The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) has released its 2024/25 Integrated Report, revealing a year of expanded conservation impact, community empowerment and landscape-level restoration across southern and East Africa. The report highlights how the organisation is blending biodiversity protection with sustainable livelihoods, climate resilience and strengthened partnerships to secure the future of both people and wildlife.
At the heart of the report is a clear message: conservation succeeds when communities thrive. The EWT’s work in the Soutpansberg’s Medike Nature Reserve reflects this approach. The reserve, situated in the Savannah Conservation Landscape and home to a range of threatened species, has become a catalyst for local economic development. Residents like Tshifularo Madzhie, once reliant on poaching, now earn sustainable incomes as trained rangers, road builders and conservation workers. Madzhie says the job has transformed his life, enabling him to support his family, gain formal skills and inspire others to protect ecosystems instead of exploiting them.
Across the broader landscape, more than 205 community members now sustainably harvest medicinal plants, while others are employed to clear invasive species, restore degraded habitat or strengthen law enforcement. The EWT’s partnerships enable community members to transition into long-term careers in conservation and related fields, driving local development while protecting natural assets.
The Integrated Report notes that 114,819 hectares of critical land across the EWT’s Strategic Conservation Landscapes underwent improved management or restoration this year. This includes extensive work to secure vulture habitats, rehabilitate grasslands, improve law enforcement and address soil and water degradation. The EWT also declared the 11,563-hectare Western Soutpansberg Nature Reserve in early 2025, strengthening a conservation corridor now totalling 31,180 hectares under collaborative care.
With climate pressures intensifying, the EWT reports major progress in securing freshwater systems. Through community-led removal of invasive alien plants and catchment restoration, 20 million cubic metres of water were replenished this year, an essential contribution to water security in the region.
The organisation also supported 22,074 people through training and development initiatives designed to improve employment prospects and local resilience. Additionally, 20,356 people benefited directly from income-generating activities linked to the EWT’s conservation work, while 610 households were supported with livestock guarding dogs to reduce conflict with predators.
Several conservation milestones stand out in the new report. These include the successful translocation of African Wild Dogs and cheetahs to boost population growth, the rescue of 81 vultures from a poisoning event, and advances in research on critically endangered species such as the Amathole Toad. Wetlands, coastal habitats and grasslands were also granted new levels of protection.
The EWT continued expanding its influence through renewable energy assessments, carbon offset projects, landscape restoration and the first African Canines in Conservation Conference, which convened experts from 19 countries to strengthen the role of trained dogs in conservation science.
One of the year’s major strategic developments was the registration of EWT USA as a 501(c)(3) public benefit organisation, enabling the Trust to grow its North American donor base and support long-term sustainability of its programmes.
CEO Yolan Friedmann describes the Integrated Report as a reflection of resilience, innovation and determination. She says the EWT’s Future Fit Strategy, a 25-year roadmap, is designed to secure biodiversity and build stronger communities across nine Strategic Conservation Landscapes. The strategy, she notes, is both ambitious and essential at a time of accelerating climate impact and biodiversity loss.
Board Chair Muhammed Seedat emphasises the urgency of the decade ahead. With just a few years remaining to meet international biodiversity commitments, he says the EWT’s work demonstrates how targeted, community-driven conservation can address climate risk while improving livelihoods. He believes the report underscores the Trust’s growing role in shaping a sustainable future where ecological health and community wellbeing are deeply connected.
As the EWT closes the 2024/25 financial year, its new report positions the organisation as one of Africa’s leading drivers of integrated conservation and community development, showing what is possible when people and wildlife are placed at the centre of the same vision.
