CONSERVATION NEWS
2025 Triumph & Tragedy - End of the Year message from Coe, Victory & the Nsefu Wildlife team!
Dearest friends,
We always enjoy sitting down at the end of the year collecting our breath and collecting our thoughts of immense gratitude ...and our thoughts of our pride in how our team has achieved so much. But while we reflect on our accomplishments...we are also sitting here deep in sorrow for the loss of our beloved ranger Webby Banda who died in the line of duty protecting the animals he loved. We call this the year end letter “Triumph and Tragedy”.
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On the “triumph” side...your foundation continues to amaze in the Nsefu Sector of Zambia for both animals and people. We have been called “the chosen foundation of Nsefu”. These are the words of the people on the ground. We have a deep bond with Senior Chief Nsefu and the people in his kingdom, and this bond has helped us create REAL impact in conservation and real impact in lifting up the community. And we believe this is because we follow through on everything we say we are going to do. Keeping our word has helped us earn the trust of the people. And when the people are on your side...THAT is when you can truly save wildlife! And we are doing JUST THAT! We tackle the crisis of poaching, snaring, illegal hunting, the illegal trafficking of wildlife, etc., from ALL angles. It’s that strategy that is making our foundation impactful in the field. And it is YOUR generosity and belief in us that enables us to do this.
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Our Ranger Program is our pride and joy. We run our team 365 days a year protecting Africa’s wildlife, and we work alongside the government’s Dept. Of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) collecting intel, arresting poachers, pulling weapons from the field, and more. As you can imagine, vehicles, ranger clothing, equipment, tents, etc. take a serious beating in the field. It takes consistent funding to keep our rangers equipped and ready to go in all types of weather all year round. The good news is that we are making a REAL difference. Elephant numbers are improving, and we are thrilled with the strength in numbers of other animal populations. One of our newest initiatives is to get our rangers access to EV Bikes for Rapid Response. Milyote Gate, where our rangers are stationed in South Luangwa National Park, many times receives a call for IMMEDIATE response to a situation. Sometimes our main ranger vehicle is in another region responding to another call or moving rangers to a different location for patrol. For “time is of the essence” calls, our rangers can use these EV bikes to gain quick access to locations and use the bike’s quietness for the element of surprise if the situation requires it. These bikes can be a critical tool in our conservation efforts. EV Bikes are priced approximately US $700.00/bike. This is a PRIORITY PROGRAM.
This year, our team has been focusing on capacity-building to make sure our teams and our programs, are effective as possible. It includes increasing conservation knowledge throughout ALL our programs, and applying it throughout the school outreach, human-wildlife conflict program (HWC) and community education. We are firm believers that the COMMUNITY is a critical piece of conservation in that the more we make the people involved, the more we can achieve. Not only do we have mandatory conservation in our two schools K-12, but we also have a full-time traveling conservation team that travels the sector teaching the importance of conservation in schools and in villages. Universities are now reaching out to our foundation to share ideas between their students and our team to help educate future generations of conservationists and allowing us to introduce the very same to our students who may want a career in environmental and conservation fields. Students from the universities are learning about conservation from a real “boots-on-the-ground" foundation, and they can carry that information and knowledge forward.
We also have a VERY successful “Sports for Conservation” initiative with our Annual Nsefu Wildlife Soccer Tournament. By getting kids and young men and women involved in sports vs poaching, hunting, and snaring, we can teach the importance of conservation WITHIN the sports program. Our soccer tournament has speakers on the subject and conservation skits are performed between matches and it is a smashing success. Teams are playing hard to win the Senior Chief Nsefu Cup and the tournament draws thousands of attendees! Giving the youth an alternative to poaching is paramount in the sector...and it’s working! It gives kids a sense of pride and accomplishment. Unemployment is extremely high, alcohol abuse is increasing, and we MUST find avenues to engage the young people of the sector. If you would like to be a sponsor of this amazing event, please reach out to coe@nsefu.org!
Unfortunately, in Africa droughts are becoming more prevalent with climate change, and the need for drilling boreholes (wells) has become critically important. The stress of droughts truly ravages wildlife and the community, and we have made this a critical program to focus on to get in “front of” the crisis, not behind it. With our generous donors, we have dug and installed multiple boreholes throughout the sector, both IN the South Luangwa National Park and the surrounding community, but many, many, more are needed. Getting permission by the government to dig a borehole in the National Park was a real coup, and we hope to put in many more. To see wildlife having access to fresh water in the driest of times is wonderful to see, and we would like to give special thanks to Gunnar Sjoergren and Martin Gowing for their generosity in supporting our borehole program. We have also developed a relationship with Children First Zambia and they have held workshops regarding maintenance and repair of boreholes in the community. It is also important to keep the wildlife and community boreholes SEPARATE for safety reasons. The Borehole Program is a PRIORITY PROGRAM for Nsefu Wildlife.
