Tracker Empowerment Foundation
We back wildlife trackers around the world (from indigenous, local, and community practitioners to naturalists, students and researchers) with training, certification, equipment and opportunity.
Why we exist
Tracking is humanity's oldest way of reading the natural world, and a millennium of it lives in indigenous and community knowledge that conservation science still depends on.
Yet that knowledge is undervalued and underfunded. The Foundation changes this by backing trackers directly: funding certification, supplying equipment, supporting field research, and building independent, locally-led certification capacity around the world.
Reading the sign
Tracking is humanity's oldest science. We exist to make sure the people who carry that knowledge, wherever they are in the world, have the support to practice it, teach it, and be recognized for it.
The Tracker Empowerment Foundation
What we do
Funding trackers toward CyberTracker Senior Tracker and Evaluator status: the global gold standard.
Supporting research and publication that proves the value of tracking to modern conservation science.
Grants for the tools trackers need in the field, so technique is never limited by resources.
Building independent, locally-led certification capacity so communities can recognize their own trackers and create employment opportunities.
Our people
The first woman in the world to earn the Senior Tracker certification, CyberTracker's highest achievable level. She holds a PhD from the University of Connecticut, USA, in the ecology and culture of tracking, is Honorary Faculty at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and founded Original Wisdom in 2013. With over 30 years teaching outdoor skills, she trains and assesses trackers across the world.
A CyberTracker Master Tracker and one of the most qualified guides in Southern Africa, holding the FGASA Scout Guide qualification, the highest guiding certification, held by only a handful of people. In the field since 1992, he founded Nature Guide Training in 2003 and has authored more than a dozen field guides and tracking books. He trains guides and trackers across Africa.
An internationally certified tracker and a formally educated artist. Of Mexican and American descent, Jenny is the lead author of the upcoming bilingual Tracks and Signs of the Wildlife of Mexico field guide, co-authored with Dr. Lawrence.
The people behind it
Jennifer Draime, Dr. Kersey Lawrence & Lee Gutteridge
“We are dedicated to facilitating, promoting, and advancing the art and science of wildlife tracking for conservation. We do this by helping people.”
Questions
The Tracker Empowerment Foundation is a nonprofit corporation based in Ledyard, Connecticut, USA, established in 2026. It backs wildlife trackers around the world with training, certification, equipment and opportunity, supporting indigenous, local and community practitioners toward CyberTracker Senior Tracker and Evaluator certification.
It was founded by Dr. Kersey Lawrence, the first woman to earn the CyberTracker Senior Tracker certification, and Lee Gutteridge, a CyberTracker Master Tracker and author of more than a dozen field guides. Jennifer Draime serves as Secretary.
It backs trackers in four ways: funding training and certification, supporting research and publication, granting field equipment, and building independent, locally-led certification capacity in tracker communities.
The Foundation currently supports trackers on every continent except Antarctica, with projects across Southern Africa, Sri Lanka, Australia, West and East Africa, Scotland, Mexico and Laos.
The Foundation has applied for federal tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3). That status is not yet granted. Once it is confirmed, the Foundation will be able to issue documentation for tax purposes to donors.
Donations fund trackers directly: certification, equipment, field research, and travel and accommodation costs, as well as building locally-led certification capacity. Gifts can be made online via Stripe, or by bank transfer through the Foundation's bank, Mercury, for larger gifts.
Get involved
Every contribution seats another tracker at the table, funds another mentorship, and backs the science that proves what trackers already know.
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Tracker Empowerment Foundation