"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
The okapi live in the dense jungle of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The opaki is under threat
Although it is a respected cultural symbol of the DRC (have had protect status since 1933), the opaki is threatened by human activities: slash-and-burn agriculture, illegal gold mining, logging, encroachment from human settlement and bush-meat poaching.
Enter the Opaki Conservation Project
Enter the Opaki Conservation Project which works to protect the natural habitat of the opaki and indigenous Mbuti pygmies who lives in the Opaki Wildlife Reserve. It also looks to promote the species around the world.
The reserve itself is a designated World Heritage Site. It sits within the Ituri Forest, and it encompasses 13,700 square kilometres. As well as the opaki, it is home to animals such as forest elephants, chimpanzees, 13 species of primates, leopards, bongo antelopes and a huge variety of birds and insects.
OpakiConservation undertakes wildlife protection, community assistance and conservation education. For instance, it has IUCN eco-guards to collect snares, evict miners, pursue and detain poachers, monitor agricultural expansion and biodiversity. This is all aimed to protect, manage and secure the Opaki Wildlife Reserve so that future generations can benefit from its vibrant forest ecosystem.
And it provides rations for forest patrols and support, and it helps educate communiteis so that they are aware of the Reserve's regulations and protects them, too. The opaki is an important symbol of their national heritage.
This video is from the Wildlife Conservation Expo from the Wildlife Conservation Network, back in October 2024. It gives a really good insight into the state of our tropical forests, why the opaki matters - and what efforts are being made to help both the opaki and indigenous people there.
World Opaki Day’s aims
World Opaki Day on 18 October celebrates the opaki – it raises awareness of it as many people have never heard of an opaki. You can find out more about the opaki here.
And crucially, the opaki acts as a flagship species to protect the forest ecosystem where it resides.
There are activities around the villages in the reserve and they are combined to educate local communities and protect the opaki.
2. Recycle your own mobile phone. Did you know that a cell/mobile phones have coltan? It’s a mineral mined in the DRC forests, so if you recycle your phone it means less mining in the forest.
3. Put okapi photos on social media, using the hashtags hashtags #OkapiConservation and #WorldOkapiDay
You could also take a look at the Giraffe and Opaki Specialist Group (GOSG) which consists of experts to study giraffe, opaki and the threats these animals face. The group is leading and supporting conservation actions to ensure that giraffe and opaki survive into the future. The Giraffe Conservation Fund and ZSL (the Zoological Society of London) are co-hosts of the group for giraffe and opaki respectively. Others involved in working for opaki conservation include the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and Lukuru Foundation who lead the TL2 Project. The project is seeking to establish a newly protected area - the Lomani National Park - and this area encompasses opaki.
They want to bring beavers back to Northamptonshire. It’s been over 400 years since beavers – a keystone species - were last seen there, and the Trust has been given permission to release a family group at the Delta Pit wetland, at the Nene Wetlands nature reserve.
The Beaver Trust visited the site and did a full feasibility study and identified the site as a suitable feeding site – it’s also quite away from the public. Furthermore, the site is a difficult one to manage, with breeding birds in summer and overwintering birds in winter, giving the Trust very limited time to do any work. so the beavers will be able to manage the habitat work for the Trust.
The beavers will be in a safe, enclosed area surrounding a lake. They are excellent eco-engineers, and have an excellent ability to create habitats that will benefit a whole range of animals.
The beavers will be busy restoring the wetland habitat – beavering away – and the humans have to do some work of their own beforehand, managing trees and constructing a fence. This fence is constructed and installed to an exact specification from Natural England – it follows a full site survey. That survey involves considering the risks, so that the Trust can make sure the beavers are safe and don’t escape. The stock gates are designed to an approved beaver-proof spec.
The beavers’ work should benefit wetland birds, creating more roosting and feeding habitat, and invertebrates and bats should benefit from it as well. The beavers will be doing what humans would be doing, but they will be doing it better (and the Trust themselves said that!)
One of the exciting things will be the monitoring of the site, to see how the beavers are doing and how their introduction and work is benefiting other species.
The public visiting the shopping centre next to the reserve will also benefit as they should be able to see the beavers when they visit!
Around the world there are many people who are willing to put their lives on the line in order to protect endangered animals and habitats.
