The Black Mambas Anti-Poaching Unit (NGO)

COACHING IN COMBAT

The Black Mamba APU was founded in 2012 by Transfrontier Africa and created to protect the Olifants West Region of Balule Nature Reserve in South Africa. It has since expanded to cover the entire Balule area of 400km².

The Black Mambas are the world’s first female anti-poaching unit (APU).  They work 24/7, 365 days a year to protect the wildlife of the Greater Kruger area, South Africa. 

The Black Mambas APU are no ’normal’ anti-poaching unit.  As well as patrolling, doing vehicle checks and anti-poaching snare sweeps across the landscape, they also run the ‘Bush Babies’ programme that supports over 1200 children around the Nature Reserve.  Helping teach the children about nature, how to support their ecosystem, grow healthy food, and how to live side by side with the wildlife.  This has been a game changer in the anti-poaching arena as this is helping to prevent the move towards crime and the need to poach, but ensuring the local communities have access to good education and therefore more options for the future.

In March 2020, the Mambas were again recognised by the International Community, being at the forefront of Apples ‘Behind the Mac’ campaign - championing women breaking boundaries across the globe. Check out the video here.

The Mambas were also the lead for ‘A Mighty Girl’ on Facebook for World Wildlife Day, commending their efforts for protecting endangered species in South Africa. Click to see the article.

And in 2021 they were at the forefront of the Samsung International Womens Day campaign, with the launch of ‘Bush Watch’ so that you could watch the anti-poaching cameras from your home too…..

In October 2022 the Black Mambas were yet again recognised for their crucial work at the Oscars of Exploration, by the Scientific Exploration Society.  They were both humbled and grateful to have been recognised as peers alongside some of the greatest names in conservation and innovation as they received the 'Pioneers with Purpose' award.

Alice's Black Mamba talk at the Royal Geographical Society:

In March 2019 Alice spoke at the Royal Geographical Society in London, presenting to a full auditorium on the works and day to day running of the Black Mambas.

Having made several trips out to work with them already on a pro bono basis, Alice’s first hand experience of the world’s first all female anti-poaching unit, and as the UK Ambassador for the charity, is educational, informative and an excellent application of her Resilience Leadership Training in action.

Fintech Industry supporting global anti- poaching initiative:

In 2019 there was a shift in global views as poaching and trafficking of wildlife became more widely considered as a crime, run by international organised crime syndicates, not just at local level.

The Royal Foundation and United For Wildlife set up the Financial task-force and has been working with partners within the Finance industry, to help develop mechanisms and processes to support the judicial process in finding and convicting those involved in International Wildlife Trafficking (IWT). This included the signing up of 40+ international banks to support this initiative and data processing companies coming onboard.

None of this has gone away!!

The Black Mambas received a wonderful donation just as Covid-19 lockdown was taking hold, which enabled them to move into their own operational base, and take on the next level of Black Mamba training and development.

This helped keep the Black Mambas operational effectiveness up during the Covid-19 lockdown period; their patrols were still finding snares, and keeping the poachers at bay.  As the international movement restrictions were lifted, the surge of Rhino poaching in 2022 across Southern and Eastern Africa became totally unsustainable - and this is anticipated to only get worse.  The financial and social pressures on the population continue to be exacerbated by the lack of tourist trade, and international criminals looking for opportunities to divest their portfolios and exploit the Reserves that have not kept up their anti-poaching capabilities. This is the time we need to reinforce the success of the Black Mambas and keep the poachers at bay...

International Wildlife crime is considered in the same league as Narcotics, Money Laundering & Human Trafficking.

The support and severity of this issue was reiterated when the Presidency of the FAFT (Financial Action Task Force) was taken on by China in 2019, and fighting international wildlife crime became one of the new Presidents priorities.  Environmental crime is one of the top three rated organised crime areas globally; it is a multi-billion dollar industry.  The importance in tackling this, was reiterated at the United for Wildlife Summit in London, October 2022, where the current Chairman of the FAFT (Singapore) reaffirmed his determination to counter international wildlife crime.  This had already been raised as one of the areas of focus for the President of FAFT in 2019 (Chinese Presidency), so it is good to see that the international community is still focused on reducing this area of international organised crime.  If anything, post the Covid-19 pandemic, we should all be even MORE vigilant and careful of the movement of zoological products and diseases.  Keeping the wildlife in its country of origin has moved from being not only an organised crime issue, to also being an international health consideration.  Let's hope this helps keep the pressure on countering wildlife crime at every level.

The Mambas offer a key link between those on the ground, working daily to protect the wildlife, and those in the financial sector, who can track and charge those paying for the wildlife products.  If you are interested in anti-money laundering or financial forensics - this is an area we can all support!