Southern African Wildlife College

We are currently looking to full the following two positions: 🐕 K9 Dog Master 🐾 Field Ranger Trainers/ Assessors (Contractual) Visit our website for more information and application links.

We're #hiring a new K9 Dog Master in Maruleng, Limpopo. Apply today or share this post with your network.

𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝘀𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗶𝗻’𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗯𝘆𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗲𝘁! Nine years instead of 18 months later, we wish our Dog Master Johan van Straaten all the best as he returns to the family farm at the end of January 2025 to re-join his wife and family. It’s been an incredible journey since Johan began working at the College in 2016, shortly after the K9 unit’s establishment. Before his arrival, Johan had a long and illustrious career working with dogs. His knowledge and experience in dog training, kennel management and dog behaviour – basic and advanced - stood him in good stead as he drove the SAWC’s new K9 Unit forward. At the time, he thought it would only be for a year or two given that his home was in the Eastern Cape! But drive it he certainly did! Johan has continued to excel and we would like to recognise the incredible impact that he has had not only on our own K9 unit but also on many other canine units both in South Africa and regionally. Fortunately, this impact will continue, with Johan agreeing to continue working with the College on a service-level agreement where we will still draw on his expertise, especially in expanding our canine reach across the SADC region. During his time at the College, Johan continued advancing his management and dog training skills, especially his counter-poaching and unique free-tracking canine training skills that have led to countless rhinos being saved, weapons being seized from the system and poacher arrests. His dedication, professionalism, and solid commitment to both the team and the dogs have been inspiring. Under his leadership, the K9 unit has made some incredible advances and has set a high standard of excellence, with several awards under the team’s belt. His friendliness yet firmness, can-do attitude, sense of humour and unending support will be sorely missed by the College and by everyone he has worked with and come into contact with. This includes ranger and aerial teams across the Greater Kruger area, more especially the Kruger National Park where he supported the teams during live operations and where he was also instrumental in setting up a satellite K9 unit. He has shown us what it means to lead with integrity and to care deeply for the well-being and training of our K9 unit dogs and their handlers. His expertise and kindness have been invaluable, and his legacy will continue to guide us, and the new incumbent at the K9 unit. As he embarks on his new journey, we wish Johan farewell knowing that he will always be a part of the SAWC family.

After a year of collaboration, it’s been incredible to see our efforts come to life. Elna de Beer from the Southern African Wildlife College has developed the 4 Returns Short Learning Program, based on our guidebook, to equip communities and practitioners with practical tools for holistic land management and a deeper understanding of systems thinking. The pilot course in the Makuleke community showed great promise for our future collaboration. Our visit there was definitely a highlight—we had insightful discussions with the Chief, Royal Council, and community members about landscape restoration. It was truly inspiring to see our guidebook in action, with the walls of the community center covered in notes from last week’s 4R SLP, reflecting the program’s impact. We also had some deeper sessions exploring the different types of returns, from social to financial. Sydney and Phillip, two key local leaders, left feeling energized, saying, “Now we know what we need to work on - time to implement!” The enthusiasm and commitment are clear, and we’re excited to keep building on this momentum. #Conservation #Collaboration #SAWC #4Returns #HolisticLandManagement Sboniso Phakathi Theresa Sowry Willemijn de Iongh Roos van der Deijl Grace Warner Gabrielle Taus Jim Mackintosh John Loudon

The College invites you to a free two-part webinar series - 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 Presented by Sarah Savory, Holistic Management Educator and daughter of world-renowned ecologist Allan Savory, the series will provide some ground-breaking management and ecological insights teaching us how to successfully manage the complexity of any decision, which will guarantee a consistent incline in our social, economic and environmental stability. 16 OCTOBER 2024 - Part 1 - Never lose sight of your Elephant Unlearning an inherited (but outdated) decision-making process and adapting to a new one. 17 OCTOBER 2024 - Part 2 We are not separate to Nature - We are Nature Exciting new ecological insights, answers and a biological solution to a problem that has been affecting people for many thousands of years, and that will continue to destroy our life-supporting environment unless we take action. Time: 18:00 to 19:30 (GMT+2) Sign up for this webinar today on our website! Organiser: Responsible Resource Management Department - SAWC For more information please contact Dr. Thabang Teffo - tteffo@sawc.org.za