The International Ranger Foundation (IRF) is the official body representing rangers around the world. It was established on 31st July 1992, after a year spent setting up and planning for the establishment and development of the organisation. The aim now is to drive through this development so that there is a professional body of rangers around the world. It's based in Australia. International Ranger Foundation UK is here.
Mokala National Park observing World Ranger Day, South Africa This shows how dangerous the job of being a ranger can be and gives you an insight into the life of a ranger. THANK YOU to rangers, everywhere.
2023 was an important year because it was the first year of the newly set biodiversity framework, with lots of targets. Target three is especialy important because it sets a target of 30% of the world having effectively managed areas by 2030. To achieve this, it will be vital to have a professional body of rangers around the world and the numbers of rangers worldwide will need to increase from 286,000 today to 1.5 million. There will be benefits for wildlife and biodiveristy of course, but also for people, who will benefit from the economic and social services outcomes which come about from such a development.
So the theme for World Ranger Day for 2024 is 30 x 30, reflecting target three.
There is a lot of information about rangers on their website, so please explore their website. It works with The Thin Green Lineto promote the initiative of World Ranger Day.
World Ranger Day is a chance for all of us to show our appreciation for the work that wildlife rangers and guardians do and offer our support in whatever way we can and to remember those who have died or been injured doing this vital work and to think of the families they leave behind.
The Thin Green Line says that often rangers' families are left behind without any support. Donations and support give a gift of hope and an urgent lifeline to families left behind.
And it’s good to know that there is something you can do to help wildlife and locals in their communities at the same time, and we thought we’d do a roundup of charities and organisations working to help in this way. Sometimes wildlife rangers are called wildlife guardians.
The Foundation works with ranger groups, ranger associations and conservation partners in over 60 countries. They say it’s estimated that over 1,000 park rangers have been killed in the line of duty over the past 10 years. They are dedicated to providing Rangers worldwide with the assistance they deserve and need.
Other organisations supporting wildlife rangers
Ol Pejeta Ol Pejeta Conservancy is a 90,000 acre wildlife conservancy in Kenya. They have 150 rangers who are dedicated to protecting the wildlife there and neighbouring communities. They also have a K9 unit, whose dogs work hard also to protect wildlife.
Project Ranger supports a range of patrols such as horse patrols, foot patrols, motorbike, aerial, truck and K9 patrols. In doing so it protects a number of species in national parks, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, conserved land and wildnerness areas. There are plenty of ways to support their work so visit their website to find out more!
The World Land Trust has a Keepers of the Wild initiative. The rangers are working on the front line of conservation, safeguarding some of the world’s most threatened animals and the crucial habitats in which they live. They protect reserves from poaching and logging, and importantly, link to local communities, building trust, helping to change attitudes and find practical solutions to problems. You can support Keepers of the Wild by making a donation.
The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation works to support rangers in both Asia and Africa. You can support wildlife rangers here and help them conserve nature. Their work includes carrying out anti-poaching and anti-trafficking patrols across national parks, finding and removing wildlife snares and collecting essential data on endangered speices and their habitats. They also work with communities to raise awareness and mitigate wildlife conflict.
This organisation works to save wildlife from extinction through education, anti-poaching and conservation efforts. It does this by using anti-poaching units, awareness and education and on the ground action, working on wildlife’s problems. You can adopt a ranger (also there’s a K9 poacher tracking unit) – find out what the options are to adopt a ranger here.
African Parks has an anti-poaching team of 1,000 rangers making up their law enforcement team. Thei rangers are stabilising force both for parks and regions
Virunga National Park is located on the eastern edge of the Congo Basin in Africa, and it's home to over 1,000 species of mammal, bird, reptile, and amphibian and a third of the world’s endangered mountain gorillas. It has 750 male and female rangers, all working hard and putting their lives on the line to protect the park and local communities. There's a canine unit as well. Find out more
The Gorilla Organisation has a supporting rangers scheme in the Democratic Republic of Congo and they act as the eyes, ears and voice of the forest. They cut snaes, save injured gorillas, combat the militias running the blood minerals trade, monitor the gorillas’ health and collect vital conservation data every day. Find out more here.
