RIGHT
Primrose Mazuru plays
with her daughter
while on a visit home.
Like many Akashinga,
Mazuru was in an abu-
sive relationship before
becoming a ranger.
Along with other rang-
ers, she now receives
counseling on topics
such as self-esteem.LEFT
Wadzanai Munemo and
another ranger encoun-
ter an elephant while
patrolling conservation
land that once was part
of a trophy hunting
area. At the start of
their efforts, the rang-
ers saw animals as little
as once a week. Now
they spot them daily.
former special forces soldier who has trained
game rangers in Zimbabwe for more than a
decade. His experiences serving in Iraq and on the
front lines of Africa’s poaching war have taught
him that change—be it peace among humans or
attitudes about wildlife—can’t happen without
buy-in from the community. “Local people have
a vested interest in where they come from, where
they live,” he says. “Foreigners don’t.”
With that local-first mentality, Manderturned to Phundundu’s surrounding villages—
specifically their women—to fill the ranks of the
Akashinga. After years of training male rangers,
he concluded that in some ways women were
better suited for the job. He found they were less
susceptible to bribery from poachers and more
adept at de-escalating potentially violent situa-
tions. He also knew that research shows working
women in developing countries invest 90 per-
cent of their income in their families, compared
with 35 percent for men. In this regard, the rang-
ers demonstrate a key conservation principle:
Wildlife is worth more to the community alive
than it is dead at the hands of poachers.
Mander sought women who had suffered
trauma: AIDS orphans, victims of sexual assault
or domestic abuse. Kumire joined after her hus-
band abandoned her and their two daughters.
Who better to task with protecting exploited ani-
mals, Mander reasoned, than women who had
suffered from exploitation? He modeled his selec-
tion course on special forces training, subjecting
the women to three days of nonstop exercises
designed to test their teamwork skills while being
wet, cold, hungry, and tired. Of 37 recruits who
started the course, 16 were chosen for the training112 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC