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Drs H Dieter Steklis and Netzin Steklis Cover

September 3 2026

Mountain Gorilla Conservation: The Untold Stories with Dr. Horst Dieter Steklis and Dr. Netzin G. Steklis

Decades ago, mountain gorillas appeared headed toward extinction. Their remarkable recovery shows what sustained conservation can achieve—and why the people who made it possible deserve to be remembered.

Mountain gorillas have long captured the human imagination. Yet the popular image of these powerful primates—whether as frightening “King Kong” figures or placid “gentle giants”—misses something fundamental.

Dr. H. Dieter Steklis and Dr. Netzin Steklis have spent decades studying gorilla behavior, conservation, and human-animal relationships. In their Earth Talk, they offered a more nuanced picture: gorillas are deeply social animals whose lives revolve around relationships.

But the Steklises also asked their audience to look beyond the gorillas themselves. Behind one of conservation’s most encouraging success stories stand generations of Rwandan trackers, researchers, rangers, and other local people whose knowledge and dedication helped keep these animals alive.

Gorillas Are Defined by Their Relationships

Dian Fossey’s pioneering observations beginning in the 1960s helped transform public understanding of mountain gorillas. By identifying individual animals—including by their distinctive “nose prints”—and documenting their lives over time, she revealed complex personalities, family relationships, and social bonds.

The Steklises’ own research extended that picture, especially through their study of silverbacks. A mature male can be massive and formidable, fiercely defending his family when threatened. Yet the same animal may patiently wrestle and play with youngsters while carefully controlling his extraordinary strength.

Key Takeaways

Mountain gorilla recovery shows that sustained, long-term conservation can reverse a severe population decline.
Gorilla families are shaped by powerful social bonds, including remarkably gentle relationships between silverbacks and youngsters.
Carefully managed ecotourism can help finance wildlife protection while supporting conservation.
Trackers, rangers and local researchers have been essential—but often overlooked—partners in mountain gorilla conservation.
Preserving conservationists’ stories can strengthen community pride and inspire the next generation of wildlife protectors.

That combination matters. Mountain gorillas are neither simply fierce nor simply gentle. Their behavior makes more sense when viewed through the strength of their social bonds.

Research into play offered another window into those relationships. Silverbacks devote considerable energy to rough-and-tumble play with young gorillas, carefully adjusting their behavior so youngsters are not harmed. The Steklises connected this kind of play with emotional development and regulation.

A Species Moves Away From the Brink

By the time Fossey was working in Rwanda, the outlook for mountain gorillas was grim.

The Steklises described a Virunga population that had fallen from an estimated 450 animals in the 1960s to roughly 250. Snares set for other wildlife could maim or kill gorillas. Cattle entered protected habitat and competed for vegetation. Gorillas themselves were sometimes killed for trophies.

Fossey increasingly shifted her attention from observing gorillas to protecting them, including hiring and training anti-poaching patrols.

The work continued and broadened after her death, involving researchers, governments, conservation organizations and, critically, local communities. Education and carefully managed ecotourism became part of the conservation model. Tourism, the Steklises noted, can in this case help finance the protection of the very animals visitors come to see.

“It’s clearly a success. It’s very much a success story,” stated Drs. Dieter and Netzin Steklis. They reported that the total mountain gorilla population in Rwanda and Uganda had risen above 1,000 based on the most recent census they discussed, while the Virunga population had grown beyond 600.

That recovery is cause for hope—but not complacency.

“It’s clearly a success. It’s very much a success story.” Drs. Dieter and Netzin Steklis

The gorillas still occupy a remarkably constrained landscape. Agriculture presses directly against protected habitat, creating what the Steklises described as an ecological island surrounded by people. Expanding habitat therefore remains important to the population’s long-term future.

What Gorillas Can Teach Us About Strength

Some of the most memorable lessons from the Steklises’ fieldwork never fit neatly into scientific papers.

One involved Pablo, a gorilla who had interacted playfully with researchers when young. As Pablo matured into a powerful silverback, Dieter Steklis occasionally became part of his displays. Pablo would approach from behind, grab the strap of Steklis’s backpack and pull him several meters through the vegetation.

It was startling—but also revealing. “They show such measured strength when they’re interacting with you,” stated Dr. Dieter Steklis.

Pablo possessed more than enough strength to injure a person, yet he controlled it. The experience illustrated the subtle social intelligence the researchers had observed repeatedly: strength tempered by awareness of another individual.

The Steklises emphasized that such physical interactions belong to an earlier era of gorilla research. Today, people maintain a respectful distance, and contact is neither allowed nor encouraged.

