![]() ![]() PHUNDUNDU WILDLIFE AREA, ZIMBABWE, JUNE 2018: Members of the all female conservation ranger force known as Akashinga undergo tough training in the bush near their base. ![]() In the Middle-East, counterinsurgency operations that involve penetrating and working with the local population to try and win the hearts and minds ha Women have traditionally played major roles in battle and are now re-emerging as key solutions in law enforcement and conflict resolution. Cut off from places of worship and burial, grazing areas, access to water, food, traditional medicine and given limited opportunity for employment or tourism benefits, it’s little wonder many of these communities struggle to see any value in conservation efforts. While still trained to deal with any situation they may face, the team has a community-driven interpersonal focus, working with rather than against the local population for the long-term benefits of their own communities and nature. The program builds an alternative approach to the militarized paradigm of ‘fortress conservation’ which defends colonial boundaries between nature and humans. In 2017 they decided to innovate, using an all- female team to manage an entire nature reserve in Zimbabwe. The I.A.P.F, the International Anti-Poaching Foundation led by former Australian Special Forces soldier Damien Mander, was created as a direct action conservation organisation to be used as a surgical instrument in targeting wildlife crime. Predominately male forces are hampered by ongoing corruption, nepotism, drunkenness, aggressiveness towards local communities and a sense of entitlement. Many current western-conceived solutions to conserve wilderness areas struggle to gain traction across the African continent. ![]() Akashinga (meaning the ‘Brave Ones’ in local dialect) is a community-driven conservation model, empowering disadvantaged women to restore and manage a network of wilderness areas as an alternative to trophy hunting. conservation ranger force undergo concealment and fire and movement training in the bush to curb poaching. PHUNDUNDU WILDLIFE AREA, ZIMBABWE, JUNE 2018: Specially selected women from an all female. ![]()
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