Since EarthRanger’s first deployment at Kenya’s Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in 2016, the online software solution developed by Vulcan Inc. has been helping protected area managers make informed, conservation-related operational decisions. 

Now after five years, EarthRanger is working with over 100 sites across 30 countries, helping to protect over 250,000 square miles and monitor 50 endangered and threatened species and their habitats. Elephants, rhinos, snow leopards, pangolins, and invasive species are all being tracked by these diverse sites, each with their own challenges in conservation, but all with the shared goal of protecting biodiversity.   

Here’s a look at a few of the sites and species EarthRanger is protecting today. 
 

Filled with water, the Ennedi Massif is well known as the Eden of the Sahara. Fauna and flora abound in this open-air museum where thousands of paintings and engravings adorn the mineral landscape. Man has roamed through this area since the Neolithic period, 10,000 years ago.  

Today, Ennedi remains a crucial resource for semi-nomadic groups in search of water and pasture. In 2016, the Ennedi Massif was placed on the UNESCO list of mixed – cultural and natural – sites of the World Heritage of Humanity. 

Partner: Gorongosa National Park

Fast Facts: Among one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, Gorongosa National Park in the heart of central Mozambique is perhaps Africa’s greatest wildlife restoration story. 

Between 1977 and 1992, the country’s civil war decimated the park’s abundant wildlife. Ivory from elephants was used to buy guns and ammunition while thousands of zebras and other big animals were slaughtered to feed troops. When the war ended, surveys found that more than 95% of Gorogonsa's large mammals had vanished. Right after the war, an intrepid team re-entered the Park and began the long process of recovery.  In 2006 the Carr Foundation - invited by the government of Mozambique - launched the Gorongosa Restoration Project. By 2018 many large herbivores had been restored to 95% of their historic abundances and the recovery of lions, wild dogs, and leopards quickly followed.

But, recovery efforts have brought the park back to life. Today, the 1,500 square mile park now boasts over 100,000 large mammals and is a safe haven for many of Africa’s most endangered species. 

Even more remarkable is the role the park plays in the 200,000 lives of those who live in and around it. As the area’s green economic engine, Gorongosa National Park has improved the community’s access to jobs, health care services, schools and after-school educational clubs, water and sanitation (WaSH) and driven sustainable development with eco-tourism, rainforest coffee, honey, cashew and other agro-forestry projects.

Wildlife: African elephant, lion, pangolin (endangered), painted wolves (endangered), hippos, Blue wildebeest, Mount Gorongosa Pygmy Chameleon (endangered) 

Noteworthy Data Points: 

• Reintroduced in 2018 with a founder pack of 14 from South Africa, and supplemented with an additional pack in 2019, more than 80 painted wolves roam the park today. 

• Gorongosa National Park established the nation’s first pangolin rescue facility. Since 2019, over 60 pangolins have been rescued from traffickers, rehabilitated, and returned to the wild.  

• Started in 2016, Gorongosa National Park has helped establish 50 Girls Clubs serving 2,000 local girls. 

• As a way to restore its rainforest, Gorongosa coffee farmers planted over 300,000 coffee trees in 2020.  

Wildlife: Bobcat (endangered), Great horned owl, timber rattlesnake (endangered), wild turkey, Bog turtle (critically endangered), northern red salamander 

Noteworthy Data Points: 

• The Pinelands is home to 43 animal species that are listed as threatened or endangered by the New Jersey Division of Wildlife. 

• The Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system, underlying much of the Pinelands, contains over 17 trillion gallons of some of the purest water in the United States. 

• The Pinelands National Reserve represents 22% of New Jersey’s total land area. 

• More than half of the Pinelands (745 square miles) have been permanently protected. 

Partner: Conservation South Luangwa

Fast Facts: Regarded as one of the great unspoiled regions of Africa, Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park lies at the tail end of the Great African Rift Valley system. The lifeblood of this almost 3,500 square mile park is the Luangwa River – the most intact major river system in Africa.  

A wide variety of wildlife congregate and feed along the Luangwa’s banks or its oxbow lagoons. If you can’t see wildlife there, you’ll find them in the park’s magnificent baobab trees or hiding in the thick and lush vegetation that’s a trademark of South Luangwa’s summer months. 

South Luangwa National Park, however, is not without its threats. Poaching, wildlife trafficking, and habitat loss through expanding settlements and farms are among the complex challenges the park face. While natural resources are abundant in this rich ecosystem, they aren’t boundless. Through Conservation South Luangwa’s work, sustainable community-led efforts are ensuring that the wildlife and habitats of this area are protected for future generations.  

Wildlife: African elephant, lion, Cape buffalo, leopard, Thornicroft’s giraffe, Cookson’s wildebeest, Crawshay’s zebra, Vervet monkey, African wild dog (endangered), spotted hyaena

Noteworthy Data Points: 

• South Luangwa National Park is home to over 60 different animal species and 400 bird species 

• More than 13,000 hippos live in the park making it among the largest hippo population in Africa. 

• Conservation South Luangwa has helped construct 143 elephant-safe grain stores to keep maize and other crops protected. 

• In 2019, Conservation South Luangwa confiscated 66 firearms, 100 elephant tusks and 554 snares.  

Partner: Secure Forests Ltd. 

Fast Facts: Deep in the jungles of western Belize and located in the foothills of the Maya Mountains, Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve protects more than 6,000 acres of rainforest. The reserve is co-managed by local NGO Belize Karst Habitat Conservation (BKHC) under an agreement with the Belize Forest Department.

Mr. Aaron Juan of BKHC says that the reserve is home to keel-billed toucans, black orchids, mahogany trees, jaguars, the iconic Central American Baird’s tapir, and is a hotspot for biodiversity. But these aren’t the only reasons why Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve is so significance to Belize.
 
Hidden among the reserve’s dense canopy and mountain streams are Maya ruins and mysterious caves, the most famous of these is the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) cave. The Maya believe that caves are the entrance to the underworld and continue to be places of cultural, spiritual, and ecological significant to the Maya people.  

Sadly however, Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve is coming under increasing threat from illegal logging and poaching. Through the use of modern technology, the BKHC team in partnership with Secure Forests CIC Ltd are planning on utilizing satellite imagery, acoustic sensors and seismic dataloggers, all integrated into the EarthRanger, to protect these important forest habitats. 

Wildlife: Baird’s tapir (endangered), jaguar, keel-billed toucan, Yucatán Black Howler Monkey (endangered) 

Noteworthy Data Points: 

• Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve sits on more than 6,000 acres (about 10 miles) of protected land. 

• Biologists discovered over 100 species of birds and over 90 species of butterflies that live within the reserve. 

• Scientists estimate the population of the Baird’s tapir have declined more than 50% in the past three generations mainly due to habitat loss and hunting.   

• Only discovered in 1989, carbon dating and other scientific tools suggest Mayas used the cave systems as far back as the 300 AD.