About Us

Raising Dams to Provide Water and Save Wildlife

The African Wildlife Conservation Project has a mission to bring relief to the animals and people of Africa.  One project involves raising dams to provide reliable water sources for the wildlife in the Coutada. This project has generated millions of gallons of water for the animals in the area. 

Early attempts to bring reliable water to the area were mostly in the form of solar powered wells. Those worked fine until poachers in the area stole the solar panels. The African Wildlife Conservation Project then shifted tactics to building and raising dams. This is more expensive than the solar powered wells but is turning out to be much more sustainable.

The pictures from the project pictured here raised the dam two feet and it now holds an additional 4.5 million gallons of water.

Older pans usually dry out shortly after the rainy season. By constructing these dams, the area will hold two years’ worth of water; something that is very important in this part of the world with a terribly unpredictable weather pattern. Some years see almost no measurable precipitation.

Like many animals in Africa, the local wildlife that used to migrate with the rains are seeing those migration routes cut off by the exploding human population. These reliable, year-round water sources are vital to their survival.

These dams were built by Western Safaris. They have two partners in the concession area, GaJoGo Safaris and Mekore. This helps prove once again that hunters are doing all the heavy lifting and funding when it comes to conservation!

The African Wildlife Conservation Project is working on raising more dams in the area, in addition to its ongoing efforts to build schools, clinics and teaching sustainable farming techniques.

One of the sources of funding for this project is the Gateway Chapter of SCI.  We thank them, as well as their members and banquet attendees, for making this project possible.

Helping People and Stopping Poachers

The African Wildlife Conservation Project has a mission to bring relief to the animals and people of Africa.  One of our projects had a direct positive impact on the people of Mozambique while also addressing a major poaching problem in the area. 

Mozambique was locked in an extended civil war that forced many residents into former game reserves for survival. Even as the civil war ended, poaching in the area increased dramatically. 

The African Wildlife Conservation Project, with help from groups like the Gateway Chapter of SCI, have been working in the area to build schools, a clinic and teach sustainable farming techniques. Together, we have helped re-establish villages for people that lived on game reserves during the civil war to avoid the conflict. 

By helping the people move to an area with water, wells, land to farm, schools, and a clinic, this allowed the wildlife in the area to regain important habitat critical to their survival.

The other issue related to this area is poaching. There are two types of poaching that take place in this part of Mozambique, subsistence and commercial. Subsistence poachers are the ones who kill wildlife outside of the carefully managed seasons (i.e. killing female animals when they may be pregnant) for food. But the real problem in the area are commercial poachers.

These poachers are the ones that are killing large animals like elephants commercially for money.  Hundreds of snares have been removed by game scouts.

Game Scouts are on the front line protecting Africa's wilderness areas. They are key in the detection of illegal activities, are the first to respond to incidents, and are involved in the majority of arrests and confrontations with poachers. They also provide a crucial link with the local communities. Not only do they gather important information through their contacts, but they spread the education of the importance of conservation. 

As the farming techniques are implemented and anti-poaching efforts increase, it is our hope that this area will be home to a healthy human population that better co-exists with the wildlife.

The African Wildlife Conservation Project is continuing its efforts fight poaching while also building schools, clinics and teaching sustainable farming techniques.

More projects that help wildlife will be here soon!