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Looking at those shots it's really hard to believe

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that this currently thriving area in

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South Africa was once dedicated to cattle and

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pineapple farms, with almost no biodiversity

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and wildlife.

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Phinda was established in collaboration with the local Zulu tribal

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community to rehabilitate the

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ecosystem, allowing for the return of the wildlife that

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had once flourished in this area. Phinda

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is local Zulu word for 'return'. Animals were

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brought in from other regions of southern Africa to

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establish new populations in the conservancy.

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There is a lot of doom-and-gloom stories

0:00:50.500,0:00:53.900
about biodiversity. However, this story

0:00:53.900,0:00:56.300
is a hopeful one. Phinda is

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a modern success conservation story, so stick

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around to learn how they managed to do it.

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I think the key to the success for Phinda is

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the fact that they've used this ecotourism

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model to benefit not

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only the reserve itself, but also the

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locals communities surrounding them.

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A lot of work goes into managing 30,000 hectares:

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making sure that animals are healthy,

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that they are reproducing, but not inbreeding, that

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herbivores do not overgraze the land, that

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territorial animals have enough space and do

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not compete between each other, that invasive species of

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plants are under control, that the areas will be

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protected by anti-poaching units and that

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is all while still running lodges and operating tourism

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and voluntourism in the area that brings

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much needed funding towards conservation.

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With the data collected here by our volunteers that

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go out every day with one of our Ecological Monitors, the

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data feeds live into our data systems,

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which we can then analyse. This helps

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us to make our management decisions.

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Animal populations in Phinda are thriving

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from an initial population of just 30 white

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rhinos, Phinda now has one of the largest white

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rhino populations in Africa and

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have been relocating and repopulating rhinos

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to other reserves and countries due to

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their success at protecting them.

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This is also facilitated what we call

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Rhinos Without Borders, so where our white

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rhinos have been translocated to Botswana to start

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at the founding population there. Phinda is the first private game

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reserve ever to be a part of the Black Rhino

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Range Expansion Project. So this is a project

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together with WWF.

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The cheetah population here has grown so successfully that

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some individuals were relocated to other

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parts of southern Africa to establish healthy cheetah

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populations there.

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Cheetah alone, Phinda and the MunYaWana

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is currently seen as one of the most important cheetah meta

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populations throughout southern Africa.

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Phinda has been chosen as a release site for

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pangolins that have been confiscated from poachers and

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saved from the illegal wildlife trade. The

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pangolin is arguably the most trafficked animal

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on earth leading to their disappearance in

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the world.

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So pangolins were reintroduced here in June

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2019, before that pangolins have

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been completely extinct from the reserve. Over

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time, these animals have now established home

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ranges, territories, and thankfully have even

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had pups. It is also an educational ground -

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numerous researches occur here

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every year. A lot

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of data has been collected and that has resulted

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in numerous PhDs, Master's projects, also

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suitable protocols being out there on what's

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the right way for soft-releasing lions

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into new areas. I have been here

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a few weeks volunteering with African Conservation Experience and

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participating on all the daily tasks needed

0:04:18.600,0:04:21.500
for animal management and conservation like monitoring,

0:04:21.500,0:04:24.100
data collection, updating ID

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profiles of animals, tracking using

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some of the most modern technologies, trying to

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understand. So what is the reason

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of this overwhelming conservation success? Is

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it the modern technology and their

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ability to use camera traps, telemetry, satellites,

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drones, acoustic sensors, a variety of

0:04:45.800,0:04:47.900
apps for data collection and analysis?

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This project is neat because our cameras are actually tools and what

0:04:52.600,0:04:55.900
we're doing is collecting data that's going to help us identify these

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individuals in the wild at a later date.

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Is it their ability to utilise conservation tourism and

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voluntourism to fund these projects? Around

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the world, many protected areas are

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underfunded. Allowing visitors to

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observe exciting and important conservation tasks provides additional

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source of funding for necessary

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management activities, such as ecosystem monitoring,

0:05:20.700,0:05:23.600
anti-poaching patrols, invasive species

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eradication, and environmental educational programmes.

0:05:29.900,0:05:32.700
Tourism potentially has a big role to

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play in education when it comes to conservation. One

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of the best things is there's

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so many people that care and that's just really lovely

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to see. Just spreading the word of, like, the sort of work that's done

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here, trying to get more funding and letting people

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know how important this is to preserve, is really important.

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When people connect with nature during their travels, when

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they see first-hand how hard it is

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to protect our nature and what goes into it, it can lead

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them into being more appreciative and become

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more invested in protecting it.

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I think the fact we don't know what we're gonna see or discover

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each day... it's very exciting, like every day I've done so far has been

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really different. And I've had a really unique experience seeing

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loads of animals that are endangered. So

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I'd say I'm pretty lucky.

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Of course, it is all of the above and more. This project truly

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exists due to the exceptional management and

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the work of numerous passionate people that spend

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hours and days in the bush, making sure that the

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area is thriving while educating tourists and

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visitors, and conducting research that helps other

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organisations and reserves to obtain

0:06:45.500,0:06:46.700
this success as well.

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We mainly focus on movement data and being

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able to correlate all of that and expand it over a few

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years, and see the movement of different species, how they react

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to different weather conditions and habitats and different influences

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like that. Seeing their movement data, how long it's taken them

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to settle in this reserve, will be useful for other reserves

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who want to do the same thing.

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Your time and your effort

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really help with things like, hands-on things, if we

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need help lifting something or moving things, photos

0:07:18.100,0:07:21.100
for ID kits, like lots of

0:07:21.100,0:07:25.400
different small contributions that add up to larger contributions.

0:07:26.700,0:07:29.400
I hope that this success story got you

0:07:29.400,0:07:32.500
inspired and serves as a hopeful reminder.

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When people start seeing the benefit of having tourism

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in the area, they are more inclined

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to wanting to keep the area wild and they also

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support these new ventures that are

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being undertaken.

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We want to use tourism to expand,

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you know, conservation areas and, not just

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expand but to ensure that it sustains itself.