“They show such measured strength when they’re interacting with you.” Dr. Dieter Steklis

Stories like Pablo’s nevertheless reveal dimensions of gorilla behavior that statistics alone cannot capture. They remind us that conservation protects not simply a population number, but communities of intelligent, socially complex animals.

The People Behind the Recovery

The most important “untold story,” however, may be human.

For decades, local trackers, research assistants and rangers have followed gorilla families, supported scientists, removed threats and helped safeguard their habitat. Some have spent most of their working lives doing so. Some have died protecting wildlife. Dr. Netzin Steklis pointed out, “The conservation story is a success story, but it’s a success driven by all these people who contributed their heart and soul.”

One longtime conservationist, Fidel, began volunteering at the Karisoke Research Center as a teenager and continued working in research and coordinating trackers for decades. In a recollection shared during the presentation, he described the joy of watching gorillas safely moving through the forest and realizing that his work was about far more than employment: he was helping protect a family, a forest, and a shared future.

That sense of purpose is exactly what Netzin Steklis wants conservation to recognize.

“The conservation story is a success story, but it’s a success driven by all these people that contributed their heart and soul.” Dr. Netzin Steklis

Recognition, she argued, also builds social capital—the relationships, trust and shared identity that strengthen communities. When young people see conservationists respected by their communities, they may be more likely to imagine themselves following the same path.

That insight inspired the Steklises’ Untold Stories Project, an effort to preserve oral histories, photographs and lived experiences of mountain gorilla protectors before that knowledge disappears.

Practical Takeaways & Implications

Mountain gorilla recovery demonstrates that conservation can work. A population once feared to be approaching extinction has grown substantially through decades of research, protection, education, tourism and community involvement.

But protecting habitat and animals is only part of the equation.

Successful conservation also depends on people—and those people deserve visibility. Documenting the knowledge of veteran trackers and rangers can preserve valuable history while strengthening pride in conservation within local communities. The Steklises envision an accessible archive where future generations could discover how a parent, grandparent or great-uncle contributed to protecting gorillas.

There is also a practical opportunity for collaboration. The project needs expertise in oral history, photography, databases, archives and digital storytelling. As Netzin Steklis told the Earth Talks audience, networks such as Rotary can help connect the people who hold the stories with people who know how to preserve and share them.

The mountain gorilla story therefore offers two forms of hope: species can recover when people remain committed for decades, and conservation becomes stronger when the communities doing the work are treated as part of the story rather than standing invisibly behind it.

About This Earth Talk

Speakers: Dr. H. Dieter Steklis and Dr. Netzin Steklis

Dr. H. Dieter Steklis is Professor Emeritus of Primatology at Rutgers University and has held academic leadership and teaching positions at the University of Arizona. His research spans primate social behavior, cognition, communication, mountain gorilla behavior and conservation, and human-animal relationships. He formerly served as Director of the Karisoke Research Center and in senior leadership and scientific roles with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.

Dr. Netzin Steklis is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the University of Arizona’s School of Animal & Comparative Biomedical Sciences. Trained in anthropology, ecology, evolutionary biology, ethology and evolutionary psychology, she previously served for more than a decade as Director of Scientific Information Resources for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Her current work includes human-animal relationships, animal behavior and ethics.

Presented: 3 September 2026

🎥 Watch on YouTube: Earth Talks recording — link

🎧 Listen as a Podcast: Earth Talks / Spotify recording — link

📖 Read the Blog: Earth Talks — link

🌱 Learn more / Project links: Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International — https://gorillafund.org/

Patrick van Veen and Jane Goodall Institute

August 27 2026

Inspired by Jane Goodall, Youth Engagement in Science & Conservation with Patrick van Veen

Patrick van Veen reflects on what made Jane Goodall such an enduring influence on young people—and why her approach to science, conservation and local action still offers a practical model for creating change.

Jane Goodall changed how the world understood chimpanzees. But according to behavioral biologist Patrick van Veen, her influence went far beyond her scientific discoveries.

Van Veen worked with the Jane Goodall Institute for nearly two decades, including five years as Global Chair, and traveled with Goodall, visited conservation projects and saw firsthand how she connected with young people.

In his Earth Talk, van Veen used personal photographs and memories to explore a deceptively simple question: Why was Jane Goodall so successful at inspiring young people?

His answer was not simply her scientific stature. Goodall remained curious, unconventional and willing to challenge accepted ways of doing things. She also connected conservation to people’s everyday lives.

