The 6 Righteous Roles of Rangers

​When I met my first ranger on the ground in Zambia, he was just coming off an extended patrol. A sturdy man in his late twenties still in keen command of his rifle, he conferred with a few colleagues before jumping in my 4x4 and said, “Let’s Go. I will take you to them.”

“Them” meant some of the last Southern White Rhino in Zambia being protected by the park rangers. He explained a team followed the herd daily to the best of their abilities. Yet other than their own boots on the grounds, primitive radios, and weathered guns they had no other complementary equipment to help monitor their safety amid the threat of poaching.

It is common to find that rangers are underequipped for their extremely dangerous jobs in protecting our natural and cultural resources. Indeed, there are remarkable organizations such as Game Rangers International who have set up anti-poaching units in national parks to complement the unstable support from the government and a fragmented few private reserves that have brought in technical intelligence, but it’s not enough to consistently defend and support the rangers across the over 8,400 protected areas in Africa.

Besides protecting wildlife, these professionals often have other key responsibilities where ensuring they are outfitted, trained, and prepared mentally and physically are key. After my new ranger friend escorted us back from the clearing where we were honored to silently respect the dining habits of these grand grunting creatures whose only crime is parading their protrusion, he proudly said that the next day he had the honor or setting fire to prevent fire.

Although I was in the region for work not play, I joked that I hoped chaperoning two technologists wasn’t part of his everyday tasks. In not so many words, he pointedly told me if it weren’t for people like me and my partner, he wouldn’t have a job as those park fees and tourism dollars feed him and his family. We drove him back to his station where he thanked us for the opportunity to share the magnificence of the animals he has the privilege to protect.

It was this statement that has forever stayed with and driven me in my anti-poaching mission. It is important to know and appreciate the breadth of responsibilities these men and women have on the ground to be able to understand their intrinsic role in protecting the planet.

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Respectfully appropriating from our laudable peers at the WWF, here are the 6 key areas that rangers cover. Some do all. Some partake in specific verticals. Yet across the board they need our help now more than ever to perform their duties safely, solidly, and stoically.

1. Patrolling
   Patrols vary from daily expeditions to long-range multi-day or weeks long journeys into the bush. Self-reliant for food, shelter, and protection in both cases, and away from their families at length at times, they are responsible for reporting on wildlife sightings and noteworthy activity, such as if the elephants felt like noshing on any equipment or signs of poaching operations. 
   
   
2. Monitoring Wildlife and the Environment
   Rangers collect data while on patrol and use it to more effective. Be they on foot or by vehicle, they acquire information about animal behavior based on tracking prints and even poop deposits. They manually record this and other information about the forests either by hand or using evolving software often mobile phone enabled to better analyze data which can be used to inform how they approach natural and man-made threats.
   
   
3. Preventing Poaching
   While on patrol rangers are also looking for signs of illegal poaching. They recover and remove snares and wires, or even more devastating find the remains of poached animals. They use this activity to redirect their efforts in those areas to the best of their ability, but especially now, are under-equipped to proactively and reactively mitigate this horrific activity.
   
   Rangers face death or injury daily. Keeping endangered animals safe often comes at a cost when confronting illegal poaching which has increased out of opportunity and subsistence especially during Covid. Poachers outplay rangers with more manpower and gunpower, surprising them on patrol or engaging them while in the act. Armed illegal poachers are responsible for over half of all tragic deaths in the last ten years¹ with an average of 2 rangers killed per week.²
   
   
4. Managing Fires
   Coming from California, I am all but too familiar with the devastation wildfires in dry seasons can cause. There can be loss of life and significant damage to the soil which the entire biodiversity ecosystem depends on. Rangers wear these fireman hats as well as proactively set control fires to mitigate future damage.
   
   
5. Engaging with the Local Community
   The safety and well-being of the local communities are paramount to rangers. They themselves may come from or have families residing there. But rangers serve not only need to prevent human animal conflict such as when hungry elephants, lions, or wild dogs decide to encroach upon their farms, but also to educate the people as to how to handle such issues as well as work with them to identify illegal activity in the area.
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6. Assisting with Tourism
   Lastly, to bookend this with the powerful words my Zambian friend left me with, tourism is the key to the rangers’ livelihoods and to protecting our planet. Yes, tourism revenue drives the economy, which has all but stopped due to Covid, but the pandemic has also affected the education process. Rangers expertly teach us about more about the animals and how we can be better citizens of the planet than any book or website can. We depend on rangers just as much as they depend on us.

¹​Life on the Front Line 2019: A global survey of the working conditions of rangers. WWF.
²The Thin Blue Line Foundation. 2018.