Celebrating International Women’s Day

HONORING WOMEN IN CONSERVATION

Today, on March 8^th, Chengeta Wildlife honors International Women’s Day by reflecting on the importance of women in community-engaged conservation. Women make up half of the world’s population, yet that proportion is not well reflected in many conservation and development organizations and initiatives. While disproportionately representing male perspectives is often an unintentional consequence of many initiatives and programs designed to promote wildlife conservation, a greater effort must be made to recognize and adapt programs to female spaces. Doing so will subsequently allow room for women to share input safely and comfortably on future initiatives to improve livelihoods and conserve local ecological integrity.

AMPLIFYING WOMEN’S VOICES

Chengeta Wildlife strives to amplify the voices of local women in the areas where we work to create a more equitable vision of sustainable livelihoods and conservation initiatives. One way we aim to achieve this is by hosting workshops and focus groups that are accessible and welcoming to female members of the community. This often means meeting in a space in the community where women feel comfortable and at a time that accommodates the many other facets of work for which women are responsible. While we recognize the gender gap in access to formal education in the regions where we work, we refuse to allow this inequality to impact the types of training and opportunities we offer to local women.

IMPORTANCE OF WOMEN IN COMMUNITY-ENGAGED CONSERVATION

Trainings and workshops are offered in all local dialects, allowing participants to actively engage in whichever language they are most comfortable. We rely on culturally appropriate and locally developed illustrations in the educational materials we use in all workshops. During a large-scale demographic and socioeconomic study in Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas in Central African Republic, Chengeta and our partners trained 94 local community members in data collection on handheld tablets; women represented half of the individuals trained. Including women, as well as other historically marginalized groups, in all aspects of community-engaged conservation assures that programs are designed holistically with equitable input across all subgroups. This is crucial for sustainable and effective conservation programming. You can read more about our overall community work in our Communities Blueprint article here.

WOMEN AND WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING

Recognizing women’s everyday roles in shaping local ecologies is a critical first step in designing community-engaged conservation efforts. A recent book entitled “Women and Wildlife Trafficking” explores the roles women play in shaping wildlife ecologies and emphasizes the need to refocus conservation programs to consider the specific needs and perspectives of local women. You can read more about efforts to expand the conservation economy into a more gender equitable space here.

THANK YOU!

Lastly, Chengeta Wildlife would like to give a very big thank you to all the amazing women in the communities in which we are engaged who make our work possible. Without their trust and invaluable input, many of the local conservation initiatives that we support would not exist. Merci beaucoup! Singuila mingui! Melesi!

Training Ecoguards in Salonga DRC

A SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION

Chengeta Wildlife lead trainer, Yoann Galeran (pictured), has spent several months on the ground in Salonga leading the mentoring and monitoring programme. He says, “The training of ecoguards in Salonga is not limited to a one-off training programme, but accompanies the eco-guards in the preparation, implementation and follow-up of patrols.”

Our ethos is to provide knowledge and skills that will enable these anti-poaching units to maintain and develop their skills even well after our trainers have left.

Yoann goes on to say that he believes that one of the greatest challenges is “to reconcile the protection of the rainforest and its species with the well-being of the local population.”

Rory Young Tribute

Rory

Update From the Central African Republic

Amazon Smile

Chengeta part of Amazon Smile

Great news, we are now part of Amazon Smile (smile.amazon.com) and hope you will select Chengeta Wildlife as your Amazon Smile Non profit? Every time you shop you can make a difference for Chengeta’s team efforts!

What is AmazonSmile?
“AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to your favorite charitable organization. You can choose from over one million organizations to support.

How do I shop at AmazonSmile? Amazon Smile
To shop at AmazonSmile simply go to smile.amazon.com from the web browser on your computer or mobile device. You may also want to add a bookmark to smile.amazon.com to make it even easier to return and start your shopping at AmazonSmile.

Which products on AmazonSmile are eligible for charitable donations?
Tens of millions of products on AmazonSmile are eligible for donations. You will see eligible products marked “Eligible for AmazonSmile donation” on their product detail pages. Recurring Subscribe-and-Save purchases and subscription renewals are not currently eligible.

