What alternatives exists to |
Can we find another way to
save the rhino?
Anti-poaching rangers patrolling a game reserve fence in Southern Africa.
Extremely poor communities in Mozambique are located right next to the last remaining rhinos. These people are persuaded to poach rhinos for money. Providing other activities and opportunities will decrease their dependence on poaching.
We want communities to stand together and create sustainable solutions for income and livelihood, allowing nature and humans to strive together.
What can be done to pull these communities together?
Thank you to all the
Wild and Free donors!
Matt Bracken shakes hands after Wild and Free delivers soccer equipment to the team manager of the Mavunguane soccer team in Mozambique. The 2017 Rhino Cup marked the start of a new journey for change.
Being able to hand over soccer kits to the community in Mozambique was like Christmas in April 2017, for us and them!
We want the soccer league we're developing to be official so it uplifts morale and gets them excited. Shoes, nets, balls, referee gear, whistles, field flags, we've got it all!
Thank you to our Wild and Free Foundation donors for making this possible.
Being able to hand over soccer kits to the community in Mozambique was like Christmas in April 2017, for us and them!
We want the soccer league we're developing to be official so it uplifts morale and gets them excited. Shoes, nets, balls, referee gear, whistles, field flags, we've got it all!
Thank you to our Wild and Free Foundation donors for making this possible.
How can we initiate change
in conservation?
Wild and Free Foundation members arriving at a discussion held at Richard’s Tavern in Corumana, Mozambique, about expanding the soccer project. Image from the Wild and Free Community meeting, April 2017.
An expedition led by the Wild and Free Foundation met with chiefs, elders, soccer players/rhino poachers, and community members in Mozambique to discuss a potential possibility that may benefit the community and save the rhinos.
The following video is an account of the events.
How can we make
conservation inclusive?
When local kids see their favorite team on the field, they start dreaming of one day playing for that team. Image that represents the start of the Rhino Cup journey, August 2016.
"The community is part of conservation. You cannot manage a reserve from the inside out, you must manage it from the outside in."
Ferdie Terblanche
Sabie Game Park Ranger
Many underprivileged communities see conservation as a "threat" to them.
Are you game to go out of your comfort zone and initiate contact with them to begin collaborating on a solution to the issue?
How can we save the African Rhino?
As the sun warms the African landscape, a white rhino bull is relaxing in the bushveld.
Can you accept that rhino poaching will not go away?
Matt Bracken, the founder of the Wild and Free Foundation, gets realistic in this video about what's happening to the world's remaining rhinos and what we can do to preserve them.
Can you accept that rhino poaching will not go away?
Matt Bracken, the founder of the Wild and Free Foundation, gets realistic in this video about what's happening to the world's remaining rhinos and what we can do to preserve them.
The Vision of
Wild and Free Foundation!
An image of a young soccer fan sitting on an old beer crate and supporting the Club de Corumana and Freitas FC teams, sitting next to the dusty gravel pitch of Corumana soccer field, August 27, 2016. Wild and Free Foundation's goal is to create a community driven conservation initiative.
Our vision is for conservation to be a community driven initiative, without guns.
We want community life to be enhanced by wildlife, so they can tell others in their community, no more rhino poaching. And that our lives are better because those rhinos are alive, not dead.
Wild and Free Foundation’s philosophy of saving the community from the outside in, starts with soccer.
Is killing people the answer
for rhino conservation?
An image of an unmarked family grave site from a community in Mozambique.
What are the devastating consequences to conservation when an anti-poaching ranger or rhino poachers is killed?
In this interview, Matt Bracken chats with Ferdie Terblanche, a Game Park Ranger, about the sadness and devastation that death brings to a family when unnecessary conflict is happening within conservation for communities and game ranger families.
A young white rhino that was poached on a game reserve in South Africa. Male white rhinos have existed in the African continent for more than a million years and play a huge role in the ecosystem of our continent. The conservation of the white rhino is essential to Wild and Free Foundation.
The "Why" that drives what we do is a personal reason, and we all have one. In this interview, Matt Bracken, an ex-anti-poaching volunteer, chats about his personal reasons why he chose to protect the African rhino and wildlife.