The Painted Wolf Conservation Leadership Programme opened its doors in June this year. This week, our newest cohort arrives from Senegal, home to West Africa’s last remaining painted wolves.
The Programme’s very first participants were Christine Mwewa and Stephen Ngoma from Conservation Lower Zambezi. They recently started a dedicated painted wolf conservation project in Zambia’s Lower Zambezi, with support from the Painted Dog Fund.
They were followed by the Kenyan cohort: Tsavo Trust’s Desmond Nzivau Musyoka and Irene Monyani, together with Grace Waiguchu from Kenya’s Wildlife Research and Training Institute.
Painted wolves require specialist skills and experience to protect them successfully. Yet this expertise is lacking in many of the landscapes where the species survives.
The Programme aims to address this gap by helping to build a new generation of African conservation leaders equipped to protect painted wolves successfully.
Managed by the Painted Wolf Foundation, the Programme is a collaboration with the Zambian Carnivore Programme (ZCP) and Painted Dog Conservation (PDC), with support from Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife and funding from the Painted Dog Fund.
Participants are based at the purpose-built Painted Wolf BaseCamp on ZCP’s original field site just outside South Luangwa National Park, an area rich in painted wolves.
They then join PDC in Zimbabwe to gain further field experience and exposure to proven conservation approaches in a different landscape before returning home to strengthen painted wolf conservation in their own countries.
Enjoy these snapshots of our first cohorts developing the critical skills needed to conserve painted wolves.
