One Of The Great Success Stories Of African Wildlife Conservation | WWF

Looking at those shots
it's really hard to believe

that this currently
thriving area in South Africa

was once dedicated to cattle
and pineapple farms,

with almost no biodiversity and wildlife.

Phinda was established in collaboration
with the local Zulu tribal community

to rehabilitate the ecosystem,

allowing for the return of the wildlife

that had once flourished in this area.

Phinda is local Zulu word for 'return'.

Animals were brought in
from other regions of southern Africa

to establish new populations
in the conservancy.

There is a lot of doom-and-gloom stories
about biodiversity.

However, this story is a hopeful one.

Phinda is a modern success
conservation story

so stick around around to learn
how they managed to do it.

I think the key to the success for Phinda

is the fact that they've used
this ecotourism model

to benefit not only the reserve itself

but also the local communities
surrounding them.

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

making sure that animals are healthy,

that they are reproducing,
but not inbreeding,

that herbivores
do not overgraze the land,

that territorial animals
have enough space

and do not compete between each other,

that invasive species
of plants are under control,

that the areas will be protected
by anti-poaching units,

and that is all while still
running lodges and operating tourism

and voluntourism in the area

that brings much needed funding
towards conservation.

With the data collected here
by our volunteers

that go out every day
with one of our Ecological Monitors

that data feeds live
into our data systems,

which we can then analyse.

This helps us to make
our management decisions.

Animal populations in Phinda are thriving

from an initial population
of just 30 white rhinos,

Phinda now has one of the largest
white rhino populations in Africa

and have been relocating
and repopulating rhinos

to other reserves and countries,
due to their success at protecting them.

This is also facilitated what we call
Rhinos Without Borders,

so where our white rhinos
have been translocated to Botswana

to start at the founding population there.

Phinda is the first private
game reserve ever to be a part

of the Black Rhino Range
Expansion Project,

so this is a project together with WWF.

The cheetah population here
has grown so successfully

that some individuals were relocated
to other parts of southern Africa

to establish healthy
cheetah populations there.

Cheetah alone, Phinda and the MunYaWana

is currently seen as one
of the most important

cheetah meta populations
throughout southern Africa.

Phinda has been chosen as a release site

for pangolins that have been
confiscated from poachers

and saved from the illegal wildlife trade.

The pangolin is arguably

the most trafficked animal

on earth leading
to their disappearance in the world.

So pangolins were reintroduced
here in June 2019,

before that pangolins have been
completely extinct from the reserve.

Over time, these animals have now

established home ranges, territories,

and thankfully have even had pups.

It is also an educational ground -

numerous researches occur here

every year.

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A lot of data has been collected and

that has resulted

in numerous PhDs, Master's projects, also

suitable protocols being

out there on what's

the right way for soft-releasing lions

into new areas.

I have been here a few weeks volunteering

with African Conservation Experience,

participating on all the daily tasks

needed for animal management

and conservation like:

monitoring, data collection, updating ID

profiles of animals, tracking using

some of the most modern technologies,

trying to understand.

So what is the reason

of this overwhelming conservation success?

Is it the modern technology and their

ability to use

camera traps, telemetry, satellites,

drones, acoustic sensors, a variety of

apps for data collection and analysis?

This project is neat because our cameras

are actually tools

and what we're doing is collecting data

that's going to help us identify these

individuals in the wild at a later date.

Is it their ability to utilize

conservation tourism and

volunteerism to fund these projects?

Around the world, many protected areas are

underfunded. Allowing visitors to

observe exciting and important

conservation tasks provides additional

source of funding for necessary

management activities,

such as ecosystem monitoring,

anti-poaching patrols, invasive species

eradication, and environmental

educational programs.

Tourism potentially has a big role to play

in education

when it comes to conservation.

One of the best things is there's

so many people that care

and that's just really lovely to see.

Just spreading the word of, like,

the sort of work that's done here, trying

to get more funding and letting people

know how important this is to preserve,

is really important.

When people connect with nature

during their travels,

when they see first-hand how hard it is to

protect our nature and what goes into it,

it can lead them into being

more appreciative

and become more invested in protecting it.

I think the fact we don't know what

we're gonna see or discover

each day... it's very exciting.

Like every day I've done so far has been

really different.

And I've had a really unique experience

seeing loads of animals that are

endangered.

So I'd say I'm pretty lucky.

Of course, it is all of the above and more

This project truly exists

due to the exceptional management and

the work of numerous passionate people

that spend

hours and days in the bush,

making sure that the

area is thriving while educating tourists

and visitors, and conducting research

that helps other organizations

and reserves to obtain

this success as well.

We mainly focus on movement data and being

able to correlate all of that

and expand it over a few

years, and see the movement of

different species, how they react to

different weather conditions and habitats

and different influences like that

Seeing their movement data,

how long it's taken them

to settle in this reserve,

will be useful for other reserves

who want to do the same thing.

Your time and your effort

really help with things like,

hands-on things, if we

need help lifting something

or moving things,

photos for ID kits, like lots of

different small contributions

that add up to larger contributions.

I hope that this success story got you

inspired and serves as a hopeful reminder.

When people start seeing

the benefit of having tourism in the area,

they are more inclined

to wanting to keep the area wild

and they also

support these new ventures that are

being undertaken.

We want to use tourism to expand,

you know, conservation areas and, not just

expand but to ensure that it

sustains itself.