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Creating safe spaces for people and animals is essential in addressing human-wildlife conflict. The Mozambique Wildlife Alliance (MWA) is actively tackling this challenge through an innovative program. In Mozambique, farming is deeply ingrained in the culture, with each household cultivating its own fields. However, this traditional practice becomes problematic when
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The Iberian Peninsula, encompassing Spain and Portugal, has experienced significant deforestation over centuries due to agricultural expansion, urbanization, and industrial activities. As a result, only about 8% of the original forests remain in the region. The Mediterranean forests have been extensively transformed into croplands and pastures in Spain, and their
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By Ian Cox The South African Constitution obliges the state to ensure, through the implementation of reasonable legislative and other measures, that South Africans enjoy an environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being. To this end, the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 or NEMA states as a
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A Transfrontier Conservation Area is defined as a component of a large ecological region that straddles the boundaries of two or more countries encompassing one or more protected areas as well as multiple resource use zones. The Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, or KAZA, lies in the Kavango and Zambezi River
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By Lieutenant Colonel Rafael Dilguerian De Oliveira Conceição Anti-poaching rangers often face dangerous and unpredictable situations in the field. While they may be armed, close-quarters confrontations with poachers will sometimes render firearms useless. In such scenarios, proficiency in unarmed combat techniques enables rangers to subdue poachers without escalating violence unnecessarily.
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The Northern Cameroon savannah faces a severe poaching crisis, devastating its unique wildlife and ecosystems. Species such as the giant eland, found only in a few countries, are particularly at risk, with their poached meat fetching a fraction of hunting safaris' revenue. These safaris provide significant conservation funding and
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By Prof Brian Child Farming has a massive environmental footprint, and it is difficult to discuss wild species and spaces without some understanding of agriculture. The strength and weakness of agriculture is that it greatly simplifies ecological systems. It replaces multi-species ecosystems with crop monocultures or near monocultures and ecological
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By Zig Mackintosh One of the key takeaways from the Snare Mitigation Symposium held in Pretoria in September 2024 was the issue of the prosecution and sentencing of snare poachers in South Africa. High-profile cases of rhino horn and elephant ivory trafficking are headline-grabbing, but meat poaching using snares and
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Professor Richard Fynn from the Okavango Research Institute in Maun, Botswana, specializes in rangeland ecology, wildlife ecology, and conservation science. He believes that Western-based conservation paradigms, such as the idea that the African wilderness was once a vast, untouched wilderness with no influence of people, are spurious. History shows that
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The Alistair Group is committed to conservation in Tanzania. The company provides a free helicopter and pilot to safari operators and conservation agencies for anti-poaching and related activities. They concentrate their efforts primarily in Western Tanzania during the wet season, during which the use of the chopper has the most
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By Prof Brian Child There is no doubt that intact natural systems and wildlife are in serious trouble. Man’s impact on the planet is summarized by an article in Science in 2011 entitled ‘A Global Perspective on the Anthropocene’. People and farming have expanded into most corners of the
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By Hank's Voice Jaguars (Panthera onca) are the largest native felids in the Americas and third largest globally, behind tigers and lions. However, they occupy only 51% of their historical range. Although classified as "Near Threatened" on the IUCN Red List, most subpopulations outside the Amazon