The Zambezi Elephant Fund
WHO WE ARE: Global Wildlife Conservation and the Zambezi Elephant Fund (Zimbabwe). All Photos Courtesy of The Tashinga Initiative Trust.
WHY WE NEED YOU: African elephants in the Zambezi Valley are under serious threat from poaching – 60% of the Valley’s elephants have been lost over the last 13 years. The Zambezi Elephant Fund is working with partners across the Zambezi Valley to reverse this trend. We are fundraising for the implementation of a number of emergency projects to enhance the antipoaching effort by Wildlife Rangers and to improve protection of elephants and other species.
HOW MANY PEOPLE WORK FOR OUR CHARITY: Global Wildlife Conservation is a small US based species conservation organization. We work with high impact partnerships around the world to help further species conservation. The Zambezi Elephant Fund (ZEF) is one such project, run by a small group of dedicated conservation professionals, who are volunteering their services. Working through our partnership with the Tashinga Initiative Trust for the Zambezi Elephant Fund we are able to ensure maximum conservation impact for the species that need it most.
WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES:
- $5000 / £3,300 buys a radio repeater link installation, necessary for VHF communications in remote areas.
- $500 / £333 outfits one anti-poaching ranger with necessary equipment.
- $500 / £333 buys solar components to provide power and water at ranger stations.
- $300 / £200 buys a GPS for a ranger on patrol
- $150 / £100 buys 100 litres of fuel for ranger deployment by boat and vehicle.
- $150 / £100 buys a patrol tent for two anti-poaching rangers.
- $50 / £33 buys patrol food for one anti-poaching ranger for a week.
FOR MORE INFO CONTACT US.
Zambezi Elephant Fund Website.
A small group of private sector stakeholders and key NGO’s in collaboration with the national Wildlife Agency have formed the Zambezi Elephant Fund. Its aim is to ensure effective protection of Elephant populations in the wildlife protected areas system, and community wildlife areas which lie adjacent to the Zambezi River, Zimbabwe. Strengthened by the decades of conservation experience amongst its core group, the Zambezi Elephant Fund and has only one mission: HELP TO STOP THE ELEPHANT POACHING!
Zambezi Elephant Fund was formed also in response to a very real need for a holistic funding coordination structure for the enhancement of the local Wildlife Authority’s law enforcement and anti-poaching effort, most specifically to address the current terrible, inhuman onslaught on Elephant for ivory. Strategic objectives were identified, such as law enforcement and anti-poaching patrol units trained, motivated, led and equipped; Ranger based monitoring systems in place and effective; the physical enabling environment such as infrastructure, solar power, roads, vehicles, power, supplies; management and information systems; community involvement; surveillance and more. An anti-poaching strategy framework document was developed through a formal workshop held earlier in the year, and which was linked to the outline of the Strategic Elephant Policy and Management Framework developed in Hwange, Zimbabwe, in December 2014. This was very well attended by multidisciplinary participants all of whom significantly contributed to the outcome.
Fundraising has begun in earnest, in collaboration with photographic stakeholders in the Zambezi Valley, John Stevens Safaris and Lower Zambezi Tour Operators Association, African Wildlife Foundation 501(c)3, Conservation Zambezi (UK), Tashinga Initiative Trust, and Zambezi Society. The Zambezi Elephant Fund is administered by The Tashinga Initiative Trust and is proud to have the fiscal sponsorship of Conservation Zambezi, a UK registered Charity, and Global Wildlife Conservation 501(c)3 in the USA. The first consignment of Rangers’ anti-poaching kit has been donated to identified Rangers in Mana Pools National Park, funding has been raised for a solar powered water pumping installation, and planning for the establishment of a forward anti-poaching rapid reaction base is underway. The task has only just begun.
Elephant populations are under the greatest threat in history, and there is only this one chance to address the awful decline of this majestic, intelligent, family-oriented animal. Zambezi Elephant Fund depends upon support from the concerned and responsible Global Community.
