Thirty-nine rangers have graduated at Gonarezhou National Park  in Zimbabwe as part of efforts to increase security and surveillance within the park and it its environs.

The training period was four months.

“The rangers now bear the responsibility as custodians of not just their communities and families, but of the national park as well. Well done. We wish each of you a successful career,” a spokesperson for the park said.

Gonarezhou is in a relatively remote corner of Masvingo Province, south of Chimanimani along the Mozambique border. At 5 053 square kilometres, it is Zimbabwe’s second-largest national park after Hwange. The name Gonarezhou means ‘The Place of Elephants’.

The park is managed by the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust – a new model for protected area management drawn up between the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the Frankfurt Zoological Society.