When Gayle was in Nepal in 2019 for the World Ranger Congress she met Kate Vanelli and Matt Lindendberg from Global Conservation Corp, a wonderful organisation that promotes wildlife conservation through youth education. Their ‘Future Rangers’ program, offered in conjunction with specific schools close to important national parks in South Africa, is designed to turn future poachers into future rangers.
Since meeting Kate and Matt, Gayle and Malcolm have had a number of calls with them exploring the challenges they face and how they and their organisation might be supported by Global Leadership Foundation. They recorded one recent call in which Kate and Matt talked about some of the challenges they are facing right now in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Understandably one of their biggest challenges is financial as major sponsors are forced to reduce or remove their regular contributions as they face their own challenges.
The video below features some snippets from that conversation. Through the video, Matt moves from his accommodation to his car as he starts a six-hour round trip to deliver bulletproof vests to a group of rangers who are performing important but dangerous work in the current environment.
They have also described in a recent blog post the impact of Covid-19 on conservation efforts.
Please support the work of Global Conservation Corp if you are in a position to do so: www.globalconservationcorps.org/donate/
Photo by Magdalena Kula Manchee on Unsplash.com
Thanks to Gail for this article. There is at least a slight understanding of how Covid-19 affects people on another continent. It is very unfortunate to hear that people really cannot get the proper funding at such a difficult time. Because of this, unfortunately, the productivity and efficiency of people in this period is falling. I really hope that we will hear these people and you and I can somehow help them. I hope people will hear and will somehow act together and help in this difficult situation for all of us.