Exploring the Perceptions and Experiences of Local Versus Non-Local Rangers: Insights From Across 11 Countries

Multiple demographic factors can affect ranger experiences and perceptions of their work, including factors like gender, age, and income. Similarly, whether a ranger is local to their conservation area might influence their experiences and perceptions of the work. This premise, however, has received limited attention. In this study we use survey data from across 11 countries to explore how being local to a conservation area might affect ranger experiences and perceptions. We define local rangers as originally being from within 20km of their conservation area. Our findings suggest that being local corresponds to more positive relations with local communities. Our results also imply that whilst being a local ranger might not directly affect job satisfaction, local rangers may well enjoy higher job satisfaction because of how they tend to differ from non-local rangers in other characteristics (e.g., lower formal education; greater access to familial support; more amicable community relations). Moreover, our findings indicate that non-local rangers tend to experience certain symptoms associated with a challenging job (e.g., feeling worn out and emotionally exhausted) more regularly than local rangers, which might correspond to lower welfare. In all, our findings indicate that further, more in-depth research into how the perceptions and experiences of local versus non-local rangers might differ could be useful. Examining the links between being a local ranger and community relations might be especially valuable

Health challenges of rangers—a planetary health workforce

Rangers safeguard the balance between humans and nature by protecting and managing biodiversity and natural resources. The challenging working conditions that rangers face make them vulnerable to wildlife attacks and exposure to zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. Despite all of these work-related challenges and threats to their health, a vast majority of rangers lack access to adequate medical treatment facilities. This research has used data from the one of the largest and most comprehensive surveys of rangers across multiple countries, collected as part of the Global Ranger Perception Survey, to examine the relationship between the precarious working conditions of rangers and their health outcomes. By comparing data from the 2020 World Malaria Report, our study highlights the severe malaria burden carried by rangers around the world. Malaria prevalence in rangers working in Central Africa, East Africa, and South America was estimated to be four times higher than in the general population. The results of this study are valuable because they show that rangers are a vulnerable, high-risk population of professionals and their working conditions are highly associated with their respective health outcomes. The research also makes it imperative that improving working conditions is essential for maintaining a professional ranger workforce that protects the planet’s natural areas and biodiversity

Empowering rangers through technology and innovation

Protected areas are key to biodiversity conservation and ranger-based monitoring, and law enforcement is the cornerstone upon which effective protected areas are built. Frontline practitioners, however, are often asked to protect large swathes of land or sea with limited resources, support, infrastructure, capacity, and/or training. Technology, when applied effectively and appropriately, has the capacity to empower practitioners, revolutionize ranger operations, improve ranger safety, and enhance wildlife protection and conservation outcomes. To do so, technology must be recognized, from the frontlines through to key decisionmakers, as a force multiplier, but only when it is fit for purpose, accessible, cost-effective, and supportive of rangers’ needs. In this paper we detail the general state of conservation technology and innovation within the ranger context and provide a series of detailed recommendations to help the Universal Ranger Support Alliance (URSA) meet the needs of rangers around the world, including: demystifying technology and clarifying what it can and cannot do, connecting the right technology with the right people and places, focusing technology development and investment on substantive improvements and support, broadening ranger familiarization with technology, building technology capacity in rangers, fostering greater community building and creating opportunities around technologies, engaging the technology sector to innovate and design technology to support rangers, and supporting technology as a complement to traditional knowledge and skills, rather than a replacement. These recommendations constitute an ambitious vision which cannot be delivered by URSA in isolation. Rather, we propose URSA leverages existing efforts to ensure rangers are supported around the world