republic of Congo
Donation amount: £16,842
Founded by renowned ethnologist Jane Goodall, best known for her work with chimpanzees, the Jane Goodall Institute is widely recognised for its innovative community-centred conservation and development programmes across Africa.
In 2018, the Institute completed an ambitious project to transfer nearly 100 chimpanzees from Tchimpounga to three new sites on islands in the Congo’s Koilou River.
The River’s thick forest cover and safety from human interference provides an environment well-suited to the chimpanzees. But maintaining the sites comes at a cost – namely a heavy reliance on boats and outboard engines to supply the new sites. Conditions in the tropical forests of the Congo are unforgiving and the Institute regularly needs to replace and repair equipment.
Our donation paid for boat engines used to transport food and other supplies to the islands, and to support Ranger operations in the Tchimpounga Nature Reserve. We also enabled the Rangers to buy a drone for aerial photography.
The drone will obtain images to assess forest cover and conditions as well as agricultural yields for chimpanzee food in places that are difficult to access on foot, such as the swampy areas in the north.
The Institute’s busy team of caregivers and veterinarians look after nearly 140 chimpanzees, and clinics are being developed on the Islands with a range of medical equipment. The donation enabled the Institute to purchase an ultrasound machine, essential for assessing the condition of the chimpanzees.
The ultrasound machine also plays an important role in an ongoing veterinary research project into the cardiac health of sanctuary chimpanzees, in partnership with Cardiff Metropolitan University in the UK.
Bulindi Chimpanzee and Community Project
Location: Uganda
Donation amount: £16,000
The Bulindi Chimpanzee and Community Project is a grass roots not-for-profit organisation established to protect some 300 chimpanzees living outside protected areas in the Hoima district of Uganda.
The project blends the important work of habitat conservation for the chimpanzees with valuable initiatives to build the local communities’ sustainable livelihoods, contribute towards children’s education, and increase the level of understanding of chimpanzees in the community.
Our donation has enabled the project to increase the number of energy saving stoves used in the community, so it is less dependent on wood from the forest. It has also helped fund a school sponsorship scheme and eased reforestation.
Camera traps deployed in the Okavango Delta
Rhino Conservation Botswana
Location: Botswana
Donation amount: £10,000
Rhino Conservation Botswana plays an important part in the protection of black and white rhinos on behalf of the Botswana government. They aim to ultimately increase numbers by repopulating both in the country.
Rhino Conservation Botswana’s fully trained teams closely monitor the rhinos in their natural environment using a world-class monitoring system. By building insights to help them understand the rhinos’ behaviour, they can contribute towards the animals’ future breeding success.
Our donation has provided Rhino Conservation Botswana with 50 state-of-the-art cameras for deployment in the Okavango Delta region, enabling them to capture even more data on these precious animals. This data is shared with other Departments of Wildlife and national parks, so that informed decisions can be made to give rhinos the best chance for population growth right across Africa.
Mali Elephant Project
Location: Mali
Donation amount: £21,000
The Mali Elephant Project is a network of 674 community eco-guardians recruited from local communities to help prevent the decimation of the elephant population in central Mali. These young community members work as part of ‘surveillance brigades’ to monitor elephants, report poaching and collect vital information to enable targeted anti-poaching missions.
The eco-guardians are also active in protecting elephant habitat and the natural resources that form the basis of local livelihoods. The Mali Elephant Project provides direct benefits to local people - it maintains support among the local population for elephant conservation; and it creates respected occupations for young people.
The commitment of the eco-guardians to the protection of the elephants and their habitats has resulted in the prevention of any poaching incidents since January 2017, the longest period since 2013. It has also led to the launch of community-led initiatives to reduce forest degradation in four southern communes.
£21,000 was granted to the Mali Elephant Project by Remembering Elephants through the Born Free Foundation. The funds enabled 371 eco-guardians to receive recognition payments for monitoring elephants. These workers also monitored key habitats in the vulnerable south-east of the range, and in forests in the vicinity of the Porte-des-Éléphants, which is particularly vulnerable to habitat degradation.
Born Free’s Babile Project
Location: Ethiopia
Donation amount: £30,000
The goal of Born Free’s Babile Project is to halt or significantly reduce elephant poaching at the Babile Elephant Sanctuary in Ethiopia.
