Update from the field - August 2017

Hi All,

I hope you are fine and doing great.  Thank you all for the support you are giving the Nsefu Wildlife Conservation Foundation (NWCF) ranger team.   The NWCF rangers were able to complete two long patrols in August. 

The first patrol was from August 5th to 14th.  The rangers operated along the Luangwa River which runs between the Game Management Area and the National Park.  Many people pretending to be fishermen were discovered along the river.  These people were actually poaching or helping poachers to cross into the National Park to kill our animals.  The rangers removed people from the river area.

The second patrol was from August 17th to 26th.  The rangers moved to another part of the National Park.  Here, eight snares were removed and four people were arrested. 

This year we have seen more elephants around the camps and lodges.  This indicates the elephants feel comfortable.  Unfortunately, sometimes they move towards the village where they are more difficult to protect.  We are doing our best to protect the wildlife.  We hope to be able to add more rangers to our team so we can do a better job.

Regards, Charles Silomba

* This report from C.Shimbola was edited by Tony Hunstiger.

A Great Night at Kendra Scott in Fashion Valley!

Nsefu would like to thank Kendra Scott and all the great people that came out on August 9th in support of conservation in Africa.

Nsefu Rangers are getting the Job Done!

June and July have been extremely busy for the rangers at Nsefu Wildlife
and we are extremely proud to share some excellent news with you.

We have been working independently as well as working closely with National Parks and Wildlife (Zambia's Dept.for all things wildlife related) and we are happy to report that in a 30 day period...29 people were arrested and charged and ALL taken to court for prosecution! These numbers are staggering for a modest foundation. Everyone, including Zambian officials in the area,are extremely pleased with Nsefu Wildlife's vision for conservation, our effectiveness, efficiency, focus, and ability to achieve results. Below are the June/July numbers as they stand -

• 29 poachers arrested, charged and taken to court.
• 4 cases still pending.
• 20 sentenced to prison.
• 5 individuals fined.
• 2 weapons confiscated.
• 1 pair of elephant tusks confiscated along with 4 hippo teeth, 100kg buffalo meat, elephant trunk, and elephant tail...all illegally obtained.
• 4 illegal fishing nets confiscated.
• 5 bikes and 5 axes(Poachers currently work in teams on bicycles and utilize three swift stages when operating. One poacher comes in and shoots or injures animal, second comes in to extract ivory, horn, teeth etc. via axe, and the third poacher in the operation comes in to remove potential evidence).

Nsefu Wildlife and National Parks and Wildlife have an excellent track
record of prosecutions of poachers with several individuals serving
serious prison time, including some cases with hard labor. Furthermore,
individuals also have had fines levied, weapons have been confiscated,
poaching dens have been disassembled and the community has been served
notice that there will be repercussions for illegal activity in the
region.

Again, we are a 100% donor-based nonprofit conservation foundation getting
excellent results in the field and in the community. This would not be
possible without the support of our donors and we are grateful for the
opportunity to carry on this noble cause in the name of wildlife
protection. 100% of funds raised go directly into our ranger and community
programs and we are creating change from the ground up.  The ranger
program is always in need of new equipment, i.e. flashlights, Kevlar,
uniforms, camping gear, and more. Let us know how YOU would like your
donation utilized and we will make sure that request is honored.

Thank you again in your support and here is to a highly successful
remainder of 2017 saving animals.

The 2nd Annual Sipping At Sunset has been cancelled!

The Second Annual Sipping at Sunset event scheduled for September 30th co-hosted by Nsefu Wildlife Conservation Foundation (NWCF) and Lions, Tigers, and Bears has been cancelled. As disappointed as both nonprofits are with this news, circumstances arose beyond our control and we mutually agreed to cancel the event this year. Hopefully in 2018, we can create another excellent experience for our much-appreciated supporters.  If you purchased tickets, refunds can be made by calling (619) 659-8078. Again, we thank you for your understanding and look forward to future endeavors with these organizations working hard to protect and preserve endangered and exotic animals.

Nsefu Wildlife will be announcing very soon, our next new exciting event on September 24th being held at Witch Creek Winery!  Be on the lookout for upcoming details and how to purchase your tickets.  We look forward to seeing you and saving animals together.

On behalf of Nsefu Wildlife Conservation Foundation and Lions, Tigers, and Bears....THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT and we appreciate your understanding!

Monthly Update from the Field - July 2017

Anti-Poaching

Several operations have been carried out by our scouts together with a DNPW officer. For every patrol day, one of the scouts has to fill in a sheet in order to keep track of what they have done, found and seen (e.g. poachers, ivory, snares, animal sightings) that day.

What happened last month:

• One poached impala found, together with shoes, clothes and other personal items of the poachers as well as two bikes and a shotgun (that was recovered after using the detection dogs from Conservation South Luangwa (CSL)). A remark made by the scouts was that the torches they are using do not work well enough on patrols. We believe that equipping our scouts with decent torches should be a priority. It is unacceptable that our scouts fail to follow poachers at night just because of the flash lights they are using. Mike Veale has recommended a torch they use for gearing up the teams in the field (costs are about $ 13 each);
• Illegal fishing nets recovered and game meat found;
• Five people arrested for illegal cutting of trees and four bicycles confiscated;
• Attempts made to localize two elephant dealers that are active in the area;
• A gun confiscated and buffalo meat found;
• One poached elephant found near the village. Our team made the initial follow-up, but DNPW told the team to pull out for them to take over the investigations.

Furthermore, the team of scouts has participated in several joint operations with DNPW and CSL.

The furniture for the ranger station should be ready soon, hopefully in a few days. The plumber has started working on the showers and the outside toilet for the ranger station.
 

Community Projects

Sewing Project
Nsefu.org has created a logo for this project and will be discussed with the different parties involved on this side. In order to speed up things (since we might lose the building), I have asked another electrician to take a look at the building for wiring it. We have decided to postpone connecting the building to the well in order to have running water since that would not be a real necessity for now and it would be very expensive. We will build two or three pit-latrines to begin with. Next week, together with Graph Evans and Steven Zulu we will visit the District Commissioner and the Chief in order to inform them about our plans, which is a necessity in order to proceed with this project.

Chabwera Community School
We will visit the school next week. We have received some great things to give to the school (pencils, markers, sketch pad, football) from Tad and his family who stayed at Zikomo Safari. We will hand these out to the pupils, together with some other items we got for them. Furthermore, during the last meeting the teachers once more addressed the importance of building the classroom(s) before the beginning of the rainy season. Together with them, and the other parties involved, we will make a plan on how to proceed on this.