Human/wildlife Conflict (HWC) has become a MAJOR issue in conservation these days. As human populations encroach in wildlife corridors...we are experiencing increasing incidents of human injury/death, and animal injury/death. So much so that the numbers are inching closer to those of poaching... and resentment towards wildlife can hit “fever pitch” when food sources are destroyed. By stringing beehives on tripwire strung between poles...we are providing a very effective means of stopping elephants and other wildlife from raiding crops. Elephants, known for their poor eyesight, never see the wire at night during crop-raiding and once they trip the wire, the hives are shaken, the bees are released, and the elephant/herd takes off to avoid attack. Bees can kill a baby elephant; thus, the animals leave the area quickly and tragedy is averted. Wherever we have run biofencing...we have 100% success rate in protecting people, crops, and animals. At current US Dollar to Zambian Kwacha rates...we can run 100 meters of biofencing (approx. 328 feet) for about US $1,000.00. We don’t have the luxury of a Home Depot down the street, so every part of the fencing is built or acquired by our beekeeping/biofencing team. We are now installing metal poles vs fallen wood to ensure longevity. Our head of beekeeping is currently training farmers etc. the art of beekeeping and fence maintenance and it’s a very popular program. And farmers can harvest the honey to sell at market, so everyone wins! Currently, our team has identified three critical areas that desperately need fencing, and it is our goal to try to get that fencing up to protect all involved. This is a PRIORITY PROGRAM for Nsefu Wildlife.
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From the very get-go, our Tommy Raskin women’s sewing program housed in the Bonnie Dines Women’s Center has been a smash hit. Women are learning a valuable trade and earning a steady income helping support their families and more. We started off with 5 women when we first started our sewing program years ago, and we now have many more women working fulltime in the center. We also provide training for people wanting to learn an excellent trade. Empowering women in the community has been critically important, and it is the “happiest” place in the sector in that you can hear the women laughing and singing all day long! The women create bags, table linens and more for our US operations to sell, and they sew for the School Uniform program and sew for the community. If you would like to buy a life-changing Treadle machine for a woman, the cost is approximately US $250.00.
And lastly... in our programs, we wanted to share something lovely that we initiated this Christmas. We decided to have our team reach out to the schools to identify the kids at risk in the community. These are children with no parents or family, or one parent trying to keep the family together. The difference between life and death in Africa is a sliver...and we needed to help. Our team gathered food, supplies, treats, and more to hand out to the kids in need. Our program director Steve Zulu said it was incredibly well-received and many, many kids were helped and “thought of” by YOU and the foundation. Again, when you support the community...the community supports you. We are making this an annual tradition to bring joy to those who truly have nothing. And you never know...one of these beautiful kids may one day be part of Nsefu Wildlife!!
Your foundation is TRULY getting the job done. And with getting the job done...this leads us to the ultimate “tragedy” a foundation can face. In a night operation, our lead ranger Webby Banda was killed in the line of duty. People don’t fully realize the danger that rangers face in the line of duty in Africa. They go against poachers, illegal hunters, wild animals, rough terrain, bad weather, and so much more. Their job is HARD and people die, and sadly the day we always dreaded happened to us. Needless to say, Team Nsefu Zambia and Team Nsefu USA have been decimated by his loss. Webby was kind, incredibly hard-working, he was a mentor to the younger rangers, and he was the longest-tenured ranger on our team. He was a great leader, and we feel his loss so deeply. Life in Africa is hard and dangerous...but we find a way to push on. Needless to say, Webby’s family will face most difficult challenges now...but we as a foundation are NOT about to abandon his family. Many people have reached out asking how to help, and the easiest way is to donate on to our Webby Banda Memorial Fund, or our website at Nsefu.org. We will make sure his family has the means to get through their deep grief, especially in the holiday season and the future. Again, we have been emotionally decimated by the loss of our beloved Webby.
Dearest friends...we could do absolutely NOTHING without you. We make sure that your donation is used wisely, thoughtfully, and has the most impact in the field. In our 10-year existence...we have achieved so much in Africa because of YOU. You would be amazed! We are nothing without YOU. Wildlife numbers are improving, we are creating real change, and we will keep working hard to stop extinction. That is what we do. And we would like to thank our wonderful teams both here and in Zambia for their dedication to conservation and to our team. This foundation couldn’t exist without them.
On behalf of our entire foundation, Merry Christmas and a VERY Happy New Year!
Love,
Coe, Victory, and Teams Nsefu Zambia and Nsefu USA