The scene is familiar: a gang of poachers has just cornered an elephant bull and is going in for the kill. The elephant’s tusks are prime commercial products and the killers can already smell the dollars they will receive.
And then the saviour arrives. A lone ranger charges on to the scene and manages to scare off the heavily armed poachers with his ancient weapon. No shots are fired as the poachers retreat into the sunset.
Is this a realistic scenario? Not likely.
But this is: after a hard day at work the ranger heads for home, never knowing if he will reach his family. So says Tim Snow of the Game Rangers Association of Africa, who is also on the executive council of the International Ranger Federation and is involved in a programme to ensure better protection for the game rangers of the world.
The public does not recognise the dangers that rangers face to ensure that present generations will have a heritage to pass on to their children. The war between poachers and rangers is well known, but dangers caused by public ignorance and even aggressive tourists add to the hazards of the job, says Snow.
‘Rangers protect the environment, but who protects the protectors?” he asks.
Ever more rangers have fallen to violence over the past few years. ‘Poachers are becoming more brazen in confronting rangers,” says Snow.
IUCN-The World Conservation Union and the International Ranger Federation (IRF) have together started a ‘Protect the Protectors” initiative to shield nature’s custodians from ever-increasing violence. The programme was launched at the fourth World Ranger Congress held in Victoria, Australia, in March.
The initiative hopes to draw international attention to the increasing dangers that rangers face and to enhance their safety. Measures to secure the protection of rangers will also be an important topic at the fifth World Parks Congress in September in Durban.
Snow says war zones pose the greatest great danger for rangers. ‘Armed soldiers have no respect for the rangers. The combatants often poach game for food or to finance their military activities. Soldiers have no respect for conservation areas. They are at war and will shoot if they are threatened or crossed.”
Africa is one of the main hotspots that the IUCN and the IRF must focus on, especially war-ridden Central Africa, he says. ‘Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries in the area are at war, which is a big concern to us. There is a great threat to the rangers and the wildlife they protect in these areas.”
Though the Ugandan government regularly commits itself to eradicating poaching, rebels within and alongside the country’s borders regularly attack the rangers who protect its wildlife.
Poachers attacked rangers in the Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda in February. The rangers confronted a group of 13 poachers who had killed a hippopotamus. The poachers opened fire on the rangers, who killed four of the poachers in defending themselves.
Simon Mapesa, director of field operations for the Uganda Wildlife Agency, says rangers never set out to kill poachers. ‘We were forced to do this in self-defence after we had been attacked.”
John Makombo, chief ranger at Bwindi National Park on the border of Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been shot at several times and carries a gun for self-defence. Bwindi is home to 350 of the world’s remaining 600 mountain gorillas and is a regular target for poachers.
Paul Wagaba, the park’s chief warden, was killed in a raid by Hutu rebels from nearby Rwanda that claimed the lives of other rangers. Shortly afterwards, in March 1999, eight tourists on a trek to see the gorillas were kidnapped and hacked to death.
The Ugandan government guarded the park more vigilantly after the attack, but Bwindi is still a poaching hotspot. Baby gorillas are hunted for the black market and poachers often kill the whole gorilla family to snatch the youngsters. Makombo says poachers do not hesitate to shoot any ranger who gets in their way.
In late June, it was reported that a 25-year-old ranger, Kambale Binikere, from the eastern sector of the Virunga park, was killed while defending elephants during a field patrol.
Murchison Falls National Park, where the Nile passes over a gigantic waterfall, is one of Uganda’s top tourist destinations. The country was shocked in June last year when rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army, which is trying to overthrow the Ugandan government, killed seven rangers and kidnapped 10 others.
Two rangers in neighbouring Kenya were killed this May. The Kenyan Wildlife Service reported that they were gunned downed by a gang of poachers in Tsavo East National Park while trying to protect elephants.
‘Rangers in South Africa are not immune to attempts on their lives,” adds Snow. ‘Rangers are often shot at here.”
Henry Oram, a ranger in KwaZulu-Natal, was gunned down in an anti-poaching operation near St Lucia in 2001. Snow says Ezemvelo-KZN Wildlife, the provincial conservation body he was working for at the time, issued a press statement saying Oram was killed in an attempted vehicle hijacking, ‘yet he was shot through the vehicle and no attempt was made to take it”.