They aim to do this by strengthening law enforcement at the sanctuary while increasing judicial awareness of the illegal wildlife trade, thus encouraging stronger deterrents for elephant poaching. The Babile Project was also set up to reduce natural resource exploitation and human pressure on the sanctuary.
The project received £30,000 from Remembering Elephants via Born Free, alongside other donations from Save the Elephants, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service African Elephant Conservation Fund.
The contributions improved law enforcement at the elephant sanctuary, allowing them to employ a project officer and 24 rangers. Since then, multiple arrests of poachers have been made, leading in one case to the successful prosecution and imprisonment of an elephant poacher in May 2017.
The Ol Pejeta Conservancy
Location: Kenya
Donation amount: £11,500
The Ol Pejeta Conservancy is a 360 km² conservation park in Central Kenya's Laikipia County. Situated west of Nanyuki, between the foothills of the Aberdares and Mount Kenya, this 29-year-old project supports black rhino conservation and the mitigation of human conflict.
Illegal poaching of black rhinos for their horns means that the animals remain under huge threat. Kenya is trying to counter these dangers by improving law enforcement and security, along with monitoring and biological management.
But such activities need to be implemented by well-trained and equipped patrolmen - the first line of defence for the rhinos.
Our donation is expected to help replace the patrolmen’s ineffective and aging binoculars with new improved ones. The team will also receive a motorbike, a VHF radio, a GPS radio, plus new spotlights for night monitoring.
Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program
Location: West Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia
Donation amount: £11,800
The Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program has developed a community-based approach to the conservation of orangutans, which includes a scientific research program.
The Gunung Palung National Park is designated as a United Nations Great Ape Survival Project conservation priority area. An estimated 5,000 Central Bornean Orangutans habitate the park, which represent 10% of the remaining wild population of this critically endangered species.
Recognising that most threats to orangutan survival are caused by humans, the program strives to instil in the local community the values of orangutan protection and rainforest biodiversity. It also implements conservation action to protect the remaining forest areas.
The forests and communities in the area are regularly exploited by outside economic interests. Natural resources such as timber, palm oil and minerals have been depleted, destroying biodiversity and leaving local people with limited long-term economic options. The program aims to reverse these trends by working with the communities around the park.
The donation from Remembering Great Apes aided the program’s scientific research which gains insights into the orangutan population using drones and ground-based nest counts. Our donation covered the ground team survey costs plus the drone survey team as they surveyed the entire park.
African Parks
Location: Chad
Donation amount: £7,800
African Parks is a not-for-profit organisation responsible for the rehabilitation and long-term management of the national parks of Africa.
Working in partnership with governments and local communities, the organisation manages 15 parks and protected areas in nine countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Chad and Zambia.
African Parks is undertaking some extraordinary conservation initiatives to provide the black rhino with a fighting chance, although fewer than 5,000 of the animals remain.
In 2018, African Parks embarked on an ambitious project to return the black rhino to the nation of Chad. The last wild rhino was seen in this central African country in the 1970s, after decades of poaching drove them to local extinction.
Chad’s Zakouma National Park was once ravaged by poaching and poor security, but since 2010 it has been transformed into a secure and flourishing park thanks to a successful partnership with the Chadian Government and to African Parks’ unique conservation model.
In a historic move to aid in the long-term survival of this heavily threatened species, six black rhinos were reintroduced from South Africa to Zakouma in May 2018. Sadly, four of the six transported rhinos died, but the two that survived are now thriving under the watchful eye of the team, where the donation from Remembering Rhinos contributes to their ongoing care, monitoring and protection.
Gorilla Doctors
Location: Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda
Donation amount: £8,000
Gorilla Doctors is the only organisation in the world that provides hands-on medical care to gorillas in the wild.
Their mission is to conserve mountain and Grauer's gorillas through life-saving veterinary medicine and research. The Grauer’s gorilla is a subspecies of eastern gorilla that is endemic to the mountainous forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
This organisation travels with equipment to treat sick or injured gorillas in the forest, performing an average of 30 to 45 such interventions a year. They also rescue mountain and Grauer’s gorillas orphaned by poachers.
The donation from Remembering Wildlife has provided essential funds to help cover the costs of medicine, supplies and equipment.
Aaranyak India
Location: India
Donation amount: £26,500
The successful conservation of rhino in Assam and North Bengal demands rapid threat mitigation measures. Poaching of rhinos both within and outside Assam and North Bengal remained a challenge for frontline forest staff and needed better support and coordination.
