Grumeti Fund Anti-Poaching Unit
The vast majority of poaching incidents at Singita Grumeti involves commercial bush-meat poaching, however, elephant poaching for ivory is a constant and increasing concern.
The Grumeti Fund combines cutting-edge technology with boots on the ground to combat this dual-poaching threat. We have established 12 permanent scout patrol camps and a network of high-lying observation posts that are manned 24/7. Furthermore, a state-of-the-art digital radio network and accompanying law enforcement database ensure Grumeti’s limited resources are deployed efficiently and effectively.
Game Scouts
The Grumeti Fund employs a team of 100 game scouts. These men all come from the local communities bordering the concessions, and the vast majority have a history of poaching involvement. The scouts undergo an intensive selection process for nine days and thereafter the successful candidates are enrolled on a month-long basic field-ranger course that teaches them all the basic skills they will require, from the handling of weapons to the use of GPS units and first aid.
Intelligence & Informers
Within the law enforcement department, is a dedicated intelligence unit. This small, clandestine unit relies on a network of informers from the surrounding villages and communities to provide invaluable intelligence on poacher movements. Such information is of critical importance to ensure that our anti-poaching work is proactive rather than reactive. We strive to apprehend poachers entering the concessions rather than engaging or arresting them after wildlife has already been killed.
Special Ops Team
Within the game scout force is an elite Special Operations Group comprising 18 high-performing scouts that have proven themselves to be the best of the best: game scouts with unquestionable integrity and the highest work ethic. These men receive ongoing advanced training and they are entrusted with high-tech equipment, as they are tasked with confronting the most serious security threats to the Singita Grumeti concessions. They safeguard our critically-endangered black rhino and are deployed as rapid reaction units to engage active poaching threats.
Grumeti Fund Anti-Poaching Unit
BiodiversityConservation Partner
Grumeti Fund
As the custodian of more than 350,000 acres of the world-renowned Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania, Singita’s partnership with Grumeti Fund has had a profound impact on the Serengeti ecosystem. The non-profit Grumeti Fund carries out wildlife conservation and community development programs in and around the Singita Grumeti Reserve.
Faced with challenges including uncontrolled illegal hunting, rampant wildfires and spreading strands of invasive alien vegetation when they took over the management of the area in 2003, the Fund dedicated itself to transform severely depleted wildlife numbers into thriving populations once more. Restoring this once barren and highly degraded region to a flourishing wilderness, their successes include the remarkable recovery of many species – including buffalo, wildebeest and elephant populations, and in 2019, the Fund carried out the largest single relocation and reintroduction of 9 critically endangered Eastern Black Rhino.
The non-profit Fund is fiscally independent in its conservation and community project operations. Funds are derived in the form of donations from Singita guests, NGOs and philanthropists seeking to make a lasting contribution to the sustainability of conservation work in Africa.