Oram managed to return fire on his attackers and a man admitted to hospital with a gunshot wound was linked to the attack. He led police to the rest of the gang, who were charged and convicted.
‘This is only one reported case. There are many more in the country that we are not aware of,” says Snow. ‘The cases tend to get lost beneath all the paperwork and are then forgotten. We rely on members of our organisation, as well as the authorities, to make the cases known.”
In May, Ka Sixto, a popular ranger in the Philippines well known for his active role in protecting his country’s dwindling forests and marine sanctuaries against unscrupulous businessmen, was shot in cold blood after delivering a speech at a town fiesta in Calatagan. He was shot twice in the head and died instantly in front of his wife and other companions. The gunman has not been caught, but he reportedly did not act alone and the killing was well planned.
In India Dharanidhar Boro , chief ranger at the Kaziranga National Park, was forced to fire on a group of men who had shot at his party as they patrolled the park in India’s north-east. Two of the poachers were killed and two others fled into the forest. The men were poaching rhinos.
Though rangers in countries involved in conflict are the most common targets, First World countries also have trouble protecting their rangers from attacks.
The United States Department of Justice says US National Parks Service Rangers are the most assaulted of all their federal law-enforcement officers. In 2000, at least 99 National Park Service officers were assaulted, compared with 55 customs agents, 55 Drug Administration agents and 25 FBI officers.
Snow says attacks and threats to US rangers increased by 940% – from 10 cases to 104 – between 1998 and 2002.
Poachers often go to a lot of trouble to eliminate meddlesome rangers. An IRF report says its members have even been attacked at home while watching television. One ranger was assaulted while cleaning a restroom in his park.
Brazen poachers throughout the world ambush rangers on patrol. Last year three rangers patrolling the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean off Ecuador had narrow escapes when illegal fishermen rammed and almost sank their boats in two separate incidents.
‘When a ranger comes across a poacher, you can expect a fight. Many times one ranger can come up against 30 armed poachers,” Snow says.
But poachers are not the only danger, the report states. Increasingly tourists and tour leaders are attacking rangers who reprimand them about their behaviour in reserves.
‘The beach-driving ban in South Africa has led to many conflict situations. Arrogant 4×4 owners simply refuse to accept the authority of the ranger and ignore him, or they fight with the warden,” says Snow.
A ranger in Portugal was run down by loggers he caught stripping a forest. Illegal builders and squatters attack rangers when they come across their sites in protected areas. In Ivory Coast illegal farmers have attacked rangers with the machetes they used to clear reserves for farming.
Sometimes the rangers’ dedication and bravery astounds even their peers. Snow tells of Mozambican rangers who stayed at their posts for 15 years throughout the civil war. ‘When the new authorities found them, they were still wearing their old uniforms. Even though they were not paid, they did not once consider leaving.”
But such dedication means nothing without government backing. ‘They cannot do the job alone. They need judicial support. If poachers are caught, they need to be prosecuted and receive the appropriate sentences. Magistrates tend to think that this is just a small impala. But take 200 impala and a whole herd is lost,” Snow says.
Rangers say the cycle of violence is repeated if attackers are not properly punished. They also want their working conditions to be improved.
The sources of violence are so different that it is almost impossible to stop. ‘But common sense says that at least the probability of new cases would be reduced if all rangers could perform their activities being well trained in tactics, could work with a companion, have good communications equipment and be armed,” says Snow. ‘We need government support to achieve this.”
He believes arming rangers is not the only solution. ‘Many of the rangers killed were armed at the time of their death. In one case, the ranger was killed with his own sidearm. In another, a ranger was shot despite wearing a bullet-proof vest and having a backup.
‘We urge employers to hire the appropriate number of rangers for every protected area and to provide adequate equipment, training and motivation. In many cases good equipment and training goes a long way towards motivating staff.”
Snow hopes the World Parks Congress will help set new standards. ‘We just want to do our job to the best of our ability. Rangers do not want to get shot at for doing their job.”