Adventurer Holly Budge has launched the 2022 World Female Ranger Week (23 to 30 June 2022) to 'amplify the impact of female wildlife rangers on a global stage'.
This global awareness week, spearheaded by international NGO, How Many Elephants celebrates and supports female wildlife rangers.
While female rangers are bold, changing the game and showing women can stand alongside men at the forefront of conservation, they need help.
Building on their success of World Female Ranger Day in 2021, which reached over 366 million
viewers worldwide, the 2022 event has been extended to a week.
It will embrace online and live events to share the rangers' stories, and a fundraising platform for the ranger teams.
As champions of wildlife conservation, as role models, as educators and as beacons of hope, female rangers are transforming attitudes towards the role of women around the world.
They are also showing the capabilities and success of females in traditionally male roles.
To date, however, less than 11% of the global wildlife ranger workforce is female.
With women being natural communicators, protectors and investing their earned income in their families, bringing gender equality into the workforce enhances community conservation efforts and relationships.
Holly Budge, who founded How Many Elephants and World Female Ranger Week, has patrolled with ranger teams in Africa and seen how these women are impacting lives; protecting wildlife, and empowering other women.
Over the last two years, the pandemic has crippled tourism and funding for conservation projects globally.
The lack of tourists visiting National Parks has led to many rangers losing their jobs or having salary cuts.
The knock-on effect of this is considerable as one ranger in Africa may support up to 16 family members.
Reduced vigilance in tourist hotspots has also left wildlife even more vulnerable to poaching.
Holly and her team have identified over 4500 female rangers in 18 African countries so far, and
many more around the world, including in China, Sri-Lanka, Indonesia, India, Tasmania, Venezuela and Scotland.
Some of the women who give their all to protect wildlife from extinction.
Indonesia: Sumini
Mother of five, Sumini gets up at dawn to do her household chores before leading a team of
women into the jungles of Sumatra island on a mission to battle rampant deforestation andwildlife poaching.
They navigate the steep, mountainous terrain searching for signs of poaching and logging, remove animal traps, document endemic wildlife and plant species and post signs warning against illegal activity, which they report to government authorities.
China: Qiu Shi
A ranger for the Dongning Forestry Bureau, Heilongjiang Province, Qiu Shi's team is unique in that they are China's only all-women patrol team.
With snow underfoot, they sometimes patrol in temperatures below -20℃, to record data, remove snares and set up camera traps.
South Africa: Tsakane
Tsakane is a ranger in the all-female Black Mambas Anti-Poaching Unit in South Africa and a role model in her community.
In the course of duty, the rangers face danger from poachers and wild animals.
In the last 10 years the Black Mambas have removed and dismantled more than1500 deadly snares and seized a record numbers of poachers' camps.
As a result, the number of snaring and poaching incidents in Balule Nature Reserve, where they operate, has dropped 76%.
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