Most importantly, she offered young people something that can be difficult to find amid today’s enormous environmental challenges: a meaningful place to begin.

A Scientist Who Looked Beyond the Data

Goodall arrived in what is now Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960, at age 26, to observe wild chimpanzees. Her research would transform primatology.

Van Veen emphasized that Goodall’s gift was not simply observation. She understood the significance of what she saw.

Key Takeaways

Jane Goodall inspired young people by combining scientific curiosity with practical opportunities to act.
Effective conservation addresses the needs of people, wildlife and ecosystems together.
Roots & Shoots gives young people freedom to create solutions for their own communities.
Small, achievable actions can build confidence, skills and lifelong environmental engagement.
Hope becomes meaningful when people can see a practical way to contribute.

When a chimpanzee used plant material to fish for termites, for example, Goodall recognized that the behavior challenged prevailing ideas about tool use. She also broke convention by giving chimpanzees names rather than treating them only as numbered research subjects.

For van Veen, there is a lesson here for today’s young scientists. Data matter, but science also requires curiosity: noticing what does not fit neatly into the expected categories.

He recalled Goodall’s preference for recording observations on paper, where she could make drawings and side notes about behaviors outside the formal research checklist. Those seemingly small observations could lead somewhere important.

Science, in other words, begins not only with collecting information, but with paying attention.

Conservation Has to Include People

Goodall’s work eventually forced her to look beyond the chimpanzees themselves.

By 1986, she had become increasingly concerned about habitat loss and the pressures facing communities surrounding chimpanzee habitat. She concluded that research alone was not enough and began devoting much more of her life to conservation and advocacy.

That shift led to an approach that van Veen repeatedly emphasized: lasting conservation cannot succeed by treating people and wildlife as competing interests.

Around Gombe, communities need food, income, education, water and places to live. Chimpanzees need forests and connected habitat. Protecting one while ignoring the needs of the other is unlikely to create a lasting solution.

The Jane Goodall Institute’s community-centered conservation work therefore combined environmental restoration with practical support for local communities. Projects included tree nurseries, sustainable livelihoods, education, safe water systems, honey production and community land-use planning.

The underlying principle was straightforward: conservation works better when local people are partners in shaping their own future.

That thinking also helped provide the foundation for Goodall’s work with young people.

Young People Need the Freedom to Make a Difference

Van Veen remembered Goodall as someone who never entirely lost the spirit of a teenager. Even late in life, he said, she remained a little rebellious—willing to question convention and encourage others to choose a different path.

As he put it, Goodall taught young people and adults that “you can make a difference. And that’s your choice.”

Her message was not that individuals must solve the world’s environmental problems. It was that everyone can make a difference.

That philosophy became especially visible through Roots & Shoots, which began in Tanzania in 1991 after a small group of teenagers approached Goodall with concerns about problems in their communities. The program grew around action for three interconnected areas: people, animals and the environment.

Importantly, young people were not handed a rigid global program telling them exactly what to do. They were encouraged to identify problems around them and create their own responses.

A project could mean planting trees, protecting animals or improving a neighborhood. What mattered was engagement—the experience of seeing a problem and discovering that you could do something about it.

“You can make a difference.” Patrick van Veen

That freedom helped Roots & Shoots grow into an international grassroots movement. Van Veen described young people organizing conservation campaigns, supporting tree nurseries, cleaning beaches, helping animals and developing projects within communities and refugee settlements.

The scale of the environmental challenge may be global. The starting point does not have to be.

That sense of agency may be one of Goodall’s most important lessons for environmental education. People are more likely to remain engaged when they can see a connection between their actions and the world around them.

Hope Becomes Powerful When It Turns Into Action

Goodall understood that our everyday choices have consequences far beyond our immediate surroundings. Van Veen noted that the products people buy, the transportation they use and the way they live can affect ecosystems and communities thousands of kilometers away.

But Goodall did not leave young people with that overwhelming global responsibility.

Van Veen recalled that she gave them a different instruction: “Do small things.” Build a bee hotel. Collect litter from the street. Prepare a meal for someone who is alone. Start somewhere close enough that you can act.

This was not a dismissal of large environmental problems. It was a strategy for building participation.

Small actions teach skills, create relationships and give people evidence that change is possible. One local project can inspire another. A young person who plants trees, cleans a beach or helps an animal today may become tomorrow’s scientist, conservationist, community leader or engaged citizen.

