The Raptor Conservation Group was founded out of love for the environment, nature and the wildlife it supports, whether in the sea, on the land, or in the air. Its mascot is Rocky, the famous Staffordshire Bull-terrier, from the Rocky Book Series, an adventure series that teaches environmental morals and principles by author and conservationist, CDR. Shaun Chapman. Raptor Conservation Group is an anti–poaching Non–Profit Non–Governmental Organization, registration number: 258–268–NPO.  RAPTOR’s aims and objectives are to create a poaching free South Africa and world through a multitude of combined strategies all running concurrently to achieve the desired results.

Founding members of Raptor Conservation Group include CDR. Shaun Chapman and RADM. Stanley William Chapman, a co-founder of Raptor Conservation Group, who served as an ARP officer during the Blitz on London, during World War II, while making Mosquito Main-planes and overseeing aircraft assembly. He then joined the Royal Navy, serving on HMS Sweetbriar (K-209) till the war’s end in 1945. After World War II, he joined the US Navy and took part in the Berlin Airlift. The Rear Admiral’s love of nature stemmed from a love of the sea and all those who dwell in her, and it was this empathy for sea life that was a catalyst in starting Raptor Conservation Group with his son, Shaun. To the admiral, the rapine nature of humans and the pressure put on ocean life by over fishing was anathema and conservation became a driving passion . . .

General Johan ‘Tracker’ (surname withheld) served with distinction in the US Navy’s SEAL Team Six as a tracker, military specialist and sniper, accomplishing many difficult missions in Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan and Asia, by land, sea and air, HALO being his favorite means of ingress. Due to his background in intelligence, he transferred to Delta Force where he became an integral component in SOCOM’s strategic planning, eventually becoming an advisor to the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs of Staff. ‘Tracker’ was passionate about our world and the wildlife it sustains and he was a key player in formulating the strategy that RAPTOR follows. ‘Tracker’ was shot in the line of duty and never fully recovered, losing his life some months later due to unforeseen complications . . . . A true friend and compatriot that thought nothing of laying down his life for his comrades, righteousness and justice for all creatures, no matter how big or small . . .

LCDR. Christopher Tonoh is a major role player in Raptor Conservation Group, believing wholeheartedly in what RAPTOR stands for and its environmental protection efforts. He has stolidly stood alongside the pillars of strength that RAPTOR has put in place for environmental protection and the team that created them.

The various sections of RAPTOR comprise:  

  • an Education Department;
  • Training and Development;
  • Employment of Environmental Officers and Wildlife Inspectors;
  • a Tactical Section;
  • an Investigative Section; an Intelligence Section;
  • Psychological Operations;
  • a Lobbying and Awareness Section;
  • Public Service Announcements;
  • a Film and TV Section, with strategies all structured to provide a maximum  anti–poaching effect

RAPTOR is in the process of creating many reciprocal links with other like-minded organizations around the world, and linking up with law enforcement agencies also bent on the end of the destructive trade in illegal wildlife parts and products.  One of the main aims of RAPTOR is to provide environmental education, training and employment of previously disadvantaged individuals and communities, enlisting various strategies to combat poaching and conserve nature, integrated with other projects to fight poaching and stop the destruction of the environment through awareness and lobbying.

RAPTOR’s desire is to stop man’s desire and greed to push the Earth’s flora and fauna into everlasting destruction and extinction. One of our goals is to imbue generations now living with respect of Mother Earth and her creations, generating in humankind the understanding and empathy that leads to preservation and conservation.  RAPTOR is the brainchild of a few concerned individuals who wish to see the wrong perpetrated upon the rhinoceros and other wildlife righted. Each member of RAPTOR has particular specialized skills needed by the organization for its different operative sections.

The organization’s main objectives are to:

  • create a unit and strategies to combat rhino poaching;
  • create, and act, on various strategies to combat poaching in general;
  • educate people and communities in rural areas of the importance of conserving both flora and fauna;
  • train environmental scouts to preserve nature and wildlife, thereby providing training and employment for them;
  • gather intelligence on all aspects of poaching; generate sponsorship and income to fund the anti–poaching strategies and any materiel required;
  • create an anti–poaching educational establishment and anti–poaching headquarters; distribute anti–poaching books, leaflets and cartoon books at schools in rural areas and communities, and to create media awareness through many different mediums.  

Why RAPTOR? What makes us different from the rest of the rank and file anti-poaching organizations, trusts and other bodies or individuals purporting to be working to save wildlife, the environment or the rhinoceros?  Well, for one thing we have heart – a lot of it!  We give up our time, our earnings, everything, to campaign and strive for something that is close to our very being, something you won’t see on a corporate brochure extolling the virtues thereof for a big organization, or a smaller one for that instance. We do what we do because we have love for the world we live in and the animals that populate it, not the humans who destroy it with their greed. We are not great talkers, we don’t sit listening to others’ ideas and with a smooth oily tongue like a greasy second hand car salesman, or rub our hands together in lascivious wantonness thinking of our next sale or kill, persuading people that we are supporting organizations that support nature. Nor do we ask for money so we may keep lavish and opulent offices open, no, wildlife conservation is something we spend every breathing and living moment thinking about – and that boils down to saving species, educating people to preserve the planet, its wildlife and the various habitats which both flora and fauna inhabit.

We have a conscience, we have a soul, we have a heart, and, we believe to the very core that every species on planet Earth has a right to survival, and that man does not have a right to destroy and push into extinction any animate life form – for whatever purpose, whether for greed, self-gain, advancement of national or international interests, or whatever. This is our pledge to you, and to all of the Earth’s creatures.

A Vision for the Future: RAPTOR’s vision is a world free of animal abuse, of poaching and wildlife vivisection, or, of any cruelty whatsoever. Education is the best way to achieve this and can be best summed up in Rocky’s Environmental Pledge of Allegiance:

“We the children of the Earth hereby pledge,
that we shall preserve our planet and its flora and fauna.
We shall let no animal, creature or critter become extinct.
We shall strive to create a world of no waste, neither in the air,
the ground nor the sea, a world without greed or exploitation.
We wish to leave a clean Earth with a vast multitude of wildlife
and a great bio-diversity for future generations.
We the children of the Earth stand united, under one sky,
in one universe, on one Earth. . .”