With a prize pool of $100,000, the Wilderness Impact Challenge seeks to spark and bring to life ideas and projects aligned with Wilderness’s mission and commitment to Africa’s biodiversity, addressing the urgent need for creative solutions to human-wildlife conflict.
“Conservation as we know it is not moving at the pace we need it to. That’s why we’ve created a new model that reimagines the traditional way of funding these efforts. We’re moving from protecting only specific species to transforming entire ecosystems and economies, ensuring our solutions are scalable and sustainable,” said Vincent Shacks, Impact Manager of the Wilderness Group.
The Wilderness Impact Challenge invites innovative proposals that promote coexistence between humans and wildlife, with a focus on improving the safety of animals and local communities. Based on three fundamental pillars: educate, empower and protect, Wilderness's conservation strategy addresses critical conservation issues. In this first edition, the challenge will focus on the protect pillar, with an emphasis on wild areas and associated communities in Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda.
The challenge is open to individuals and organizations around the world, encouraging proposals in key areas such as the development of technologies (early warning systems and non-lethal mechanisms), the creation of ecological barriers to protect crops and livestock, and the implementation of community-led educational and conflict resolution programs.
A panel of judges will evaluate the proposals and select the most promising one, awarding $100,000 to make the winning idea a reality.
“We invite innovators, researchers and community leaders from all corners of the world to submit their proposals and be part of this exciting new chapter in conservation. This challenge reflects our spirit of breaking new ground and we are excited to explore disruptive solutions that balance human and wildlife needs, advancing our commitment to sustainability and impactful change,” Vincent concluded.
The Wilderness Impact Challenge opened for applications in December 2024 and will close on 28 February 2025. The finalists will be announced on 14 March and the winner will be revealed at the end of the same month. If you have or know of a project that can contribute to this great work, this is the opportunity to promote it through Wilderness and take it to remote communities and ecosystems.
Source: Wilderness Trust.