Task Force Ibex / оперативная группа ибекс
Ranger Skills Development Program
Highly-trained rangers are a huge asset to the efficient management of a nature reserve. Across High Asia, reserves are remote, hard to access, and even harder to effectively monitor due to the treacherous terrain. Ranger teams, already short in number, need to be equipped with the latest gear and need to have the skills to function efficiently. Small teams must be able to multitask and play a variety of roles in the field. Training and upgrading the skills of these defenders of our last wild spaces is critical to ensuring that both wildlife and ecosystems are managed effectively and illegal trafficking of wildlife is halted.
The High Asia Habitat Fund’s ranger training team, Task Force Ibex, has over a hundred years of combined experience managing reserves, running anti-poaching operations, GPS collaring high mountain species like the snow leopard, blue sheep, and wolves for data collection, and effectively managing community based conservation initiatives with high levels of impact.
The Program
The Task Force Ibex Ranger Skills Development Program is built for working rangers from landscapes throughout High Asia who are tasked with wildlife resource management and law enforcement in nature and wildlife reserves. The Task Force Ibex Training Center is headquartered in the Trans-Himalayas of Ladakh and field training workshops take place across Central Asia.
The program is built to upgrade the skill sets of active ranger teams in order to make them more effective and better equipped to tackle a variety of responsibilities using state of the art technology.
Task Force Ibex training covers:
- Anti-poaching and anti wildlife trafficking strategies that utilize global best practices to secure reserves.
- Data collection, camera trapping, and population surveys.
- Bridge building work between wildlife reserves and bordering communities to promote community based conservation.
- Wildlife tracking skills utilizing state of the art spotting equipment.
- GPS collaring and monitoring wildlife.
- Best techniques for handling predators such as snow leopards that enter corrals, safe relocation, and basic care techniques.
- Remote camp management, low-impact camping techniques, first-aid, basics of wireless and GPS communication.
- Learning soft skills for guiding tourists and visitors to boost non-extractive local livelihoods.
Through informative presentations by sector leaders, field exercises, guided study, and intensive practice, participants in the ranger training program will be better equipped to tackle the challenges of high mountain conservation. Courses run one month and training is held in winter at high altitudes, allowing for trainees to gain operational ability in difficult terrain and all weather conditions.
Help reduce human-wildlife conflict.
Help conserve ecosystems.
Help train rangers.