Page 23 - Dainfern Precinct Living 3 2021

NATURE

And look at the recent impact of Greta
Thunberg, the Stockholm teenager
who skipped school and triggered an
international resolve to fight climate
change. Industry has shown too little
genuine concern. “You should be
ashamed of yourselves!” she said to
a startled gathering of international
figures. She was then 17 but was
applauded globally.

On a local level, there was Clive
Walker, a young wildlife artist in his
THE POWER 30s, working in a Johannesburg
city centre gallery. Almost 50 years
ago he set up the Endangered
Wildlife Trust (EWT) – now South
OF ONE Africa’s primary wildlife protection
agency. His idea, at first, was simply
to quickly ascertain which species
of threatened wild animal needed
precedence over other threatened
species. He told a newspaper there
Greta Thunberg were so many species near the brink
Nijhuis recalls an amateur birder, of extinction but academia was too
Rosalie Edge, who in 1929 attended slow in financing and especially
a meeting of the prestigious National publishing much-needed research.
Association of Audubon Societies He suggested the public raised funds
in the United Sates to ask why they for ‘emergency research’. The idea
supported paying bounties to people worked. Energetic young scientists
for killing Alaska’s bald eagles. She were found – and EWT went on to
was met with hostility because, she broaden its scope and become a
discovered, the ‘conservationists’ crucial element in South Africa’s
were interested not in saving species conservation efforts.
in general but only species ‘that
people liked’. The eagles were Some will recall, back in the 1960s
preying on the young of animals that when a student at the world Habitat
men liked to hunt. Congress (in Canada) called out,
“Think globally! Act locally!” He was
The full title of Michelle Nijhuis’ book quoting the Scottish planner and
(not yet available in South Africa) is conservationist, Patrick Geddes,
Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in who coined the phrase in 1915. That
an Age of Extinction. student’s voice was heard worldwide
and gave direction to the growing
Edge’s boldness eventually led to but not yet focussed conservation
Clive Walker Audubon societies recognising the movement.
need to protect not just popular
species but the ecosystems upon As Nijhuis says, while balancing
which all living things depended. So human needs we must save whole
conservation has become the ‘wise ecosystems, not just charismatic
use’ of the living world. species. She singles out Namibia
as an example of the essential
Nijhuis makes the important point holistic approach. Our neighbour’s
that it is individuals, like Rosalie conservation approach aims to get
Edge, who are steering us away from away from the top-down effort guided
two centuries of slaughter and the by governments and international
‘Age of Extinctions’. However, Edge organizations outside Namibia. It
is just one of many bold voices to aims to empower Namibia’s own
have spoken out. There were more and locally-based conservancies to
famous characters, such as Aldo consider both the needs of wildlife
Leopold who, when my parents were and those of people.
children, wrote vividly of wildlife and
sparked worldwide interest in it. A Hope, she says, springs from
generation later, Rachel Carson, and collective action, but the power of
her brilliant book, Silent Spring, did it one is so often the trigger for it and
for me. It triggered huge changes in for saving the ecosystems upon
environmental laws and the creation which our ‘beloved beasts’ are
of more protection agencies. absolutely dependent.
Michelle Nijhuis
20 21
DPL