Author: Beth Cross

The dry Sahel ecosystem of the Ferlo North Wildlife Reserve in Senegal is under pressure from overgrazing, as well as the threat of wild fires. These fires are becoming more frequent and have a devasting impact on the landscape and wildlife as well as communities in the area. Ferlo North is a stronghold for many iconic species, as well as an important area for migrating birds. It is also a crucial site for the reintroduction of the north African red necked ostrich and the critically endangered scimitar horned oryx.

Working with on the ground partners, we have been able to support the creation of firebreaks within the reserve, as well as the excavation of ponds to provide standing water for fire-fighting and oases for the benefit of wildlife.

It is important that ranger teams have the basic equipment needed for their day to day work, so as well as specialist fire fighting equipment we are making sure that they have access to fuel for their vehicles to enable them to maintain regular patrols as well as respond quickly and reliably to emergencies.

As climate change and over grazing continue to threaten this landscape for the long term, it is vital that the local economy adapts to ensure a sustainable future. Therefore, we have also been working with our partners on the ground to fund the creation of vegetable gardens to diversify agriculture and reduce the reliance on grazing animals, providing better food security for local communities, protecting the landscape and further reducing the risk of more fires.

The Hargila Army is an inspirational grassroots organisation founded and led by our Working for the Wild Ambassador Dr Purnima Devi Barman.  We are proud to have supported their work protecting and safeguarding the future of the endangered greater adjutant stork and its threatened habitat in Assam, India, through empowering local women to become conservationists. Following the success of this project, they are now hoping to expand their work to the stork’s other stronghold in Cambodia.

The greater adjutant stork, or Hargila, is the world’s rarest stork, breeding only in Cambodia and Assam. This remarkable bird is a vital part of its wetland ecosystem. It is also a very effective scavenger, important for reducing the spread of diseases for both wildlife and people. Due to habitat loss, the storks have come into closer contact with human habitation and moved onto feeding on rubbish dumps. They are often seen as dirty and a pest, leading to misunderstanding and persecution.

Purnima’s conservation and community empowerment model set up in India has been extremely successful, increasing stork populations and empowering thousands of women to become conservationists and to build their livelihoods around protecting them. We would now like to help replicate this model in Cambodia, training women in nest site and habitat protection, conservation leadership and providing equipment necessary for the protection of the storks’ nesting sites in Cambodia. It is hoped that women from India will be able to travel to Cambodia to share their knowledge and experiences to help develop new businesses and livelihoods based around the storks and their importance to the local area.

Through this community initiative, the greater adjutant stork and its threatened wetland habitat will be better protected, leading to population increase and a more secure future for this endangered keystone species. It will also increase awareness of the importance of these animals among local communities and enable hundreds of women to play a key role in stork conservation, whilst also building sustainable businesses and boosting the local economy.

Stara Planina Natural Park in Serbia is a vast area of mountainous grassland landscape in central Europe. The region is particularly important for plant diversity; the mixture of forest, scrubland, grassland and bogs provide a unique habitat for a wide variety of wildlife. For thousands of years this landscape has been maintained through grazing by large herbivores – both wild animals and traditional breeds of livestock. However, in recent years the habitats have started to degrade and the area is under threat, including from over-grazing by concentrated areas of sheep and cattle, and changes in agricultural practices and rural culture. In addition, climate change is impacting how well the grasslands can recover from degradation.

In order to restore and protect this ancient mountain landscape, our local partners in the region are working on an exciting rewilding project. This involves a return to managing the habitats as they had been for thousands of years through low intensity grazing by large herbivores. Currently, the team are using traditional hardy livestock breeds such as the Stara Planina horse and Busha cattle. However, the ultimate goal is to reintroduce wild European bison – an important species which used to roam the plains and mountain pastures of central Europe but has been extinct in the wild in the Balkans for hundreds of years.

To ensure the success of this project, the local ranger teams need to have the right equipment to patrol and monitor the park, the grazing animals and other wildlife. We are delighted to have been able to support them by providing funds for boots to ensure they can work safely to protect this ancient landscape.

Sri Lanka is a stronghold for the endangered Asian elephant, however, human interaction with elephants is a major issue both for the safety of people in affected villages and the elephants that stray too close to farmland and homes. With the highest number of elephant deaths and second highest rate of human deaths in the world due to this human elephant conflict, managing this relationship between people and wildlife is a core part of the role of wildlife rangers.

Lahugala National Park in the south east of Sri Lanka is one of the smaller national parks in the country, and thus often not as well funded as the larger parks. The small ranger team regularly deals with human elephant conflict, as well as other issues such as illegal fishing in park reservoirs, unauthorised entry of cattle into the park, and illegal hunting of wild animals. However, the team was lacking the patrol equipment and PPE to work safely and effectively in sometimes extreme and dangerous conditions.

Working with our on-the-ground partners Elemotion Foundation, we were pleased to be able to fund £3000 of equipment for the rangers at Lahugala National Park, including protective clothing, bushcraft equipment, night vision binoculars and camping gear. As a result, the ranger team has been able to increase not only the number of patrols but also the effectiveness of these patrols. In addition, the night vision binoculars have enabled them to expand their work further afield to include night time monitoring of beaches that are home to nesting turtles.

Most importantly, the provision of this new equipment has meant better safety and morale for the rangers and improved conservation for elephants and other wildlife.

We were also delighted to provide £4000 towards the construction of a new aviary at the Randenigala Health Management Unit, which is a vital facility for research and monitoring, combatting wildlife crime and caring for and rehabilitating injured wildlife.

Previously, the centre had no specialist area for birds, but thanks to your support and donations and the incredible team work of staff on the ground who volunteered extra time and skills, the aviary is complete and almost ready to open.

Species that will benefit from this brand new facility include birds of prey such as the black eagle, white bellied sea eagle and many owl species, as well as birds endemic to Sri Lanka including the Sri Lanka wood pigeon, Sri Lanka grey hornbill, Layard’s parakeet and the national bird, the Sri Lanka junglefowl.