Wild Tomorrow: Protecting Wildlife, Empowering Communities

Wild Tomorrow is on a mission to protect South Africa’s threatened and endangered species by restoring and preserving the wild spaces they call home. Operating in KwaZulu-Natal, the organization is creating a vital wildlife corridor, engaging local communities, and ensuring that rewilding paves a future where both people and nature thrive.

We’ve all experienced moments in our lives where, in hindsight, we can attest that ‘that moment changed my life’. When John Steward, co-founder of Wild Tomorrow, experienced the wildness of the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park in South Africa, he felt a new calling. Quitting the corporate world to focus instead on conservation, together with wife Wendy Hapgood, they are now rewilding crucial and unique ecosystems. It seems that our paths were meant to cross as this same Park hosted a few of our own team members and, notably, this is where the history of the Global Rewilding Alliance begins.

Community Engagement & Education

Wild Tomorrow knows that rewilding is resilient in the long term if people are part of it. That’s why they work hand-in-hand with local communities, investing in education, women’s empowerment and creating job opportunities:

Early Childhood Education: They’ve built and repaired kindergartens, ensuring 90-100 children each year have access to safe learning spaces. Their education programs are bringing local children onto the reserve to see Zebra, Giraffe, Hippo and more for the first time.

Sustained Community Support: Funding teacher salaries and early childhood development programs and providing food for daily school lunches.

Job Creation: Wild Tomorrow employs local people in the community as rangers and Green Mambas, an all-female environmental team dedicated to restoring and protecting the land.

Key Achievements

• Protected 4933 acres of at-risk land as habitat for wildlife
• Declared the Greater Ukuwela Nature Reserve as a new legal protected area in South Africa
• Protecting 1252 species including 50 mammals, 432 bird species, 162 wild flower species, 42 butterfly and moth species.
• Reintroduced South African Giraffe, Plains Zebra, Blue Wildebeest, Kudu, Impala, Bushbuck, Waterbuck and other native species previously missing from the landscape
• Cleared over 2248.75 acres of invasive plant species
• Employed 10 community rangers to safeguard wildlife
• Employed 15 local women as Green Mambas to provide invasive species and plant management.
• Built two community daycare centers and continue funding teachers’ salaries
• Provided ongoing support for a local charity supporting orphaned children in the community

A Hands-On Conservation Experience

For those eager to make a difference, Wild Tomorrow offers Conservation Experience Trips, a two-week immersive program at their reserve. Participants get their hands dirty with habitat restoration, anti-poaching efforts, and community projects, experiencing their on-the-ground work up close.

By protecting land, empowering communities, and bringing people together through rewilding, Wild Tomorrow is ensuring a future where wildlife and wild spaces can thrive.