Not every game reserve is built around visitors. At UmPhafa Nature Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, luxury lodges and game drives aren’t waiting at sunset. Instead, it’s a space where students and researchers spend months in the field, and rangers patrol a landscape that’s being restored after years of farming. Owned by the former owners of Colchester […]
The Sanctuary in Vilankulos sits on Mozambique’s San Sebastião Peninsula, where land and ocean blur into a single protected system of mangroves, dunes, wetlands, coral reefs, and open Indian Ocean, all managed as one living, dynamic whole. The starting point of conservation here isn’t the landscape, but rather the people. Dave Gilroy arrived in 2018 […]
Namibia’s desert-adapted lions live differently from almost every other lion on Earth. They live in a world of mountains, dry riverbeds, and gravel plains. Only around 60 adults roam the 40,000 square kilometres of northwestern Namibia that the Lion Rangers programme covers. Their prides are smaller than those found in East Africa, but their home […]
“If you don’t know where lunch is coming from, do you really give a damn about an elephant?” It’s a blunt question, but for Loisaba Conservancy CEO Tom Silvester, it gets to the heart of one of conservation’s biggest challenges. At Loisaba, conservation begins with people. Tom has spent nearly three decades working from a […]
When African Parks stepped in to acquire the world’s largest captive rhino breeding operation in 2023, the headlines focused on the scale of it: 2,000 southern white rhinos, the largest rhino rewilding initiative ever attempted. Behind the numbers sits an even more complicated reality. “What makes Rhino Rewild complex is not just the scale,” explains […]
We caught up over a call with Liwonde National Park’s Funding and Reporting Manager, Charles Maruwasa, as he dialled in from Malawi to talk us through a place that, by his own admission, is difficult to summarise. After nearly four years at Liwonde National Park, Charles has become used to explaining just how much happens […]
There’s a constant shift between science, strategy, and frontline response that defines the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT). For over 50 years, they’ve worked across southern and East Africa to protect species and ecosystems, but also to tackle the deeper, more complex drivers of biodiversity loss. Their approach is deliberately broad because it has to be. […]
On South Africa’s Wild Coast, where grasslands roll into rocky shorelines and rivers cut through deep gorges on their way to the sea, a new conservation story is taking shape. It starts with nine women. The Green Griffons, an all-women ranger team, patrol the coastline, wetlands, grasslands, and forests of the Mkambati Nature Reserve, one […]
We caught up with the Savé Valley Conservancy team on a video call, with their trainers speaking to us from an office on-site in the lowveld of southeastern Zimbabwe. “We’re responsible for recruiting and training rangers,” says Chief Training Instructor Charles. “But beyond training, we’re also involved in operations like anti-poaching, reaction and working with […]
Badingilo National Park sits within one of the largest land mammal migrations on earth, but on the ground, that movement is rarely visible. From where the team is based, most wildlife sightings come not from patrols, but from the air. “We’re on the southwestern edge of the migration,” says African Parks’ Law Enforcement Mentor for […]
Some conservation work happens in stillness. Think tracking footprints, watching waterholes, and lots of waiting. And some of it moves fast, with helicopters overhead, teams on the ground, and, at the centre of it all, a two-ton animal waking up inside a crate. At Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, both are part of the job. Within the […]
Mount Kenya doesn’t make conservation easy. It’s cold, steep (the mountain’s highest peak reaches 17,057 feet), and unpredictable. Patrols move through dense forests, across open moorlands, and over rivers that swell without warning. In some areas, communication drops off entirely. In others, the only way to reach a fire is by helicopter, because on foot, […]
In Zambia’s vast Game Management Areas (GMAs), where people and wildlife share the same space, conservation is less about boundaries and more about balance. Musekese Conservation works across landscapes where legality, livelihoods, and wildlife protection intersect in ways that are often messy, political, and human. “We’ve always found that the traditional ‘boots on the ground’ […]
Some of the most important conservation work happens out of the spotlight. It’s the behind-the-scenes effort that makes everything else possible on the ground. The Great Plains Foundation (GPF) is a perfect example. Based in the United States but operating across Botswana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, the Foundation functions as the non-profit arm alongside Great Plains […]
Situated just outside Gqeberha, Addo Elephant National Park was established in 1931 to save the last remaining elephants in the region, and has grown into South Africa’s third largest and one of its most ambitious national parks. More than 600 elephants roam its valleys and spekboom-covered hills, but the park’s significance stretches far beyond its […]
