Wildlife ACTs Community Conservation through Immersive Experience

by Wildlife ACT

KwaZulu-Natal Environment Education

#doDifferent

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Different Donations

Direct Donations

R 163,500

Funded to date

R 163,000

Goal

This project is raising funds to provide local youth with Bush Camp experiences in neighbouring protected areas, inspiring and building a new cohort of conservation ambassadors. The funds will also strengthen the existing network of seven Wildlife ACT Ambassadors Clubs around protected areas in Zululand, enabling day trips and facilitating experiences to inspire and capacitate young future leaders. Additionally, the project aims to further resource the Wildlife ACT Immersive Conservation Leadership internship initiative for 15 young future leaders from outside Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. This initiative educates, capacitates, and opens opportunities for these individuals, aiming to build a cohort of conservation champions within these communities.

Help Wildlife ACT reconnect people with nature and provide the youth and young people from communities adjacent to protected areas with a renewed passion, capacitation, and sense of responsibility for the conservation of their natural heritage across Zululand, and by doing so, expanding their livelihood opportunities.

Across Zululand in KZN, South Africa, there exists a patchwork of protected areas that run alongside mixed land uses and large communal landscapes. It is both within these protected areas, and outside in communal lands that conservation can either be won or lost. When communities and conservation are at odds with one other, it is often both that loss. To combat this social and conservation challenge, Wildlife ACT works on “both sides of the fence” and works towards re-connecting people with nature for the betterment of these communities and wildlife. More specifically, Wildlife ACT’s Community Conservation Programme (CCP) was established with the aim to support the development and strengthening of community conservation and stewardship in communities adjacent to protected areas, thus contributing towards priority species conservation, such as Rhino, Wild Dog, and Vultures, over the long term.

To achieve its goals, Wildlife ACT have taken a tiered approach to community conservation. This is done through setting a foundation of 1) building a cohort of youth that are connected to, knowledgeable on, and resonate with their natural environment. The programme then 2) nurtures the passion of those teenagers and young adults who continue to show interest in being further ambassadors for conservation. Finally, 3) they facilitate opportunities for those who are interested in pursuing nature-based livelihoods in and around protected areas.

Building off its longstanding work in this space, Wildlife ACT aims to build back strong post covid pandemic restrictions and provide the youth of Zululand with a reconnection with and inspiration for nature conservation. Furthermore, leveraging off the base of funds raised through #doDifferent Campaign in early 2024, the funds raised in this Phase 2 aims to utilise funds to:

Provide local youth with Bush Camp experiences into neighbouring protected areas to inspire and build a new cohort of ambassadors for conservation.
Strengthening the existing network of seven Wildlife ACT Ambassadors Clubs around protected areas in Zululand. Funds will enable day trips and facilitate experiences to inspire and capacitate young future leaders.
Further resource the Wildlife ACT Immersive Conservation Leadership internship initiative for 15 young future leaders from outside Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. This initiative educates, capacitates, and opens opportunities for these individuals and aims to build a cohort of conservation champion within these communities