Future champions

Besides the unpaid, daily patrols, Zhuo has another mission - to educate the increasing number of Chinese tourists to Africa as well as the Chinese back home. He organizes Chinese volunteers to come to Kenya and work on conservation projects each year. When they go back, they share their experiences with other Chinese and that’s how wildlife and environmental awareness grows.

Zhuo likes to concentrate on schoolchildren because he says the school-age generation is the future wildlife protector. Also, they have influence over their parents’ generation, which has the financial ability and inclination to buy ivory or rhino horn products.

“Young Chinese people are much better educated nowadays and understand the urgency of protecting wildlife, regardless of where they are,” Zhuo said. “But they lack the means of gaining relevant knowledge.”

To address that, in July 2015, the Mara Conservation Fund, in cooperation with Kids Bang, a Chinese educational platform to foster global civic awareness in children, started Lion Defenders, a program to make Chinese children experience outdoor life in Africa. The participants experience the daily work and life in a wildlife conservation park in Africa.

“Children should learn how to survive in the wilderness. They should also be educated to become global citizens who have civic awareness and a sense of responsibility to protect the global eco-system and endangered wild animals,” Zhuo said.

Huang Guoguo, a nine-year-old, is from the first batch of Lion Defenders. She lived on the Maasai Mara Reserve for nine days. “I want to tell all the animals in Maasai Mara that I will always stay concerned about you,” she said. “I have painted a lot of postcards with my friends for a rummage sale. All the money from the sale will be donated to protect animals in Africa.”

xyy@chinafrica.cn