Keith Roberts

South African by birth but have worked in a number of African countries. Served in the South African Military and then joined the Natal Parks Board( Government Conservation Body) were I headed up anti poaching, concentrating on Rhino Security. The areas in which I worked carry the largest concentration of Black and White Rhino in the world. In these areas we were the law (working for government) and were extremely well armed, trained and equipped. We worked hand in hand with various specialized police units and spent much time on joint training exercises and operations. After some time I moved out of anti poaching into wildlife management and guiding. The wheel has now turned a full circle back to anti poaching and I moved up to Tanzania end of 2004 were I head up the Friedkin Conservation Fund (FCF). We are a non-profit conservation fund that assists the government in anti poaching, community upliftment and in wildlife research in a number of Game Reserves scattered around the country. I personally oversee the anti poaching training and operations for our 95 rangers. In Tanzania anti poaching is far more challenging than in South Africa as we are here to assist the Government and as such the rangers do not have powers of arrest or are they allowed to carry a firearm. Each team for its safety has an armed government Game Scout attached. The Game Scouts( 80%) lack of motivation and training is our biggest frustration and stumbling block. It has also led to a number of incidents were the FCF rangers have been seriously wounded in confrontations with poachers. Due to these frustrations it led me on a search for the best CQC system in which to train ourselves to ensure the best protection when the proverbial sh*t hits the fan! The skills Ron trained me in have been passed on to the rangers and have proven very beneficial on more than one occasion. To give you an idea of the number of confrontations we face in a year, in 2006 we arrested 2174 poachers and this year will see around 2500 poachers arrested. The poachers are anything from hard wood timber poachers, to bush meat poachers to elephant poachers. Armed with anything from a spear or poisoned bow and arrow to a black powered muzzleloader or an AK 47.

Maasai Stick Fighting

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History The primary reason for stick fighting is to defend the family and clan against invaders/raiders and against wild animals, with lions being a very real threat. Kids start learning at an early age to properly master the art of stick fighting (even though the parents don’t always approve of it). Sticks are primarily used […]