“Do small things.” Patrick van Veen, recalling Jane Goodall's message

Goodall’s own life reinforced the same principle. Van Veen remembered her reusing coffee filters, keeping clothes for years and reminding him to put a lid on a pot to save energy. She did not simply tell people how they ought to live; she tried to live according to the values she advocated.

The point is not that a bee hotel or one reused coffee filter will solve climate change or biodiversity loss. The point is that action changes the person taking it—and can begin changing a community around them.

Conservation Needs Hope and Perspective

For van Veen, Goodall’s legacy was ultimately larger than chimpanzee research, conservation programs or even Roots & Shoots.

Near the end of his presentation, he returned to the quality he believed made her so compelling to generations of young people: “She brought hope and perspective to young people.”

That hope was grounded in action rather than wishful thinking.

Goodall saw damaged landscapes, threatened chimpanzee populations, poverty and enormous pressures on natural resources. Yet her response was to look for ways people could participate in solutions.

That meant listening to communities. It meant helping young people develop their own projects. It meant recognizing that protecting wildlife requires attention to human well-being. And it meant continuing to believe that individual choices matter even when no single individual can solve the whole problem.

“She brought hope and perspective to young people.” Patrick van Veen

This may be especially important for today’s young people, who encounter environmental crises through an almost constant stream of news and social media. Information alone does not necessarily create engagement. Without a pathway to action, it can create helplessness instead.

Goodall offered another path: understand the problem, find something within reach and begin.

Hope, in this sense, is not passive optimism. It is the belief that action remains worthwhile—and that people working together can change what happens next.

Practical Takeaways & Implications

Goodall’s approach offers useful lessons not only for conservation organizations, but also for educators, nonprofits, Rotary clubs and anyone trying to engage young people in environmental action.

Start with agency rather than anxiety. Environmental problems are enormous, but people need an achievable first step. Give young people opportunities to identify something they care about and help them act on it.

Connect people, animals and the environment. Conservation is strongest when human needs are part of the solution rather than treated as separate from nature.

Encourage observation and curiosity. Goodall’s scientific legacy reminds us that discoveries can begin with noticing something unexpected.

Make solutions local and practical. A tree nursery, wildlife project, community cleanup or neighborhood initiative may appear small, but these projects build experience and confidence.

Finally, model the behavior you hope to inspire. Goodall’s influence came partly from the consistency between her public message and her daily choices.

Her legacy suggests that the goal of environmental education should not be to convince young people that saving the planet rests on their shoulders. It should help them discover that they have a role to play—and that their contribution, joined with those of others, matters.

About This Earth Talk

Speaker: Patrick van Veen is a behavioral biologist, founder of Ape Management, speaker and author whose work translates insights from biology into practical knowledge for organizations, education and society. He joined the board of the Jane Goodall Institute Netherlands in 2008 and later served for five years as Global Chair of the Jane Goodall Institute. He remains affiliated with the Institute as a senior advisor and advises two chimpanzee sanctuaries in Africa.

Date presented: 27 August 2026

🎥 Watch on YouTube: Link
🎧 Listen as a Podcast: Link
📖 Read the Blog: Link

🌱 Learn more / Project links:

Jane Goodall Institute
Roots & Shoots
Ten Trusts: What We Must Do To Care for the Animals We Love. Available through your favorite bookstore
Jane Goodall at 90: Celebrating an Astonishing Lifetime of Science, Advocacy, Humanism, Hope and Peace. Available through your favorite bookstore
Love in Their Hearts: A Celebration of Animal Emotions and Guide to Compassionate Action by Marc Bekoff and Jeff Campbell. Available through your favorite bookstore
Every Elephant Has a Name, by Jane Goodall and Marc Bekoff, available February 2027 through your favorite bookstore.

August 20 2026

Project Teaser: Luther Krueger on the Earthwide Solar Cooking Festival

Luther Krueger introduces the Earthwide Solar Cooking Festival, beginning 12 September, an 18-day decentralized celebration of solar cooking featuring livestreamed events, practical workshops, online panels, and demonstrations from around the world. The festival explores everything from individual solar cookers to community-scale systems and solar-powered electric cooking. Leaders interested in sustainability, renewable energy, community engagement, and practical climate solutions may find Krueger’s global, participatory approach worth exploring.

Visit Solar Cooking Museum or

Contact museum@bigbluesun.net

Watch the Project Teaser recording: [link]

August 20 2026

Project Teaser: Sebastián Bello on Resilience Colombia, Disaster Relief Platform

Sebastián Bello presents Resilience Colombia, a mobile platform designed to centralize earthquake-related emergency needs and help international donors understand how their contributions can translate into specific relief resources. The pilot combines a needs database, multi-currency calculator, and project dashboard, with plans to improve donation transparency and connect verified needs with targeted support. Bello brings a civil and environmental engineering background, project-management experience, and an analytical approach to developing the concept.

