Everyone must benefit from conserving wild spaces. This includes the people living in the poor rural communities that surround our protected areas. Assisting them not only improves their lives, but reduces their impact on natural resources while increasing support of conservation practices.
Since 2017, Wild Tomorrow has built and continues to support two creches (pre-schools) in the community for local children. We also support an children’s orphanage for vulnerable children. These programs help establish a better start for these children in their rural communities.
Theleluwazi creche
At Wild Tomorrow, we value creating better opportunities for those living around the reserve. In a rural communities, employment opportunities can be scarce.
The Green Mambas are Wild Tomorrow’s fifteen-member, all-women habitat restoration team, from the neighboring Zulu community. Every day they restore degraded grasslands, forests, and wetlands across Wild Tomorrow’s Greater Ukuwela Nature Reserve by removing invasive plants, replanting native species, and helping damaged ecosystems recover.
Supporting wildlife rangers was the reason that Wild Tomorrow was founded. We had seen firsthand the immense challenges they faced protecting wildlife with too few resources, inadequate equipment, and dwindling morale. Every day, wildlife rangers put themselves in harm’s way to protect endangered animals from poachers. They work in extreme conditions, facing dangerous wildlife, armed criminal syndicates, and the dense African bush. Yet many of the parks in our region remain chronically under funded. Reserve managers are often forced to choose between buying a ranger a new uniform or repairing a patrol vehicle, and broken equipment can mean patrols stop altogether.