Want to See a Tiger? Let These Women Be Your Guides

A partnership between the Africa Nature Investors (ANI) Foundation and Nigeria's National Park Service introduced a community-led conservation model at Okomu National Park that transformed former illegal loggers and poachers into paid rangers and entrepreneurs. This reduced chainsaw incidents, expanded patrol coverage, recorded a stable elephant population, and provided over 120 residents with access to savings and loans that reduced their economic dependence on the forest.

“If we protect one tiger, all the landscape is protected,” says a park warden in Nepal whose job is to ensure the longevity of the tiger population--and it has worked. In the last ten years, the Bengal tiger population in Nepal has doubled. By working to balance the ecosystem through protecting surrounding animals and vegetation, the balanced ecosystem approach has allowed the tiger population to thrive, while also supporting tourism revenue in local economies.

The Black Mambas are an all-female anti-poaching and ranger unit based in South Africa’s Balule Nature Reserve. They patrol on foot and by vehicle to remove bushmeat snares and look for evidence of illegal poaching activities. They also run the Bush Babies Environmental Education Programme, which teaches local school children about wildlife and conservation. The group combines anti-poaching enforcement with efforts to ensure local communities have food security and understand the economic and employment benefits of tourism as a way to protect wildlife. The Mambas are seen as role models within the community.

Wildlife sanctuaries and monitoring technologies are helping to protect endangered species. In India, a decade of policies aimed toward increasing the number of Bengal tigers is proving effective, in some areas leading to an increase in the total population. In addition to the creation of designated wildlife sanctuaries where biodiversity can thrive, the use of specialized monitoring technology allows for the tracking of individual tigers.

A new species of bird discovered in the small village of Singchung, India has been named after the Indigenous people who own that land — the bird is called Bugun liocichla, named after the Bugun people. Not only did this put the village in the international spotlight, it also brought tourism that helped them develop an ecotourism business. Now the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary is in charge of the community reserve which is now the most effectively patrolled area under the sanctuary's purview.

In Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, where 54 percent of the world's mountain gorillas reside, NGOs and locals are combining efforts to stem human-gorilla conflict. By funneling tourism dollars into community development projects, conflict resolution, and disease control, conservation goals and development goals are starting to align.

Threatened wildlife co-exists with poverty stricken communities who inhabit the Arizona-Mexico border region. Borderlands Restoration's conservation scientists are hoping to alleviate poverty while repairing the local environment by providing jobs that help preserve and renew the environment.

Arenas Del Mar Resort established an in-house "Drinks Laboratory" that produces its own bottled water, carbonated beverages, craft beer, and juices, saving approximately US$15,400-17,600 annually while diverting 20,000 single-use plastic bottles from landfills each year and empowering staff through master brewer training.

Lesbian bars across the United States, like Femme Bar in Massachusetts and Lipstick Lounge in Tennessee, offer a safe space for LGBTQ+ people to connect, be themselves, and build a supportive community.

Two conservation organizations are helping communities in Kyrgyzstan diversify their sources of income from livestock to include beekeeping, agroecology, ecotourism, and crafts. These efforts are preventing conflicts with snow leopards to conserve the local population. And some of the money made from the program goes towards funding environmental projects chosen by the community.