Can I use my existing Amazon.com account on AmazonSmile?
Yes, you use the same account on Amazon.com and AmazonSmile. Your shopping cart, Wish List, wedding or baby registry, and other account settings are also the same.

How do I select a charitable organization to support when shopping on AmazonSmile?
On your first visit to AmazonSmile smile.amazon.com, you need to select a charitable organization to receive donations from eligible purchases before you begin shopping. We will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make at smile.amazon.com will result in a donation.”

Written by Marjet Young – Wessels

Chengeta Edinburgh Fundraiser Wine & Dine

Tickets and more information

Hope to see you there!

July Updates

Check out that lovely progress bar. Chengeta supporters are the best!

Just $1,975 more in donations until our matching funds are fully utilized. That will bring our total to $38,467! Our best campaign to date: You don’t have to wear a cape to be a hero. 

Rory Young has completed our second training session in Mali.

RORY: “I wouldn’t be achieving anything without all the sacrifice and support of the Chengeta team and supporters. These are “our” achievements, not “my” achievements!”

Unfortunately Rory became very ill with gastroenteritis and malaria the day before he was to fly home to his family. After IV meds and fluids he was able to leave a couple of days later than scheduled, but it will take some time for him to fully recover. The sacrifices made by Rory and his family are many.

Of course he makes light of it:

RORY: “Unfortunately, the recent BBC report on the earth-shattering finding (in my world) from Ethiopia to the effect that the smell of live chickens deters mosquitoes arrived too late for me.

I managed to go down with a bout of Malaria, nicely followed up by the dreaded lurgy (sometimes known as gastroenteritis). Other members of the noble poultry family, the quacks, have advised me that there is still more evil lurking within and have advised further blood sucking in order to identify this last member of this fowl trinity.

Whilst dwelling on my misery (and making the most whilst it last of every drop of sympathy I can winge out of my beloved) I am seriously considering entering future anti poaching missions with a chicken on my shoulder and a cork in my pocket…”

This was the first time we worked with Matt Croucher in the field. We are excited to continue partnering with him and his non-profit, Action Against Poaching. Can you imagine the logistics necessary to get his dummy/training mines and IED’s onto flights to Mali?

FROM RORY: “In ops C-IED and Anti-Mine Training in Mali with Matt Croucher GC.

Rangers in Mali need to know how to spot and deal with mines and IED’s to keep themselves, the community and the Elephants alive.

WILD Foundation are partnered with Chengeta Wildlife and Action Against Poaching providing in-ops training to the Malian Anti Poaching Brigade in intelligent and responsible methods.

This is possibly the most dangerous anti-poaching mission in the world. Rangers not only have to deal with attacks by poachers but also by terrorists and bandits, using IED’s, landmines, heavy machine guns, rocket propelled grenades. Last month one ranger was burned alive and his colleague shot outside their home whilst on down time.

Despite all if this, the answer still comes down to community. The reasonable man. So far the Elephants have survived thanks to WILD Foundation’s intelligent work with the communities. The rangers and other armed forces provide the necessary support to deal with the criminal and terrorist elements threatening both the communities and the Elephants they are striving to protect.

A model for all of Africa. Intelligent Anti-poaching.”

The photos in this post are courtesy of Angie Ra, (pictured above) a filmmaker documenting our Mali work and the work of rangers protecting wildlife across Africa. Angie’s Facebook page: “Boots on The Ground”

Rory Young in Reader’s Digest

Celebrating Two Years of Non-stop Action!

Rory Young, exactly two years ago I first messaged you asking if I could help your efforts to fight the explosion of poaching that was wiping out wildlife in Africa. You accepted my offer immediately and just three months later we co-founded Chengeta Wildlife.

Thank you for opening my eyes to the horror you were facing and giving those of us far away from the front lines a way to take action.

Your intelligence, integrity, fortitude and overall badassery never cease to amaze. It’s been an honor to work with you.

We’ve been building an incredible team and I can’t wait to see what all of us accomplish over the next two years and beyond.

I raise my glass to you Colonel Young, and to the Chengeta team of supporters worldwide who make this work possible. SALUTE!