Assam is the habitat of around 70% of the world’s wild Indian Rhino population, while Nepal shelters about 25%.
The illegal trade of rhino horn continues in Asian markets, placing immense pressure on the remaining rhino population. But the forest guards standing between the poachers and rhino often do not get basic amenities like rain coats, winter jackets, sweaters or field shoes. As such, their normal patrols become hampered, leading to gaps in rhino protection.
The project provided valuable field canvas shoes, winter pullovers, wireless walkie talkies, raincoats, orientation programmes and medical supplies, among other provisions.
Remembering Rhinos contributed £26,500 to the fund for these much-needed items and services.
Wildlife Emergency Response Unit
Location: Malawi
Donation amount: £17,000
The Wildlife Emergency Response Unit was set up in 2014 to provide in-field veterinary support for wildlife emergencies and conservation projects across the entire country.
As a joint venture between Lilongwe Wildlife Trust and the Department of National Parks & Wildlife, the Unit aims to treat injured wildlife, relocate animals in conflict with communities and provide veterinary support to projects that monitor and protect wildlife at risk.
The mobile veterinary unit provides fast response in-situ treatment for wild animals in distress. Led by Dr Amanda Salb, it is equipped with all the required drugs and firearms to immobilise and treat small and large wild animals. Dr Salb is the only wildlife veterinarian in Malawi capable of wildlife capture, meaning her services are greatly in demand.
Remembering Elephants contributed £17,000 towards The Born Free Foundation’s £21,000 donation to support the Wildlife Emergency Response Unit throughout 2017 and 2018.
Kahuzi-Biega National Park
Location: DRC and Cameroon
Donation amount: £8,000 and this will be sent in November 2019
The Kahuzi-Biega National Park supports one of the most significant populations of Grauer’s gorilla, which have declined from an estimated 17,000 to 3,000 over the last twenty years.
A combination of civil war, artisanal mining, general lawlessness and poverty have all contributed towards bushmeat hunting and the destruction of the gorillas’ natural habitat.
Born Free supports the monitoring and protection of ten to 12 gorilla groups in the Tshivanga Highlands sector of the park, which until recently was the only secure place for gorillas. Since 2015, efforts have been underway to survey and secure the lowlands sectors of the park as well.
Ian Redmond Conservation Award by GRASP
Location: Rwanda
Donation amount: £10,000
The Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) launched the Ian Redmond Conservation Award to inspire a new wave of Africans and Asians dedicated to the long-term survival of great apes and their habitats.
Ian Redmond OBE has dedicated the last three decades to the protection of chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos. An envoy for many years, he helped set up GRASP in 2001.
GRASP is a unique alliance of national governments, research institutions, United Nations agencies, conservation organisations and private sector actors.
Every winner of the Ian Redmond Conservation Award receives $5,000, and two of these winners will be sponsored by Remembering Wildlife. The first award went to The Forest of Hope project in Rwanda, which impressed GRASP with its conservation education to mitigate crop raising and improve local livelihoods in the Gishwati Forest Reserve.
The Turengerubuzima Sewing Centre Project
Location: Rwanda
Donation amount: £3,500
One of the issues facing the future of mountain gorillas in Rwanda is the pressure on land use from the local population. Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with agriculture and dwellings stretching to the very edges of the national park boundaries as a result.
President Paul Kagame’ strategy to alleviate this pressure is to try and educate women about birth control and provide them with alternative paths in life by giving them the means to provide for themselves.
The Turengerubuzima Sewing Centre Project aims to provide employment and income for single mothers living in the villages surrounding Volcanoes National Park.
A sewing centre has relatively low set up costs and is a means to give women training, employment and income. The project is providing the initial equipment, space, security and training needed to get these women on the road to self-sufficiency.
The centre will concentrate on sewing much-needed school uniforms. Guests staying at Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge will also be able to visit the centre, as part of an established ‘community walk’ and it is hoped that this will result in donations and purchases of gifts from the centre.
Lukuru Foundation
Location: Democratic Republic of Congo
Donation amount: £11,000
The Lukuru Foundation works in the documentation, scientific study and preservation of targeted great ape populations and other species that are of conservation concern and/or scientific importance.
Working in a landscape that is unpredictable and sometimes unstable requires great flexibility and the ability for teams to take immediate action to keep everyone safe.
