Could you help a current student with their business venture?

VirtualRanger - Could you help a current student with their business venture?

Human/wildlife conflict (HWC) is one of the biggest and fastest growing threats to both rural communities and endangered species across Africa. Farmers lose crops and livestock overnight; elephants and other wildlife are often injured in retaliation; and NGOs struggle to respond quickly enough due to limited resources, slow reporting systems, and the vast rural landscapes they operate in.

VirtualRanger was created to bridge this gap between rural communities and NGOs.

VirtualRanger is an AI-powered platform that connects communities in Africa to nearby NGOs to allow them to report human/wildlife conflicts in real-time via WhatsApp.

By allowing real-time location sharing and automated incident logging, it allows NGOs to respond faster and with better precision to protect both people and wildlife, resulting in reduced damage to communities and wildlife whilst supporting data-driven conservation efforts across Africa.

All incidents reported through VirtualRanger are then stored and added to a dataset that in time will allow conservation teams and governments to understand the patterns of HWCs such as where conflicts happen, what species are involved, and how behaviours are changing with other factors. This data will be essential in designing long term strategies for human wildlife coexistence and conflict mitigation.  

Currently VirtualRanger is deployed in the Masai Mara on a pilot program with the Mara Elephant Project (MEP) an NGO dedicated to protecting elephants with the vision of coexistence between humans and elephants. During the first few months of VirtualRanger’s deployment with MEP, communities from Enoonkishu, Olkimitare, Ng’osuani, and Oloonkolin where all trained on VirtualRanger with a total of 380+ people being trained in August alone.

Looking to the future, VirtualRanger plans to expand its operations to be deployed in communities experiencing HWCs across both Africa and Asia with the goal of supporting NGOs in reducing their response times to conflicts.

I’m currently a second year Business and Management student at the Henley Business School and I’m looking to connect with anyone who has experience in the nonprofit/conservation space, or experience in securing grants/CSR funding.

If you or anyone you know has any thoughts on VirtualRanger, or on how to grow this project whilst at the same time making it financially sustainable, please contact me at:

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/will04may

Website: www.virtualranger.co.uk