Research shows that people who are more connected to nature do more to protect it and engage in more pro-environmental behaviours in general. Through time spent in nature, people develop a sense of attachment to natural and cultural areas and increase their support and interest in the conservation of these protected and conserved areas.

The BC Parks Foundation and PaRx program conducted outreach and media events to raise awareness of the program and the link between health and nature. The launch of the collaboration with Parks Canada generated substantial media coverage, including from international outlets, thus raising awareness of the connections between nature and well-being, and the PaRx program. Parks Canada has also developed informational materials to help health-care providers connect patients with Parks Canada administered places, in so doing creating connections with the health-care community, increasing interest in health and wellness activities across Parks Canada destinations, strengthening engagement between health care sector and protected and conserved areas, and raising awareness of protected heritage areas in Canada.

PaRx and Parks Canada worked together to identify shared objectives around increasing access to nature and the connection between health, well-being and spending time in nature. This collaboration was formalized in a three-year partnering agreement, establishing that Adult Discovery Passes (valued at $72.25 a year) would be provided free of charge to PaRx to be prescribed by health-care professionals during the course of regular visits. The Parks Canada Adult Discovery Pass provides admission for one adult to over 80 Parks Canada administered places across Canada that typically charge a daily entrance fee for an entire year, including national parks, national historic sites, and national marine conservation areas. When prescribing Adult Discovery Passes to patients, health care providers are asked to prioritize those who live close to national parks, national historic sites, or national marine conservation areas, and who could benefit from it the most, such as those for whom cost of accessing nature may be a barrier.

The PaRx program is Canada’s national nature prescription program. Developed by the BC Parks Foundation, PaRx creates a framework to guide health-care practitioners in prescribing nature to improve patient health and wellbeing. The PaRx program features practical, clinician-focused resources like quick tips and patient handouts, in order to make prescribing time in nature easy and effective. PaRx prescriptions for nature recommend spending at least 2 hours a week in nature, at least 20 minutes at a time, in order to achieve the health and wellbeing benefits of connecting with nature.

The PaRx program design is based on studies suggesting that written prescriptions are better received than oral advice in motivating patients to make a change. Moreover, surveys indicate that health-care providers are consistently ranked among the most trusted professionals, increasing the likelihood that patients will adhere to recommendations to connect with nature for their health and well-being.

Since the software being deployed (SMART) was not being developed but rather an implementation, there existed other organizations that have used it. It was necessary to adapt and capitalize on the experience of other partners for a smooth process. This project engaged Space for Giants (SFG) who monitor large mammals in the landscape to provide guidance, templates and training. The training of trainers was conducted by SFG who also offered support in the development and configuration of necessary databases, online platforms and data collection models.

Two years before the project was conceived, a collaboration between Ol Pejeta and Vulcan Inc. through the Tech Lab saw the creation of an online visualization platform, EarthRanger that has since been used to integrate reports from various sources within the organization and from partners.

Installations such as electricity provision, servers and computers are necessary to rollout such technological solutions. In the current project, 35 ranger outposts were equipped with solar chargers and inverters to keep the mobile phones charged; a server and air conditioner were purchased and installed at a central server room; and two computers were purchased to support data processing and configuration of mobile devices. Further, the servers and computers were configured to facilitate creation of SMART databases (desktop and connect) and enable the rollout of data collection using SMART Mobile, submission through the server, processing at the desktop and sharing over SMART Connect.

Female rangers play an important part in the conservation of black rhinos in the Kunene and Erongo regions of Namibia. They are equally willing and able to conduct patrols and are fully supported by the custodian conservancies.

The purpose of this building block is to ensure that the broader communities are involved in the conservation efforts through activities that they are passionate about i.e youth through sports, school children through reading programmes. This helps to improve the connectedness that the local people have with the rhinos and they value the rhino more. 

The IMET evaluation of Mangabe Reserve in 2020 revealed weaknesses in infrastructure, capacity and communication that hamper effectiveness of the Reserve. Sustainability of the Reserve depends entirely on the capacity of the local communities to manage it. This is compounded by poor education levels of the population and difficult access to the villages. Over the past years, we have been bringing technicians from the towns to inform and train community members. It is now time to make this knowledge available locally so that youth who are better educated can access and use them as needed. Our challenge until 2030 is to establish an information center at each of the ten villages within Mangabe Reserve. In 2021, we started the initiative to build three information centers in three villages (Mangabe, Andranomandry, and Avolo) within the Mangabe Reserve. At the center, all community members will be able to obtain information about the Reserve and the existing regulations from one place. They will also be able to learn about improved farming techniques and read documents on financial management, personal development, etc. The center will represent the permanent presence of the Reserve that people will know and respect. As a result, we expect annual forest cover loss to decrease below 250ha from 2022.

An excellent communication plan/network with different stakeholders was initiated across different levels. From the inception of the project, the community and other stakeholders were constantly capacitated on how the project is going. A relay of relevant vulture conservation and policy issues was achieved to the target stakeholders within the communities and KAZA TFCA.