This can result in urgent and unexpected demands on Lukuru Foundation's field teams on the frontline, and communication between all teams is a priority. That is why upgraded devices which allow GPS tracking and satellite messaging can save lives.
The £11,000 donation from Remembering Great Apes went towards ensuring that Lukuru’s teams have the most reliable communication equipment for real-time contact in extremely isolated areas.
Meru Community work via Born Free
Location: Kenya
Donation amount: £23,000
Meru rhino sanctuary was established as part of an effort to restore rhino population in Meru National Park after being decimated in the 1970s and '80s through poaching. The existing 48km² sanctuary holds more than 100 rhinos - 31 blacks and 70 whites.
Plans to double the sanctuary size to respond to the increased demand for forage and space meant that the entire law enforcement operation would become a challenge for the rangers, and so local community members were approached for their help with rhino protection.
The goal of the Community Anti-poaching Project is to involve local community members along the Park border in the protection of rhinos. ‘Meru rhino champions’ were recruited and equipped to assist in rhino protection in MNP. These dedicated and passionate individuals acted as Born Free’s eyes and ears on wildlife crime being planned or undertaken outside the Rhino Sanctuary.
The champions were equipped with smart phones fitted with cameras and GPS systems to provide pictorials and geo-reference information to KWS Security and shared with Born Free. The champions receive funds for running the phones. They will also be given a small monthly stipend to facilitate their day-to-day activities.
International Rhino Foundation work in Java
Location: Java
Donation amount: £18,000
Today, the foundation operates a comprehensive protection program in the park that focuses on population monitoring and habitat management.
The overarching goal of the program is to prevent the extinction of Javan rhinos while also overseeing other threatened species and critical habitat within the park.
Five four-man, highly trained Rhino Protection Units are the backbone of the program, and have prevented rhino poaching in the Park for more than 16 years. However, demand for rhino horn in China and Vietnam, as well as rhino poaching in Africa, continue to escalate - making the vigilant protection for this last population of Javan rhinos even more critical.
Remembering Rhinos’ £18,000 donation has contributed towards salaries, plus car, motorcycle and boat maintenance costs. It has also paid towards replacement field equipment such as cameras, GPS, uniforms, shoes, backpacks, sleeping bags, cooking tools, and other equipment.
Saving the Survivors
Location: South Africa
Donation amount: £35,000
Saving the Survivors is a field-based Southern African conservation organisation that works hard to maintain the region’s rich biodiversity by caring for and rescuing endangered species.
The organisation provides critical and emergency veterinary intervention, care and support, by partnering with governmental, non-governmental, community and private stakeholders.
Saving the Survivors also develops and supports conservation programmes, while providing high-level research into endangered wildlife.
This donation from Remembering Rhinos assisted Saving the Survivors in the treatment of Seha, a white rhino bull, and Thembi, a white rhino female. Both suffered horrific facial wounds as result of poaching, and the donation enabled the organisation to provide long-term treatment to both survivors.
It is a mark of the great work of Saving the Survivors that both of these rhino went on to successfully reproduce.
International Rhino Foundation work in Sumatra
Location: Indonesia
Donation amount: £18,000
The Sumatran rhino is the world’s most endangered rhino species - fewer than 100 individuals survive. Between 1989 and 1998, the population declined by at least 70%, making the Sumatran rhino perhaps the most endangered large mammal on the planet.
The largest populations of Sumatran rhinos can be found in Bukit Barisan Selatan and Way Kambas National Parks. Rhino Protection Units are critical to safeguarding the rhinos and other mega-vertebrates within these parks.
The units are highly-trained, four-man anti-poaching teams that intensively patrol key areas throughout the parks. They are the single-most stable and effective force in the protection of the National Parks.
The funding provided by Remembering Rhinos enabled the International Rhino Foundation to pay the salaries of Rhino Protection Unit staff, plus travel costs for the workers, and valuable equipment such as fuel for vehicles, computers and waterproof cameras.
Orangutan Foundation
Location: Indonesian Borneo
Donation amount: £26,000
The Orangutan Foundation works to save orangutans by protecting their tropical forest habitat, by collaborating with local communities and promoting research and education.
The habitat is unique in its rich biodiversity and is crucial for the welfare of the local population, who are as dependent on the forest as the orangutans.
The funds provided by Remembering Great Apes went towards the support of one guard post at Camp JL, an orangutan post-monitoring release camp in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve.
