Dear Loyal Supporter,

Elephanatics has joined forces with partner organization Mara Elephant Project for the #HolidayGiving season.

We are asking for your support this year to assist MEP in providing for an additional 10 Loita rangers. The Loita Plains and pristine Loita Forest are in immediate need of additional resources to help mitigate human-elephant conflict, reduce elephant poaching, and increase protection of elephant habitat. With the onset of COVID-19 and the lack of tourism, the need for more rangers to protect these pristine areas is even more crucial. The poaching and illegal trade of Ivory has increased substantially because of the loss of tourism in both Asian and African countries. People are suffering greatly from economic losses. The increase in human-elephant conflict is rising as is the bushmeat trade. With no eco-tourism dollars supporting local communities, people are reverting to poaching to feed their families and in turn, is creating national security and stability issues due to natural resources being threatened with overexploitation and species extinction. Rangers are on the frontlines fighting these issues. The importance of preserving our biodiversity and wildlife couldn’t be more apparent as a raging pandemic has proven. Globally, we need to protect our wildlife and their ecosystems for the sake of our own species survival.

Mara Elephant Project’s Maasai rangers are at the forefront of anti-poaching operations, human-elephant conflict mitigation efforts, and stopping deforestation through boots on the ground initiatives. The rangers live out in the field for up to two months at a time in mobile camps. Rangers are the backbone of MEP’s organization and their presence in an area increases the protection for wildlife, communities, and habitat.

The 10 new MEP rangers are responsible for responding to conflict and collecting information on all conflict incidents to analyze in MEP’s EarthRanger system. The information gathered, when combined with the elephant movements from collared elephants, will be used to inform spatial planning to protect elephant habitat and test and modify different conflict mitigation techniques within the community. In addition, they will be tasked with increasing security in the area for wildlife by reducing poaching and illegal habitat destruction activities. These 10 men and women were recruited from Loita because MEP works closely with local communities to protect Kenya’s iconic elephants and the habitat upon which they depend.

Your donation will go directly towards funding these rangers who are vital to the protection of elephants and their habitat during this critical time. 

About Elephanatics:
Our mission is to assist global elephant conservation efforts by educating Canadians about issues of ivory poaching, habitat loss, and the continued exploitation of elephants by humans, and to connect Canadians directly with elephant conservation partners in Africa and Asia.
The MEP connection comes from Dr. Jake Wall, co-founder, and African elephant specialist, with Elephanatics. Dr. Wall has worked as the Director of Research and Conservation at Mara Elephant Project since 2019.

For more information on Mara Elephant Project please visit: maraelephantproject.org

Please consider a gift this season to assist Mara Elephant Project.

Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-sponsor-mara-elephant-rangers

Sincerely,
Marc Goss | CEO Mara Elephant Project
Fran Duthie | Elephanatics Team

*Disclaimer: Donations to Elephanatics are not tax-deductible.

While this team is a necessary expense for MEP to incur, your support in this endeavor to expand our ranger presence is vital to ensure MEP can increase our areas of operation and our net of protection.