The Raptor Conservation Group was initiated to provide education, training and employment of an environmental nature to under-privileged individuals and communities, with various other strategies to combat poaching and conserve nature. It incorporates a wide range of integrated projects to fight poaching and the destruction of the environment.

Our desire is to stop man’s headlong rush into destruction and his desire, through greed, to push the rest of creation in front of him off the precipice into extinction. It is necessary to imbue generations living now with a respect of Mother Earth and her creations, the flora and fauna, and, the various environments that provide their habitats; generating in humankind the understanding and empathy that leads to preservation and conservation.

Education is a major part in combating poaching but it has been sorely overlooked in the past. RAPTOR will endeavor to rectify this. Our aim is to provide reading material in several different languages that will teach sound environmental morals and principles, en-culturing present and future generations with a ‘think nature first’ attitude and mind-set. We are achieving this by utilizing the Rocky book series and associated workbook; a book series that teaches about the necessity of preserving the Earth and all life on it in an entertaining and absorbable format. In addition to this a cartoon strip and leaflets in a variety of languages including Chinese, will be distributed to create greater awareness and impact. To assist in the absorption of this material environmental workshops and community plays and puppet shows are being developed for rural communities where poaching is prevalent. A series of short animated cartoons for TV, with characters from the book series, will augment the media campaign and educate viewers about the danger all wildlife is facing. A documentary/drama series is also being developed for the domestic and international marketplace, further highlighting the plight of species under threat of extinction due to poaching and exposing the criminals behind it.

One of RAPTOR’s focal areas is to train Eco-Scouts from underprivileged communities and employ them to monitor poaching in areas under threat, and educating people about the preservation of flora and fauna.

RAPTOR gathers intelligence on poaching in order to formulate strategies against it, as well as incorporating information the Eco-Scouts have gathered.

RAPTOR has a dedicated anti-poaching team which is ready to respond to the threats imposed by poachers upon wildlife, also tackling poaching by education, by employment, by changing hearts and minds, by intelligence, and, by action.