By Charlie Mayhew, OBE, CEO of Tusk Trust
Tusk was established in 1990 in response to the poaching crisis of the 1980’s which saw Africa’s black rhino being decimated and 100,000 elephants being killed per year for the ivory trade. Since then, Tusk has gained a strong reputation and received extensive support from influential figures such as its Royal Patron HRH The Prince of Wales.
Tusk’s solution to the threats facing Africa’s wildlife was and has always been to combine the interests of both people and wildlife while protecting the continent’s natural heritage. As a result of the immediate and comprehensive reaction by Tusk and other likeminded NGOs, we have helped to accelerate impact by supporting community-driven grassroots conservation initiatives in more than 25 countries.
Our organisation has achieved so much since its inception and continues to be a leading name in the field with campaigns such as the Wildlife Ranger Challenge changing the way we make a difference. Accomplishments in the last year alone include investing £11.1 million directly into conservation initiatives, aiding 41 endangered species, indirectly benefitting more than 10 million people, and accelerating 79 projects addressing topics such as the illegal wildlife trade and human-wildlife conflict.
Beyond this, through the Tusk Conservation Symposium, funded by the Nick Maughan Foundation, Tusk has also provided a knowledge-sharing platform that brings together project partners to discuss how best to work together to support community-driven conservation, collaboration, and the protection of the continent’s extraordinary biodiversity.
There is now growing global recognition of the critical role played by indigenous people and local communities in delivering conservation solutions through local ethics, values and resource management systems. Decades of working with conservation leaders have given us privileged insight into the key to success, and since its inception, Tusk has championed both community-driven conservation and a partnership approach. We have always known that expert voices from local organisations, combined with traditional knowledge systems, are best positioned to address the threats facing their continent.
So at Tusk, we partner with leading and promising emerging conservationists spanning the continent, securing donor funding to invest in grassroots conservation ventures and providing a platform that amplifies their voices and increases their profiles. Enhancing their capacity, we enable partners to accelerate their development from innovative ideas to scalable solutions, ensuring their impact on the ground is maximised.
With these principles in mind, Tusk this year has helped Blue Ventures, an organisation working to create Locally Managed Marine Areas, to start their work in the Comoros island chain. Tusk funds enabled the initial socioeconomic and environmental assessment, community training, and fishery monitoring.
And Tusk has supported Namibia’s oldest field-based NGO, Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRNDC), since 2016 when Garth Owen Smith was the winner of a Tusk Conservation Award, helping the organisation to strengthen existing community-based approaches to combatting the widespread rise in rhino poaching across its conservancies.
IRDNC collaborates closely with local communities to reduce costs and increase the benefits of living with wildlife. It works to build skills and capacity, empower women and promote local ownership, rights and responsibilities. Diversified sources of income have come in the form of increased craftwork, sustainable meat production, plant cultivation and wildlife tourism.
These are just two of the many examples of the provision of reliable benefits to local people and how Tusk has helped to refocus global conservation efforts to emphasise the engagement of communities.
Tusk envisions an ambitious but achievable future where both people and wildlife can thrive across Africa. With the continent accounting for 25% of all global biodiversity and its forests, mangroves, coral reefs and savannah grasslands playing a significant role in carbon sequestration to the benefit of the global population, we must continue to recognise, support and resource those changemaking individuals and communities with the potential, knowledge and passion to safeguard this natural heritage now and for future generations.
