Wild Terra Foundation

Programs: Kariega is a 20,000 acre big 5 wildlife reserve in south africa's eastern cape at the forefront of numerous species reintroductions and conservation drives. Last year approximately 200 of our volunteers from all over the world came to kariega for an opportunity to learn what it is like to think and act as a reserve manager. Among the ongoing conservation projects at kariega are: the save the rhino project; a leopard re-population project performed in collaboration with the centre for african conservation ecology of the nelson mandela metropolitan university; an elephant impact monitoring project; a lion prey selection project; hyena tracking and monitoring; and the cataloguing of avian wildlife - a project headed by the university of cape town's avian demography unit. In addition to these, kariega volunteers experience ongoing reserve management tasks like game capture and release, fire management and fuel load control, road maintenance, fence construction and maintenance, erosion control, alien plant eradication and many more. During a stay which usually ranges from 2-4 weeks, volunteers immerse themselves in the daily labor of conserving wildlife. They leave with a deep appreciation of nature and the work and knowledge required to provide pristine habitat for africa's unique flora and fauna. Located in the 70,000 acre greater makalali game reserve in the limpopo province of south africa, the siyafunda bush project is a unique conservation education initiative. Siyafunda is a zulu word meaning 'to learn and to teach'. Volunteers at the siyafunda bush project lean bush survival skills, bush orientation techniques for both daylight and nighttime, and learn how to safely approach animals in the bush. This education is vital in preparation for the necessary project field work that they will perform for the reserve. Over 100 of our volunteers participated in this program in the past year, collecting information relating to game census and animal carrying capacity of the reserve. The volunteers also learned plant and tree identification in order to collect data on the biodiversity of the area and contribute valuable information for the environmental impact assessment of the greater makalali reserve. Our volunteers at siyafunda return to their lives imbued with a sense of the african bush and the importance of preserving the world's remaining wild spaces.