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 also facilitated what we call
Rhinos Without Borders,

so where our white rhinos
have been translocated to Botswana

to start up a 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.

From the get-go 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 voluntourism 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.