Our staff's achievements are always inspiring. This time we are proud to celebrate Ashwell Glasson, our Registrar who heads up our Student Administration and Programme Support department, who recently attended the 10th anniversary celebration and awards ceremony hosted by Good Governance Africa (GGA). The event was a motiving experience, uniting colleagues from across Africa who share a passion for improving the daily lives of all citizens despite the global challenges we face. Read more in our article and congratulations, Ashwell! Your dedication is truly deserving of this honour. 

Prof Alessandra Scagliarini from the University of Bologna recently attended the 8th World One Health Congress in Cape Town where she presented on the 𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗣𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗧 project that the Applied Learning and Research Department (ALRD) had a role in facilitating. ELEPHANT (𝗘mpowering universities’ 𝗟earning and r𝗘search ca𝗣acities in the one 𝗛ealth 𝗔pproach for the ma𝗡agement of animals at the wildlife, livestock and human interface in Sou𝗧h Africa) aims at contributing to poverty relief, through the empowerment of South African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by boosting their innovation and research capacities in the One Health context, that should result in a more effective science-based health management at the interface between human, wildlife, livestock and environment. Through workshops participants learned from one another. We learned about the impact disease has on humans, economies, the environment, and on farming activities and how these impact each other. One of the goals was to foster collaboration between different sectors in society to address community health in terms of disease spread within communities and between wildlife, humans, and life stock. The project focussed on training educators which can then in turn train others. The learning was done by a mixture of theory sessions and visits to commercial and subsistence farming operations. The goal was further to increase the conversation of One Health into training courses and in research. The SAWC Herding Academy programme is one of such programs presented by the SAWC that is in line with the theory of one Health. One of the main tasks of the ALRD team was to host and facilitate learning through an online platform where files were stored and meetings were held. The Congress had four days of an outstanding, exceptional and forward-thinking agenda, which included parallel tracks addressing one health science, antimicrobial agents and resistance, and science policy interface, amongst others. It enabled discussing major One Health challenges, as well as sharing research data and policy developments. Above all, it provided a great opportunity to look at global One Health science and policy through an African lens. Through an open call for abstracts, notable work from distinguished scientists and opinion leaders was disseminated at the world’s largest forum dedicated to advancing the One Health agenda and community.  For more information get in touch with our ALRD department - rdadmin@sawc.org.za  #SouthernAfricanWildlifeCollege #TrainingBeyondBoundaries #ELEPHANT

This year’s World Rhino Day theme, Five Rhino Species Forever, reminds us of the importance of protecting not just one but all five species of rhino across the globe. The threat from organised crime syndicates remains real, and we must continue to be vigilant. With this goal in mind, we continue to push forward, knowing that together, we can and must make a lasting difference. Read our reflective piece about a dehorning experience some donors recently had while visiting the College and thank you to all our supporters and donors who make our training and work possible. #TOGETHERWECANMAKEADIFFERENCE

We’re gearing up for the #WildlifeRangerChallenge Sit Up mini challenge next week! How many sit ups can you do in 2 minutes? Take on the challenge, let us know and please support Team SAWC and enable us to keep training future rangers: https://buff.ly/3Xr5W9e #ForWildlifeRangers #SouthernAfricanWildlifeCollege #TrainLikeARanger #TeamSAWC 3 w

The Southern African Wildlife College Herding Academy is proud to have trained the Professional Herders from the Similaha Community Conservancy in Zambia 🇿🇲 Watch the video to find out more about this great initiative and for more information on our Herding Academy contact us - rrmadmin@sawc.org.za https://buff.ly/3MNZzH7 #SAWCHerdingAcademy #SouthernAfricanWildlifeCollege #TrainingbeyondBoundaries