The World Ranger Congress just completed in Colorado where Global Conservation sponsored rangers from Mirador National Park, protecting the heart of the Maya Biosphere from illegal logging, poaching, land clearing and looting of archaeological sites.
Park Rangers are increasingly coming under lethal threat due to heavily armed wildlife poachers, miners and illegal loggers in our national parks.
Around the globe, park rangers are on the front line in the fight to protect our natural world heritage. Over 1,000 rangers have been killed in gun battles with poachers and organized crime groups over the past ten years.
The World Ranger Congress 2016 brought together over 200 rangers and park managers from 40 countries to undertake training on park management, anti-poaching, law enforcement, leadership development, park planning and design and sustainable tourism development.
Global Conservation sponsored two lead rangers from Mirador National who have returned to be the lead rangers in the newly established Mirador ranger patrols.
Mirador National Park is facing accelerating threats as the frontier of fire and land clearing for cattle ranching is now encroaching on the surrounding communities. The Maya Biosphere Reserve has lost over 80% of its intact tropical forests since 2000.
Fires in the Maya Biosphere Reserve 2010-2015
The World Ranger Congress USA hosted ranger and park authority delegates from 40+ countries will explore the various ways rangers and protected area professionals are actively protecting and preserving the world's natural and cultural resources from ever-increasing threats like climate change and poaching.
Under the theme “Connecting Parks, Rangers and Communities," objectives for the program are to:
Tech for Parks: Carbon for Forests
Global Conservation’s Carbon for Forests is the first forest-based carbon offset program which directly funds the protection and restoration of tropical forests, using advanced satellite monitoring combined with ISO-standard monitoring and verification.
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Tech for Parks: Smart Fence Technology Helps Protect One of the World's Most Endangered Mammals
Global Conservation is funding the construction of a Smart Fence in South Africa’s Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP), a rhino conservation hotspot and the oldest proclaimed game reserve in Africa. The new fence will detect and deter rhino poachers, protecting HiP’s wildlife and keeping rangers safer.
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Cutting-edge Laser Technology Uncovers Secrets of Maya Holy City
Over the last few years, Global Conservation has been involved in the deployment of new technology that is revolutionizing archaeology. With our support, scientists from the Mirador Basin Project have used the Light Detection and Ranging Tool, known as LiDAR, to uncover thousands of ancient Maya temples, pyramids and city complexes deep in the jungles of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala.
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Battling Cambodia's Wildlife Snaring Crisis in Cardamom National Park
Over the past decade, snares, which are traps made of wire or rope, have become the biggest threat to wildlife in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. That’s why the work of our partner, Wildlife Alliance (WA), is so critical. WA has a team of 110 rangers who work tirelessly to remove snares from Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains. Read about their work to protect wildlife over the past 3 years.
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