Page 35 - Fourways Gardens April 2021

Nature

The power of one is so

often the trigger for
saving the ecosystems
upon which our ‘beloved
beasts’ are absolutely

dependent

Michelle Nijhuis Greta Thunberg
species of plants and animals have been of slaughter and the ‘Age of Extinctions’. species. He told a newspaper there were so
obliterated since Linnaeus’ time. Consider However, Edge is just one of many many species near the brink of extinction
birds alone: out of approximately 11 154 bold voices to have spoken out. There but academia was too slow in financing
surviving species 159 have, like the dodo, were more famous characters, such as and especially publishing much-needed
become extinct and roughly a quarter are Aldos Leopold who, when my parents research. He suggested the public raised
threatened – some critically. If nothing is were children, wrote vividly of wildlife funds for ‘emergency research’. The idea
done, then one third of all bird species and sparked worldwide interest in it. A worked. Energetic young scientists were
and an even greater proportion of birds generation later, Rachel Carson, and her found – and EWT went on to broaden its
by volume, will be gone by the time brilliant book, Silent Spring, did it for me. It scope and become a crucial element in
today’s toddlers reach retirement. triggered huge changes in environmental South Africa’s conservation efforts.
laws and the creation of more protection
Nijhuis recalls an amateur birder, Rosalie agencies. Some will recall, back in the 1960s when
Edge, who in 1929 attended a meeting a student at the world Habitat Congress
of the prestigious National Association of And look at the recent impact of Greta (in Canada) called out, “Think globally!
Audubon Societies in the United States to Thunberg, the Stockholm teenager Act locally!” He was quoting the Scottish
ask why they supported paying bounties who skipped school and triggered an planner and conservationist, Patrick
to people for killing Alaska’s bald eagles. international resolve to fight climate Geddes, who coined the phrase in 1915.
She was met with hostility because, she change. Industry has shown too little That student’s voice was heard worldwide
discovered, the ‘conservationists’ were genuine concern. “You should be ashamed and gave direction to the growing but not
interested not in saving species in general of yourselves!” she said to a startled yet focussed conservation movement.
but only species ‘that people liked’. The gathering of international figures. She
eagles were preying on the young of was then 17 but was applauded globally. As Nijhuis says, while balancing human
animals that men liked to hunt. needs we must save whole ecosystems,
On a local level, there was Clive Walker, a not just charismatic species. She
The full title of Michelle Nijhuis’ book young wildlife artist in his 30s, working in singles out Namibia as an example of
(not yet available in South Africa) is a Johannesburg city centre gallery. Almost the essential holistic approach. Our
Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age 50 years ago he set up the Endangered neighbour’s conservation approach aims
of Extinction. Wildlife Trust (EWT) to get away from the top-down effort
– now South Africa’s guided by governments and international
Edge’s boldness eventually led to primary wildlife organizations outside Namibia. It aims
Audubon societies recognising the need protection agency. to empower Namibia’s own and locally-
to protect not just popular species but the His idea, at first, based conservancies to consider both the
ecosystems upon which all living things was simply to needs of wildlife and those of people.
depend. So conservation has become the quickly ascertain
‘wise use’ of the living world. which species of Hope, she says, springs from collective
threatened wild action, but the power of one is so often
Nijhuis makes the important point that animal needed the trigger for it and for saving the
it is individuals, like Rosalie Edge, who precedence over ecosystems upon which our ‘beloved
are steering us away from two centuries Clive Walker other threatened beasts’ are absolutely dependent.

Fourways Gardens • 33 • April 2021