“Conservation is for the people.” It’s a line Kganya Moseneke repeats often, and it shapes every decision he makes at Great Fish River Nature Reserve. As Security Manager on a World Bank–backed rhino protection project of 45,000 hectares, he works in a landscape bordered by 14 rural communities, where protecting black rhinos starts with understanding […]
Rhino poachers don’t have far to travel to reach Nambiti. The reserve sits on a major corridor between Durban, Johannesburg, and Mozambique—an area where neighbouring parks have lost a dozen rhinos in a single night. And yet, for more than a year, Nambiti hasn’t had a single poaching incursion. The reason lies with a community […]
The first time Picket Chabwedzeka left home for the city, it wasn’t to become a ranger or a trainer. It was to juggle plates and textbooks. “I moved to South Africa and was working while studying part-time,” he says. “For three years I lived in Goodwood, studied at Pentech and UNISA, and worked as a […]
In the far eastern corner of Botswana, where the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers meet, and the borders of three countries fold into one another, lies the Northern Tuli Game Reserve: 72,000 hectares of rugged mopane woodland, sandstone outcrops, and some of the highest concentrations of elephants for private reserves in Southern Africa. It is a […]
First light in Kafue National Park arrives with motion. Puku step out of the grass as the light spreads, ground hornbills boom across the plains, and a thin ribbon of river wind glints in the early glow. On the far edges of this vast Zambian wilderness (well beyond tourist tracks), patrol teams are already lacing […]
Each morning, before the sun burns through the mist rising off Lake Upemba, rangers gather in formation at the HQ of Lusinga and the Upemba National Park’s substation. They salute the flag, receive their orders, and set off into a landscape few outsiders have ever walked. Their job is to protect one of Africa’s oldest […]
In Kenya’s northern highlands, where acacia-dotted plains rise towards the snowcapped peaks of Mount Kenya, the rangers of Lewa Wildlife Conservancy begin their day in darkness. They lace up their Jim Green AR8s, sling their packs over their shoulders, and head out across 62,000 acres of wilderness, one of the most successful conservation landscapes in […]
“When I was ten, I read When the Lion Feeds,” says Paul Stones, who today runs one of southern Africa’s leading safari hunting companies. “From that moment, I knew I wanted to work in the bush.” More than three decades later, that boyhood dream has taken shape as Paul Stones Safari Africa, a professional hunting […]
Rangers in Zambia’s Nsumbu National Park face some of the continent’s toughest patrol conditions. Rocky ground, thorny bush, snakes, and long hours on foot mean durable footwear is essential. That’s why Jim Green was proud to provide boots to patrol teams in the Nsumbu Area Management Unit, including the high-performing Alpha Teams. “Our rangers find […]
In 2024, rangers at Gonarezhou National Park collectively walked over 862,000km on foot patrols. That’s the equivalent of circling the Earth more than 25 times on foot. Covering that kind of distance requires more than grit; it requires gear that lasts. Rangers describe their Jim Green boots as “Very comfortable and highly durable, especially with […]
Each pair of Jim Green boots that lands in the field tells a story of dust and endurance, of men and women walking the wild line between protection and peril. In Zimbabwe’s Zambezi Valley, those boots carry rangers across some of the toughest terrain on the continent, where The Tashinga Initiative works tirelessly to keep […]
In Zambia’s game management areas and national parks, rangers walk further and face harsher conditions than most of us can imagine. Patrols stretch 20, 30, sometimes even 40 kilometres a day. They carry heavy gear across thorny bush, rocky hills, and floodplains, often with limited water. In this line of work, a good pair of […]
Jim Green boots were delivered to Project Rhino to support people like Moses Makalima, a field ranger and K9 handler. “The work we do is tough,” Moses says. “You don’t always know what you’re walking into. But having proper boots and uniforms gives you confidence. It makes a difference knowing you’re equipped for the conditions.” […]
Equipped with Jim Green boots, students at Tracker Academy set out each morning before sunrise to step into the bush, ready to follow and interpret the tracks of wildlife, including rhinos, elephants, lions, and sometimes, people. These students are learning to track. Their training includes track and sign identification, trailing and locating wildlife, and human […]
In South Africa’s North West Province, biodiversity is as vast as the landscapes themselves. From arid grasslands to rugged ridges, 14 protected areas stretch across nearly 200,000 hectares. Behind their protection is a committed team of rangers facing floods, fires, predators, poachers, and sometimes, inadequate gear. That’s where Jim Green boots step in. The North […]
