Democratic Republic of the Congo
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Kasigau Corridor Aerial Surveillance Annual Report: Jun 16 – Jun 17
By Keith Hellyer Executive Summary: The objective of the Kasigau Corridor Aerial Surveillance project is to increase aerial support for improved anti-poaching measures in order to protect Tsavo’s elephants. Funding from the Elephant Crisis Fund has increased surveillance over the Kasigau Wildlife Corridor between Tsavo East and West and has supported Wildlife Works and KWS’ rangers on the ground in anti-poaching activities, locating elephant herds, discovering carcasses, assisting in rapid response events, increasing ranger security and help to curb other illegal activities. From May/June 2016 to June 2017, due to the funding from the Save The Elephants / Elephant Crisis Fund grant, the team have flown for 657 hours over…
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Do Something on World Elephant Day
Why is this day important? Prior to European colonization, scientists believe that Africa may have held as many as 20 million elephants; by 1979 only 1.3 million remained. Today, Africa’s savannah elephant population is estimated at just over 350,000. The current rate of species decline is 8%, meaning that elephant numbers could more than halve to 160,000 in nine years. If nothing changes, localized extinction is almost certain. source Why is this happening? The main threats to elephants are: (1) The Ivory Trade: A recent research by Save the Elephants revealed that an estimated 100,000 elephants were killed for their ivory in Africa between 2010 and 2012. That’s an average of…
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Fashion Revolution Day Events: San Francisco Bay Area
Fashion Revolution Day Events San Francisco Bay Area On 24 April 2013, 1,134 people were killed and over 2,500 were injured when the Rana Plaza complex collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. That’s when Fashion Revolution was born. On 24 April every year, Fashion Revolution Day brings people from all over the world together to use the power of fashion to change the story for the people who make the world’s clothes. We want fashion to become a force for good. In San Francisco, California, where Wildlife Works corporate offices are located, we got together with a few ethical fashion leaders to organize and promote these inspiring events. Get involved! If you can’t make these…
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5 Steps to Green up Your Closet
5 Steps To A Sustainable Closet Believe it or not, having a sustainable wardrobe is crucial to our planet’s health, and to yours. According to surveys, most people only wear about 20 percent of the clothing in their closets. Coupled with the fact that the average woman has $500 worth of unworn clothing in their wardrobe and you can see that there is clearly a problem. Fast fashion has trained us to buy throw away fashion that’s worn once and thrown out. The average American tosses 82 pounds of textile waste each year, which adds up to 11 million tons of the stuff from our country alone. It’s time to convert…
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Injured Elephant Gets Treated
On Jan 28, 2017, Keith, our anti-poaching pilot went on a morning aerial patrol flight, after a tip off there was potentially a charcoal camp on northern Taita ranch, Kenya. At about 7:30am we spotted a lone bull in the thickets below us, it had a very large cyst on its right side, just above its back leg. Keith then messaged the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, who brought KWS vet Dr. Poghon by road from Voi. With the gyrocopter keeping visual on the injured elephants location, the ground team attempted to get close enough to the elephant to tranquilize it. The thick bush made it impossible for the ground team to…
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Baby Elephant Rescue
On November 2, 2016, our ground team received a call from a goat herdsman that a 5-year old elephant was roaming close to her farm alone for hours. Our Rangers immediately reported to the scene and called @dswt to arrange airlift transport to their Nairobi orphanage in a few hours time. Meanwhile, the rangers kept close eye on the baby girl elephant by keeping down wind and out of site as not to frighten her away. When it came time to prepare her for the transport, it took a team of 12 to secure her down as she struggled with fear of her capturers. After treating some minor wounds, we…
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A Message for 2017 from Our Founder Mike Korchinsky
January 18, 2017 – This week, America will pass the baton of power over to a new administration. I think it is fair to say that regardless of the eventual outcome of Donald Trump’s time in office, the history of remarks that he and some of his closest advisors have made in the past are genuine cause for concern within the international climate community. However, it is also now clear that the rest of the world will not have their resolve to tackle climate change weakened in any way whether or not the US continues to participate in a leadership role on this critically important issue. Here at Wildlife Works, we…
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Fair Trade USA Committee Uniform Donation
Last week, members of the Wildlife Works’ eco factory Fair Trade Committee had the pleasure of making a trip to two local schools within our project area. As part of the eco factory’s Fair Trade USA certification, each of our Fair Trade USA certified clients contribute a ‘premium’. This is around 5-10% of the overall production cost which is paid directly to our factory workers. Students at Itinyi Primary School holding up their new school uniforms Our Fair Trade Committee then decides how this money is spent. This time, they allocated a portion of their premium to the community for worthy causes. (Read here stories about how our employees have…
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Empowering young girls through GLOW training
Wildlife Works is committed to supporting community projects as we feel these can be the most important tools to developing self-sufficient and self-governing communities. One of our main focuses is on education, especially for women and girls. This past weekend, a sexual health and sanitation session for young girls at Kiteghe Primary School within our Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project area in southeastern Kenya was funded through Wildlife Works. This program is called GLOW (Girls Leading Our World), and is run by Monica, a local Kenyan lady who volunteers her Saturdays to run this training session in local primary and secondary schools across Taita Taveta County. Monica writes essential goals for…
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Moses – Head of Data Collection for our rangers
Moses Lorewa is Head of Data Collection as part of the 85 Wildlife Works rangers that patrol our Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project in southeastern Kenya. He is the eldest child in a pastoral family of seven children, from central Kenya. Upon finishing school in 2004, Moses worked in construction for a few years to make ends meet but knew this wasn’t his calling. He first came to the Tsavo ecosystem in 2007 to work as a scout for Southern Cross Eco Safaris who ran Gala Rock Camp, an old lodge within the Wildlife Works project area. Although Moses didn’t have any experience of working in the bush, he had grown…