African Rhino Conservation Collaboration
Location: South Africa
Donation amount: £8,126
Over the past ten years, the Eastern Cape has seen its rhino population grow by an impressive 12%.
African Rhino Conservation Collaboration explains this success as an outcome of wide-ranging collaboration between not-for-profit organisations and government agencies, including law enforcement and conservation departments.
These units are driven by a joint determination to meet the poaching threat as it moves into Africa’s southernmost rhino enclave.
As a result, more conservation investment is being pumped into the Eastern Cape. Until ARCC received funding from Remembering Rhinos, all of its planning, implementation and coordination had been carried out pro-bono by its trustees.
But the donation allowed ARCC to employ its first dedicated coordinator for nine months, who could meet the growing threats and opportunities of rhino protection.
On the strength of the initial investment’s success, another £5,352 was pledged from another source. This paid for an additional six months of coordination.
Wilderness Foundation Africa
Location: South Africa
Donation amount: £25,000
Wilderness Foundation Africa works to protect and sustain wildlife through integrated conservation and education programmes.
Over the last 45 years, the Foundation has overseen direct action anti-poaching in the field, combined with large landscape wilderness management activities. It has developed rising young leaders from disadvantaged communities for a career in conservation.
Funding from Remembering Rhinos was donated towards the Foundation’s Forever Wild Rhino Protection Initiative, established to save the rhino from extinction.
This has enabled the Foundation to carry out aerial operations in two national parks in the Eastern Cape, with the objective of improving the monitoring and security of their critically endangered black rhino populations.
The aerial operations are used for surveillance of the parks, following tip-offs of potential poaching. They will also search for missing or injured rhino, and allow the Foundation to locate the carcasses of poached rhino. Useful data on the birthrates of rhino calves and other insights into the populations may also be gained from the operations.
Bushlife Conservancy
Location: Zimbabwe
Donation amount: £28,000
Bushlife Conservancy’s mission is to protect and save African wildlife in the Mana Pools and Zambezi Valley.
In 2015, Bushlife Conservancy set up the Bushlife Support Unit, uniting the Zambezi Valley community in a consolidated effort to stop poaching in the area.
The Unit put out an urgent appeal for assistance to combat the surge in elephant poaching. With donations from Vundu Camp guests, plus Save The Elephant Fund and Elephant Crisis Fund, a range of anti-poaching activities have been launched.
These are divided into three core areas – deployment of anti-poaching rangers in Mana Pools and the surrounding areas; investigations via an effective informer network; and collaring of large elephant bulls.
Bushlife Conservancy received funding of £24,000 from Remembering Elephants, which went towards investments such as trail cameras, aerial surveys to monitor the health of the elephant population, thermal imaging equipment, vehicles and other provisions for the rangers.
Shompole Wilderness bee fences
Location: Kenya
Donation amount: £2,350
Farmers of the South Rift Valley can often lose their crops to elephants trampling through their fields. This can cause retaliation from the farmers, so Shompole Wilderness was looking for an effective elephant deterrent.
They found it - in the shape of ‘bee fences’. These depend on the fact that elephants hate bees with a passion. By hanging bee hives on fences surrounding crops, elephants on the way to the crops will knock into them. The elephants will be surrounded by a swarm and will run in the opposite direction.
Land owners that install the bee fences are further incentivised by gaining the honey and other related products to sell, which add to their income. Remembering Elephants and Save the Elephants jointly funded the small trial of hives in the area.
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If you have a general enquiry about Remembering Wildlife, please email contact@rememberingwildlife.com
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Saving the Survivors
Location: South Africa
Donation amount: £25,000
Saving the Survivors is a field-based Southern African conservation organisation that works hard to maintain the region’s rich biodiversity by caring for and rescuing endangered species.
The organisation provides critical and emergency veterinary intervention, care and support, by partnering with governmental, non-governmental, community and private stakeholders.
Saving the Survivors also develops and supports conservation programmes, while providing high-level research into endangered wildlife.
This donation from Remembering Rhinos assisted Saving the Survivors in the treatment of Seha, a white rhino bull, and Thembi, a white rhino female. Both suffered horrific facial wounds as result of poaching, and the donation enabled the organisation to provide long-term treatment to both survivors.
It is a mark of the great work of Saving the Survivors that both of these rhino went on to successfully reproduce.
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