Tigers4ever have anti-poaching patrols in Bandharvagh, India, to protect tigers. They equip forest patrols, provide anti-poaching patrols and provide permanent solutions to water scarcity for wildlife
Become an Orangutan Guardian and help the Orangutan Foundation’s 60 Indonesian staff work on the frontline of conservation in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve. Their role is to guard and patrol the forests and rivers, to rescue and monitor the orangutans and to replant and nurture tree saplings. And crucially, they need to gain the trust and support of local communities. Become an Orangutan Guardian!
The Lewa Security Team consists of field rangers, radio operators, gatekeepers, baby rhino keepers, anti-poaching rangers and the tracker dog unit. The Anti-Poaching Rangers and Tracker Dog Unit work day and night to protect wildlife and keep them safe, especially rhinos and elephants. The tracker dog unit has four dogs and their handlers, the dogs act as efficient trackers, as they can pursue suspects for lengthy distances.
Save the Rhino makes sure that ranger teams have the the equipment they need to do their job as safely as possible. It has expanded canine units across the projects it funds, which in turn helps apprehend criminals. Find out more from Save the Rhino
Tusk
The charity Tusk give a Wildlife Ranger Award every year to give international recognition to the men and women who face danger every day to protect the wildlife and its ecosystems in Africa.
There are also rangers in other countries such as Australia and America and the UK, working for organisations such as national parks and they are also essential to protecting the environment and keeping wildlife safe.
And a very big thank you to each and every wildlife ranger working to care for and protect our wildlife and their habitats. And thank you to their families too.
The 22nd June is World Rainforests Day. Rainforests are vital for life to survive on Earth. Their loss threatens our biodiversity and imperils earth’s health. We ignore this loss at our peril.
World Rainforest Day was founded back in 2017 by the Rainforest Partnership. It celebrates the importance of healthy, standing rainforests for climate, biodiversity, culture and livelihoods. Crucially, it convenes a global movement to protect them and restore them. The Pledge programme mentioned below is launching in 2024 to drive rainforest and climate action across all sectors immediately.
Natural climate solutions such as protecting and restoring forests could reverse global emissions by a third, according to World Rainforest Day.
This day is held to celebrate rainforests and encourage us all to protect them. If we can all unite and become a forest of action that rains on earth, then we can make a huge difference.
The World Rainforest Day website has these things we can all do to make a positive impact on rainforests, today and every day:
Ways to help rainforests
Image copyright World Rainforest Day. They have a toolkit you can use to spread the word, which you'll find on their website.
Make a pledge!
World Rainforest Day says that "for a climate-stable future, we need standing rainforests. This #WorldRainforestDay marks the start of the Year of Action #forRainforests. Will you join us by making a pledge to take action?" Pledge here.
You could also visit Rainforest Rescue, whose mission is to give the rainforest a voice and preserve it in all its splendor. It has petitions you can sign to give rainforests your voice, and projects it runs to protect them, thanks to donor support. The petitions expose destructive projects and name the perpetrators, so they are important.
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust have a new appeal, Common Farm, and the goal was to raise £300,000 by 30th November 2023.
Update on 18 March 2024:SUCCESS!!!
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust to say that they could officially announce they'd completed on the purchase of Common Farm!!!
Over 2,000 donated to the appeal (only launched last October), contirbuting nearly £300,000 to the purchase. Major donors and philanthropic organisations gave the rest of the funding needed to secure the site. Locals have been critical to the success of the appeal, organising walking tours for potential donors, delivering leaflets, donating and encouraging people to get involved. And the Trust is working closely with the community to develop the site as a great place for people and nature.
This is great news, well done Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and to everyone involved!
It’s made up of 18 sheep-grazed grassland fields which the Trust is going to transform into a wildlife reserve. The team will make every field count, as they make the most of the different types of habitat; they will re-wet the land, by filling in ditches, as drainage ditches flush vital rainwater from the site. Blocking or filling them in will create pools by filling in the ditches to re-wet the land.
As the land gets wetter, so trees and vegetation and wildlife will benefit. And cattle and ponies may come in as grazers, their manure enriching the soil and their grazing stopping trees from becoming dominant.
The project should form a diverse habitat – woodland expansion, scrubby thickets and open grassland that are species-rich and will benefit barn owls and skylarks and curlew, as well as plants such as the ragged robin and harebell. This will give a new territory to wildlife – native plants and animals will thrive – hopefully within a year!
