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By Dr Daniel Stiles On 20 January 2026, the UK government released a report entitled Global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security. While aimed at raising awareness about threats to UK national security posed by biodiversity loss and cascading ecosystem impacts, the report is relevant to all nations. The
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The honeyguide family, Indicatoridae, contains 17 species across four genera, distributed through sub-Saharan Africa and into parts of Asia. All are obligate brood parasites. Most eat beeswax. But the behavior that gives the family its common name, guiding humans to bee colonies, is only documented in one species: the greater
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By Zig Mackintosh Africa’s wilderness areas are critically underfunded. An IUCN assessment shows that available conservation funding across the continent meets only 10-20% of needs. The most comprehensive study of conservation finance in Africa’s savannas, published in PNAS by Lindsey et al. in 2018, evaluated funding for 282
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Fred Kiiza, Chief Warden of Murchison Falls Conservation Area, Uganda's largest protected area, explains the poaching challenges his team faces and the role of the Joint Operations Command Centre (JOC) in combating wildlife crime. Wire snare poaching remains the primary threat, with Uganda Kob as the main target
Tanzania
The theme of World Wetlands Day 2026 is “Wetlands and Traditional Knowledge: Celebrating Cultural Heritage.” Wetlands are the most productive and vital ecosystems on Earth, supporting extraordinary biodiversity while providing essential services such as water filtration, carbon storage, and flood regulation. While attention is rightly focused on this, the critical
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By Prof Brian Child Key Takeaways: * Public ownership of wildlife has become the norm as the rights, capacities, and confidence of local communities to manage forests, wildlife, and fisheries have decayed. * Public governance is historically dominant but is overstretched and underperforming. * Regulations are worse than worthless unless they can be
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The Save Valley Conservancy, situated in the southeast lowveld of Zimbabwe, was established in 1992 during the worst regional drought in a century. At the time, the land comprised several individual cattle ranches. The drought bankrupted many of these ranchers, forcing them to sell their land. The Duckworth family, in
Anti-Poaching in Action
The management of the Lugenda Foundation, based in the Lugenda Wildlife Reserve (LUWIRE) in the Niassa Special Reserve of Northern Mozambique, is exploring how to change community mindsets. They want to address the issues that create barriers to community success in food security and livelihood options. It is a fact
Theodore Roosevelt hunted and collected thousands of animals. He also saved more wildlife habitat than any American president before or since. This apparent paradox must be examined in the context of conservation today. During his presidency from 1901 to 1909, Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed 230 million acres of public land as
THE GAME RANGERS’ ASSOCIATION OF AFRICA (GRAA) Across Africa, conservation areas are increasingly becoming theatres of conflict. Rangers are operating in landscapes marked by instability, armed violence, political fragility, and criminal infiltration—conditions that push them far beyond the traditional boundaries of conservation work. While some rangers may carry firearms
By Zig Mackintosh The baobab (Adansonia digitata) is tough and can live between 1,500 and 2,000 years. The species has evolved over thousands of years alongside elephants, climate extremes, and fire. When they start to die at scale, something’s up. Baobab decline matters. It is not about
By Dr Daniel Stiles On 31st October, 2025, South Africa’s High Court in the Northern Cape ruled in favour of Hendrick Diedericks, owner of a registered rhino Captive Breeding Operation (CBO) in the Northern Cape known as Rockwood Conservation. Starting with 45 southern white rhinos purchased from Kruger National
There’s a starry-eyed perception of anti-poaching work that makes for exciting action TV. Armed rangers, night-vision pursuits, poachers in handcuffs. But. The reality is, it’s mostly about hours and hours of walking, watching, waiting. Sitting in the dark, listening to the bush, squashing mosquitoes, hoping tonight’s the
The guys from the Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation are on a mission to mitigate the scourge of snaring that has affected wildlife areas bordering the Kruger National Park. No refuge is too big or too small. From 40,000-hectare big-five reserves to small 21-hectare properties, they are willing to spend
Patrol’s Annual Review Dear Subscribers, On this, our third anniversary, we want to thank you for walking with us through another year of real-world reporting, frontline updates, and documentary storytelling that reveals the realities of anti-poaching and conservation across Africa. Across 23 editions, we have brought you stories that
By Zig Mackintosh Biogeography, the study of species distribution patterns across space and time, is seldom discussed in African conservation. Yet it provides perhaps the most compelling context for understanding why safari hunting concessions matter to conservation, and why, if safari hunting is eliminated, the risks to biodiversity would be
Key Takeaways: * CITES was set up to regulate the trade in wildlife products, not prohibit it. * There are 184 country members (Parties) who can vote on issues. Observers (NGOs) cannot vote, but they do influence policies. * The public at large has come to support a non-use wildlife paradigm, mainly as
Boda bodas are motorbike taxis ubiquitous across East Africa, particularly dominant in Uganda. The term originated from drivers who shouted "border, border" at potential customers along the Uganda-Kenya border during political instability in the 1970s. Originally, bicycle-based smuggling operations at border crossings transitioned to motorcycles in the 1990s
With Dick Fourie The Chete Safari Area is a vast, rugged, undeveloped wilderness on the Zimbabwean shoreline of Lake Kariba. Covering 108,100 hectares between the Senkwe and Muenda rivers, it forms part of the lower Zambezi–Kariba ecosystem. It occupies a critical ecological position within a broader mosaic of