Shaping the Environment

Photo of the week. Zebra stripes

Highlights of the week: A few. Meeting the Tremletts at the airport; Watching England somehow beat DRC; Filming a health education  video with the chief

Lowlight of the week: Still no elephants in Kapani

Maximum temperature: 32 degrees Celsius

Rainfall: Rain?

Father Ted: OK, one last time. These are small, but the ones out there are far away.

Father Dougal: No, I still don’t get it Ted.

Poor Dougal had no idea about perspective. But my blog this week is all about Douglas, not Dougal. Douglas, our featured environmentalist, is playing the long game. Douglas wants to change the world. Starting with the small things close to him. And working up to the big things that are far away.

Without aspiration, tomorrow is only yesterday repeated. I’m surrounded by inspiring figures. In Zambia and in Britain. They inspire. But aspiration and inspiration are merely air movements without grit. This blog describes the value of grit. Douglas’ grit amongst others.

As a child growing up in the South of England during the 70s and 80s I do not think too much about the bigger picture. About the world and conservation. On Sunday nights, David Attenborough showcases another part of the world on the BBC. A distant world. Animals. Birds. Sea life. The story telling is amazing. But I never think much about the fabric of the world around me, beyond Monday morning. Weekends and holidays are spent outside, getting up to mischief. With no thoughts to wildlife, or to the environment. As long as we come home for our meals on time, my parents have no concerns. We avoid getting caught and punished for all our misdemeanours. But more on mischievous childhoods later.

Keith and I go wild in Tanzania in the 90s. Volunteering on the Island of Unguja. Better known as Zanzibar. We become infested with Tanzanian parasites and infected with Swahili habits. Our new language and its vocabulary determines our new obsessions. Everything that we have is divided nusu-nusu. At every roundabout we kipilefti. Every becomes a safari. And so our safari habit begins. Like it or not, we start wearing khaki and eyeing up ever more impressive lenses.

It’s 1996. On the way home from Tanzania, Keith and I first set foot on Zambian soil. But Keith almost doesn’t get here. Our first foray takes us from Zimbabwe, across the Vic Falls bridge. Somehow a rope becomes tangled around Keith’s legs and he plunges recklessly off the bridge. Almost piercing the mighty Zambezi beneath him. The bungy cord saves the day. Recoiling and returning him from whence he came. He kisses the Zambian soil, by reflex. Grit sticks to his lips. His next reflex is to inspire. Zambian air and dust. That inspiration carries us toward an aspiration. That will involve a lot more Zambian air and dust. 25 years later.

David Attenborough started to change the nature of his broadcasts in the 90s. With a closer focus on the environment. Pollution. Human impact. Human wildlife conflict. Environmental degradation. David inspired many. Highlighting our culpability. Some aspired to change. A few showed grit. Delivering change. Changing the world, for the better.

It’s my honour to rub shoulders with Anna and Steve Tolan in South Luangwa. We first meet them in 2021, over an ill fated ailing elephant Link to elephant blog.  Their back story is one of True Grit. As David Attenborough is collecting more followers in the 1990s, Anna and Steve are already leading change in South Luangwa. Inspiring aspirations in local future leaders. Moving grit in spades.

Anna and Steve, retired police officers from the UK, have conservation written right through their cores. Blackpool Rock style. Their distress in finding the South Luangwan Eden ebbing away incites them to immediate action. The absent rhino becomes their emblem. They found Chipembele, a wildlife education and conservation trust. Chipembele is Nyanja for rhino. This rhino is equipped to give us all a big prod up the backside.

Anna details the Tolan’s love for Africa. A wild and natural Africa. One where humans and wildlife can be in balance. Respecting one another. Benefiting from one another. They pledge themselves to supporting Africans to conserve and to protect their own heritage. In 2023, Chipembele celebrates 25 years of giving back to the wild. Their programme reaches out to the community with educators. They run conservation classes for school age pupils. And they support school leavers with an Aspiring Conservation Leaders programme. And that’s where Douglas comes in.

It’s 2015. Douglas is a mischievous little boy. The fourth of 6 boys in his household. Bright. Driven. Cheeky. His free time after school is spent with his school friends. By the age of 12 he is a dab hand with a catapult. Climbing trees and catapulting birds with stones.

But then caught by Anna. Douglas, Chrispine, Philemon and Luckson are up a tree. Anna sees them, stops the car and sprints after them. They run. She chases. Eventually they stop. Expecting a telling off. But Anna is more shrewd than that. Why are you trying to harm the birds? Why aren’t you trying to protect them? Douglas and his friends are a bit awestruck. Anna suggests that they sign up to the conservation club and come and learn about conservation. Resistant is futile. A conservationist is born. About face.

Douglas and his friends are immediate converts. Attending weekly classes. Starting to notice the world around them. Becoming active in their community. Sharing their new revulsion to littering. Questioning other boys to discourage catapulting. Developing a love for the outdoors with blinkers removed. School becomes a means to an end. Education vital. Learning. Teaching. Doing. Douglas excels. Coming first in his school classes. Prioritising his homework over eating his dinner. His mum agog.

Top grades realise Douglas’ first aspiration. He becomes an Aspiring Conservation Leader. One of Anna Tolan’s proteges. An accolade that soon delivers an even more momentous bursary. Douglas’ golden ticket to study conservation at The University of Zambia.

In the process of rubbing shoulders with Anna and Steve we are captured by Douglas’ tale. We meet Douglas and on impulse ask to meet his mum, Jane. She sits agog. Beaming with pride. Next to her son, who still prioritises graft and grit over dinner. She relates Douglas’ habits outside her modest village dwelling. Farmland surrounds us. Wildlife pauses. Paying its respects to their future advocate. Our English Nyanja English conversation conducted via Douglas almost academic. The smiles and the pride say it all. Douglas once inspired, then aspired, now shows grit.

Serendipity might wish to claim the kudos for Douglas’ feats. Anna inspires. But Douglas aspires. And the local grit is what prevails. A new form of Mfuwe Rock. With conservation written right through.

The grit on the ground around Douglas’ childhood home shows me where Douglas is coming from and going to. Anna and Steve have inspired. Aspiration nurtured through the name of a mythical South Luangwan beast. Chipembele leads the charge. Prodding us all up the bum. Douglas leads. Let’s all follow.

Remote cam photo of the week. A genet comes for a drink

Douglas in his younger years - with a cheeky grin and a glint in his eyes.

Douglas now with his mum, Jane

No AI needed this week. We remember to take a photo with the Tremletts. The airport is our new favourite meeting spot