Graduates from wildlife college ready to tackle conservation

THE 40 graduates of the Southern African Wildlife College’s (SAWC) natural resource management programme will return to their parks in Africa equipped to tackle various challenges.

The graduates, from eight countries, will help protect the 1 million hectares of transfrontier conservation areas, and engage with communities to help find a balance between land for wildlife habitat and land to maintain livelihoods.

They received Higher and Advanced certificates in Natural Resource Management at the SAWC campus in the Greater Kruger National Park.

The college has been offering wildlife area management qualifications since it opened in 1996.

This year, the countries represented by the graduates were Central African Republic, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Moscow Marumo, of the Peace Parks Foundation, and the keynote speaker at this year’s graduation ceremony, said competing land uses and lack of integrated landscape planning had resulted in habitat degradation, loss of livelihoods and loss of biodiversity, which was further affected by wildlife crime.

“It is important that these future conservation managers and leaders not only protect vulnerable and threatened species, but enable communities to see the value of conserving our wildlife and natural areas which, in turn, can unlock opportunities for socio-economic development,” Marumo said.

Supporters and partners of the SAWC, including representatives of WWF South Africa, the Peace Parks Foundation, Distell and the Southern African Wildlife College Trust, were present.

The chief executive of the college, Theresa Sowry, thanked organisations and individual donors for their ongoing commitment to the college and its growth over the past two decades.

“None of what we have achieved would be possible without our donors.

“Today I must especially thank the MAVA Foundation, which, through PPF, supports 35% of Higher and Advanced Certificate students’ course fees; KfW Stiftung, a long-standing donor of this programme; the Swedish National Postcard Lottery; the Sun Institute; Pirtek; and Friends of African Wildlife, our Zürich-based funding partner, which this year supported a record number of student bursaries across various programmes, including this one,” she said.

Yolanda Pretorius, who manages the Higher Education and Training qualifications at SAWC, described the graduates as “mature, knowledgeable and well prepared”.

“These students are part of a new era in conservation, and have acquired skills that will help raise the bar at an international level.”

George Phiri, from the Zambian Carnivore Programme, reminded the graduating class to use their skills wisely and spread the word about the importance of protecting national parks and natural resources.

During the ceremony, five students were rewarded for their resilience and hard work throughout the year.

In addition, this year, a new award was presented in memory of the late Ernest Mokganedi, long-standing director of the SAWC board and director of transfrontier conservation areas at the Department of Environmental Affairs in South Africa.

This award was presented to Steve Wemba, from Malawi, who excelled in the Transfrontier Conservation module.

African Parks’ deputy director at the department, Aruna Seepersadh, said South Africa had lost a true conservationist with Mokganedi’s death.

“He has, however, left us with a legacy and a firm foundation, having led numerous multi-stakeholder forums and complex negotiations, which have been instrumental in establishing and extending transfrontier conservation areas, while also ensuring the countries and communities linked through transfrontier conservation areas benefited.

“This award will ensure that his name lives on,” said Seepersadh.