Black Mambas win top UN environmental award

With this award, in the Inspiration and Action category, UNEP is recognising the rapid and impressive impact the Black Mamba unit has made in combating poaching and the courage required to accomplish it.

"Community-led initiatives are crucial to combating the illegal wildlife trade and the Black Mambas highlight the importance and effectiveness of local knowledge and commitment," UNEP executive director, Achim Steiner, said.

"Their many successes are a result of their impressive courage and determination to make a difference in their community. The Black Mambas are an inspiration not only locally, but across the world to all those working to eliminate the scourge of the illegal wildlife trade."

Zero poaching

The unit has ensured that not a single rhino has been poached on the land they protect in over ten months. In the neighbouring reserve, 23 rhinos have been killed over the same period.

Since being founded in 2013, the 26 member unit has also helped arrest six poachers, reduced snaring by 76%, removed over 1,000 snares and put five poachers' camps and two bush meat kitchens out of action.

The area that they protect, the Balule Private Game Reserve, is home to an abundance of wildlife - including not only rhino but leopards, lions, elephants, cheetahs and hippos. It is part of the greater Kruger National Park, a network of over two million hectares of protected areas that is home to thousands of birds, impalas, giraffes, wildebeest, buffalos, antelopes, hyenas, crocodiles, fish and zebras.

Devastating epidemic

Protecting the rhino is vital in South Africa, where 1,215 rhinos were killed in 2014 alone. This is an increase of over 12,000% since 2004 and symptomatic of a devastating epidemic that has pushed the rhino closer to the edge of extinction.

For three weeks at a time, the rangers patrol the park - walking up to 20km a day, checking its fences and seeking out poachers, their trails, camps and snares. They know their ground so well that even a moved stone alerts them to poachers.

During their time off, they also use their local networks to identify potential poachers and take appropriate action to discourage them. One ranger specifically targets the children in the communities, seeking to connect them with the parks' wildlife, soil and water.

The award, to be presented in New York on the 27 September 2015, is in acknowledgement of this fierce, practical courage.