Fairbee is always on the lookout for interesting, barrier-breaking initiatives in the world of sustainability. This blog we focus on a company that helps wildlife conservation and the battle against poaching of wildlife in Africa in a cool way.
Introducing CAKE
CAKE is one of Sweden’s most innovative companies in the mobility arena. They develop light, quiet and clean electric off-road performance bikes. And they are crazy about outdoor sports. CAKEs mission is to contribute to speeding up the transition towards a zero emission society, combining excitement with responsibility.
This requires a cross-scientific approach to sustainability, to promote the competence and guidance needed in the areas of clean technology, ethical conduct, circularity and life cycle perspective, to the benefit of people and the planet.
Fairbee team member Peter had the privilege and luck to take a test spin on a CAKE motor bike. And exciting it was.
Wildlife crime
Africa is the continent where you can still encounter the big five and so many more animals. The contrast between this beautiful setting and the scale on which wildlife crime occurs can therefore not be bigger. Wildlife crime has a turnover of more than €20 billion annually. Wildlife crime’s main component is poaching. If the scale on which poaching occurs continues, it will certainly lead to the extinction of many different species of wild animals and as a consequence the destruction of the ecosystem. To draw you a picture, the International Fund for Animal Welfare states that in Africa around 55 elephants are poached every day. That is one every half hour! From the Black Rhino population in Africa only 5% still exists..
Electric Bush Bike
CAKE was so overwhelmed by these facts that they figured out a way to contribute. At that time anti-poaching teams in various African countries were using dirt bikes for patrolling, as it’s considered the fastest and most agile vessel to use in the wild. However, these bikes run on fuel, a scarce resource in the region that is expensive to transport in the remote areas. The combustion engine bikes also alert illegal poachers miles away with their noisy engines, failing to meet their core purpose: to save endangered species from extinction. With combustion engine motorcycles, buying and transporting fuel to the remote areas have proved both costly, inconvenient and very unsustainable. The fuel is shipped long-distance via petrol-driven trucks or even helicopters, driving both costs further and polluting the area.
In a close collaboration with the Southern African Wildlife College, CAKE’s engineers have developed the Electric Bush Bike series, allowing rangers to approach poachers silently without being detected and making way for more efficient anti-poaching patrolling in the region.
With the new electric CAKE bike, rangers are equipped with a power kit and solar panels to supply the bikes with renewable power from the sun. The bikes can be charged via the power kit independently from any power outlet, enabling more freedom to ride and less pollution in the area.
The anti-poaching tool
Always running, never out of gas, silent operation, and the fastest way in the outback. Ultra-low weight delivers superior speed and agility in comparison to other motorbikes on the narrow and technical terrain. Another benefit is the ease of riding, the combination of lightweight and no gears means that if you can ride a bicycle, training is minimal. This enables more people to protect wildlife on motorbikes.
At Fairbee we focus on three areas: environment, labor conditions and animal welfare. CAKE is not only about improving the environmental challenges but is helping also to improve wildlife conservation and the battle against poaching of wild animals in Africa in a very special way.
Big cheers for CAKE, helping to protect endangered wildlife in a cool way!
