MISSION POSSIBLE
From relocating rhinos and collaring elusive predators to restoring freshwater ecosystems and building safe havens for rescued wildlife, these are the high-impact conservation missions currently underway. Each must be completed within a narrow window—delays risk increased poaching, habitat degradation, or the loss of the very animals we’re trying to save. Join a mission, fund a field team, lend your skills in the field, or support from wherever you are. Because protecting urgent wildlife projects isn’t impossible—it’s just unfinished.
Critical Infrastructure for New Protected Area
The Wildlife Emergency Fund is in the process of establising a new protected area of approximately 12,000 ha. This is a very unique opportunity to protect critically endangered wildlife and plant species. The Wildlife Emergency Fund requires support in terms of fencing the property and implementing critical infrastructure projects such as firebreaks and roads. We then intend to reintroduce key species such as the black rhino.
Genetic Management of Elephants in Reserves through Translocations
The Wildlife Emergency Fund is actively moving elephant bulls and family groups between reserves in South Africa to manage genetics. Many of the smaller reserves have not had new elephants introduced in many years, and the Wildlife Emergency Fund is actively working with various reserves to move elephants between properties and introduce new elephants. We have identified ten reserves where elephants need to be moved to or between.
Wildlife Collaring and Monitoring
The Wildlife Emergency Fund is often called to collar problem animals, which allows reserve management to actively manage these animals and mitigate any human wildlife conflict. These are often emergency situations and require short response times, and therefore we need to have collars on hand and funds for veterinary support and helicopters.
Leopard Rescues in the Northern Parts of South Africa
We are working with the Cheetah Outreach Trust to provide tangible solutions to farmers in the northern parts of South Africa who are experiencing challenges with leopards. These solutions include capturing the leopards and relocating them to safer spaces where they can thrive and make a meaningful contribution to the ecosystems within which they occur.
Tembe Tusker Translocation Programme
The Tembe Elephant Park in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, is home to some of the last remaining elephant tuskers in the country. The Wildlife Emergency Fund translocates bulls and family units to other reserves in South Africa, with the key objective of infusing these genetics into other reserves so that they can be secured in perpetuity. There are many reserves in South Africa that would like the Tembe Tusker genetics, and we are actively moving the tuskers to these reserves on an annual basis.
Rhino Rewild
The Wildlife Emergency Fund has officially partnered with African Parks in supporting their objectives of translocating and rewilding over 2000 rhinos to new properties in South Africa and other areas of Africa. African Parks recently acquired a rhino breeding farm in South Africa, and the intention is to actively rewild these rhinos onto larger properties over the next 10 years. The Wildlife Emergency Fund is assisting in finding rewilding properties, funding, and assisting with logistics for the project. We are thankful that African Parks were willing to take on the responsibility of the rhinos, and we firmly believe that other NGO’s and the private sector should support this initiative extensively.
Cheetah Metapopulation Initiative
The cheetah population in Southern Africa is managed through a metapopulation programme whereby many reserves are managed as a single gene pool and cheetahs are strategically moved between these reserves. The Wildlife Emergency Fund provides ongoing support to this initiative by translocating cheetahs to reserves and providing emergency support services as and when required.
Rhino Dehorning
The Wildlife Emergency Fund provides ongoing dehorning programmes to state and community reserves that lack the capacity to implement the interventions themselves. These dehorning programmes are costly and need to be implemented every second year. At this stage, we are supporting the Rietvlei Dam Nature Reserve, Lionspruit, Loskop Dam Nature Reserve, and other state-owned reserves. If we do not implement these programmes, it means that the rhinos will remain exposed.
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