The dangers faced by Wildlife Rangers

At PAC we celebrate and commend the necessary work of Wildlife Rangers. Already a job fraught with dangers, the work of rangers is further hampered by major issues such as threats to personal safety, psychological distress and PTSD, and the growing imbalance of resources between rangers and poachers.

Below are two resources that go a ways to describing the experiences of rangers in the face of these issues.

First, in this ABC feature, Sean Willmore - the President of the International Ranger Federation, and Founder and Director of The Thin Green Line Foundation - gives a sobering account of the dangers faced by Wildlife Rangers across the world.

Second, in 2018, Melody Kemp provided a record of the threats of violence experienced by rangers. Melody includes personal accounts of rangers in her record. From Lawrence Munro, a senior African ranger guarding Rhinos:

“Everything changes when you work in this field. Everything. The car you drive, the clothes you wear, the company you keep, your social habits.” Munro keeps a lot of his work secret, and won’t reveal to his family anything that can endanger their lives. “It creates lots of stress at home. I don’t want to worry my family. It’s not easy. I feel like I’m constantly in a war.”