Life on the Frontline 2019: A global survey of the working conditions of rangers

Posted on November, 27 2019

The single most obvious thread that runs through the survey completed by patrol rangers at nearly 500 sites in 28 countries is that rangers are facing excessive safety and health risks that could be significantly reduced with the appropriate interventions.

Given their indispensable role in preserving the global biodiversity upon which human well-being and sustainable development gains will depend, one might rightly wonder at the near total absence of information pertaining to ranger work prior to the undertaking of this study. The limited materials that did exist rarely included any feedback from rangers themselves. Things are different in this report, where we hear directly from 7,110 public-sector patrol rangers, surveyed at hundreds of sites across 28 countries.

Although a wide diversity of topics were addressed across the 197 questions contained in each survey, an analysis of results points towards certain themes that require urgent action from the governments that employ these rangers...

This is an updated version of "Life on the Frontline 2018", assessing ranger welfare perceptions across different countries. It is the largest of its kind ever conducted with an aim to influence policy changes by providing a tool and evidence for use in lobbying government agencies.