Amdec Group donates R1.25m to SANParks Honorary Rangers over 5 years

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Mongezi Mtati

The Amdec Group has over the past five years donated R250,000 annually to the Conservation Services National Project of the SANParks Honorary Rangers for anti-poaching efforts in the Kruger National Park area. The SANParks Honorary Rangers is a group of unpaid volunteers who give freely of their time to support wildlife conservation in South Africa's national parks.

This year’s cheque was handed over by John Wilson to SANParks honorary ranger Janssen Davies at a ceremony in Cape Town on 20 January.

The total R1.25m donation for the Save Our Rhinos initiative has been used to procure the rangers’ essential anti-poaching equipment to improve their working conditions and poachers’ tracking performance. The funds have also been used to support the SANParks Air Wing.

Amdec’s 2019 donation was used to install landing lights at the Skukuza runway to allow anti-poaching helicopters to take off and land at night, as well as enable the rangers to track poachers at any time. In 2020 the company’s donation will be allocated to equip the rangers with specialised survival equipment that allows the rangers to stay out in the bush, tracking down poachers, for longer periods of time.

“These passionate volunteers give freely of their time and skills to support what is dear to my heart and to our heritage as a nation,” shares John Wilson, chairman of the Amdec Group who founded the initiative in 2015. “Every rand donated to the Save our Rhinos initiative is used to fight poaching.”