Project management: 

Anti-Poaching for Development (AP4D) is a non-profit project which was founded and is managed by Marko G., an active Anti Poaching Ranger (thus not his full name is published) and Namibian Wildlife Conservationist, who is running a wilderness training academy in his private nature reserve in Northwest Namibia and a security training academy in Namibia's capital Windhoek. 

 

Purpose of the project:

Anti-Poaching for Development (AP4D) was founded for the following purposes:

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- to support rural development and nature conservation by offering scholarships for Wildlife Protection / Anti Poaching Ranger Courses, Assistant hunting guide/tracker and Wilderness (Nature-) Guide Courses a) to members of rural communities which are facing severe human wildlife conflicts b) to all young Namibian who want to work in nature conservation in the rural areas

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- to support the wildlife protection ("anti poaching") efforts of the Namibian Police Force (NAMPOL), Namibian Defense Force (NDF) and the Ministry of Environment & Tourism (MET)

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by high-quality and free-of-charge training courses in order to create job opportunities and / or to support nature conservation and wildlife protection services as an important tool for long-term wildlife conservation.

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Goals:

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The first goal of Anti-Poaching for Development (AP4D) is to raise awareness of the ethical and material value of wild nature and wild animals in the rural communities through our training courses.

 

Second goal of the AP4D is to anchor knowledge and skills about nature conservation work and wildlife protection in the rural communities by our courses, so that suitable community members will be able to take care of the protection of their wildlife that live in and around these communities - by volunteering or against payment. This is to create or maintain the basis for profitable wildlife based tourism, which in turn can bring material progress and development to the community.

 

Our third goal is to create employment opportunities for motivated and talented Namibians as wildlife protection rangers and wilderness guides for the tourism and wildlife conservation sector. Applicants can come from all parts of Namibia but applicants from rural communities, where people live with rhinos, and conflict species like elephants and lions, are particularly favoured. The employment of these community members as Wildlife protection (WP) Ranger and Wilderness Guides significantly can help reducing human-wildlife conflicts in the long run and bring development to rural communities.

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Fourth goal: Through the scholarships we give the graduates a professional development perspective, in which nature in general, but especially iconic species like the rhino, elephant and lion, receive an outstanding, economic importance. This will generally initiate awareness for the longterm conservation of wild African nature in general.

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Fifth goal: The resulting job and business opportunities also reduce dependence on livestock income and subsidence farming, raise awareness of the economic benefits of rhinos and "conflict species" such as elephants and large predators, reducing the existing acceptance of poaching and limiting  the conflicts between humans and wildlife.

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Sixth goal: The strengthening of wildlife protection in the rural communities leads to a safeguarding of wildlife based tourism in these region, which is the most important basis for rural incomes and can prevent young people to migrate to the cities (rural exodus) and can motivate young "city based" people to go "back to nature".

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Seventh goal: In addition, we  offer scholarships for members of the Namibian police force (NAMPOL), the Namibian Defense Force (NDF), the MET (MInistry of Environment and Tourism) as well as to the game rangers of communal wildlife conservancies  in order to support their fight against poaching, especially rhino and elephant poaching.

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Course programs:

​For us of the AP4D, wildlife protection and wildlife based tourism are nowadays the most important fields of activity of wildlife rangers, because only this combination gives effective protection for nature and wildlife. 

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Wildlife Protection (WP) Ranger ("Anti poaching officer'): It must be clear to anyone involved in conservation, that wildlife protection (anti-poaching) is primarily a work of security professionals to fight crime in the wilderness, therefore fundamentally different from other conservation work. That is also the reason why wildlife protection requires instructors who are both - security AND wildlife experts - to effectively and professionally train WP Ranger.

 

Wilderness Guide: Nevertheless, we want to give applicants the opportunity to support wildlife protection also more "indirectly" by working as a Wilderness Guide. The wilderness guide profession is based on a healthy wildlife population and therefore creates awareness and energy to protect wildlife in general and particularly the "iconic" wildlife species such as elephant, rhino and lion which are of special interest for tourist from all over the world. 

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We give our best motivated applicants the opportunity to run through both course programs to become a complete wildlife ranger.

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