Watch the Project Teaser recording: [link]

August 20 2026

… And Conservation for All with Rtn Sanjay Krishna

Wildlife conservation can sound like the work of scientists, governments and specialists. Sanjay Krishna offers a more accessible idea: millions of ordinary people can protect nature through simple choices, shared learning and restraint.

Sanjay Krishna does not introduce himself as a scientist, field biologist or professional wildlife photographer. He describes himself simply as a wildlife enthusiast—someone who loves observing wild creatures living according to the laws of nature.

That perspective is central to his message. Conservation, he argues, does not require a degree, a forest posting or a large organization. It can begin with something as ordinary as leaving a tree standing, keeping waste out of a lake or allowing a patch of land to recover naturally.

That philosophy helped Krishna turn a personal passion for wildlife into the Rotary Fellowship of Wildlifers for Conservation (RFWC), a global community now numbering more than 1,000 members. Its growth offers a practical lesson: conservation becomes more powerful when people see themselves as participants rather than spectators.

A Personal Interest Finds a Wider Community

Krishna’s conservation journey within Rotary began during his 2019–20 year as a club president. He organized a family visit to a wildlife sanctuary and later arranged a screening of a documentary about the wildlife of Karnataka, his home state in southern India. More than 500 Rotarians attended the screening.

Those experiences revealed something important. Interest in wildlife was already present. People simply needed opportunities to experience it together.

Key Takeaways

Conservation is something anyone can practice, regardless of professional training or field experience.
Preventing damage can be as valuable as launching a new environmental project.
Healthy restoration works with natural processes instead of simply beautifying landscapes.
Shared wildlife experiences can build friendships, awareness, and momentum for community service.
Millions of imperfect conservation choices can create meaningful collective change.

That enthusiasm soon expanded into service. Krishna’s club worked with residents of a rural village near Bangalore to rejuvenate a local lake. Rather than treating the project primarily as beautification, the effort focused on helping the lake function again as a natural water system.

Farmers and community members played the central role, while Rotary acted as a catalyst. Years later, Krishna said, the lake still holds water and attracts abundant birdlife, with more than 100 species observed there.

The experience connected fellowship, community participation and environmental restoration—and helped lay the foundation for something much larger.

Conservation Does Not Belong Only to Experts

When Krishna began exploring the idea of an international Rotary fellowship for wildlife enthusiasts, the word conservation initially gave him pause. He associated conservationists with experts doing intensive work in forests and field settings.

But a simpler definition changed his thinking: conservation is fundamentally about protecting the natural world from damage, waste, and destruction.

That opened the door to a more inclusive understanding. “To be a conservationist is not complicated. It is profoundly simple.”

In this view, conservation is not a professional identity reserved for a small group. Someone who avoids polluting water, protects habitat, reduces waste, or gives nature space to recover is already participating.

This idea eventually became central to the fellowship, which Rotary International recognized in January 2021. Its purpose was not only to bring wildlife enthusiasts together, but also to help ordinary people recognize that their interests, knowledge, and everyday choices could contribute to conservation.

“To be a conservationist is not complicated. It is profoundly simple.” Rtn Sanjay Krishna

The fellowship began organizing monthly talks featuring experts on subjects ranging from elephants, tigers, and African wildlife to birds, butterflies, ants, and marine life. The model placed experts and amateurs in the same community, connected by curiosity and a shared desire to protect wildlife.

Sometimes the Best Conservation Action Is Restraint

Much environmental messaging focuses on what people should do: plant, restore, build, clean, organize or campaign. Krishna adds another dimension—what we choose not to do.

A tree that is not cut continues providing habitat. Plastic that is not discarded into water causes no pollution there. Soil that is not unnecessarily disturbed can continue supporting the living systems within it. “Sometimes the biggest contribution any of us can make is restraint.”

Krishna applies the same principle to restoration. In discussing the lake project, he cautioned against confusing rejuvenation with cosmetic improvement. A functioning lake needs appropriate depth, clear feeder channels for incoming rainwater, and room for natural ecological processes.

Nature does not always need people to redesign it. Sometimes it needs people to remove an obstacle and let natural processes resume.

“Sometimes the biggest contribution any of us can make is restraint.” Rtn Sanjay Krishna

That principle can apply at smaller scales, too. Let grass grow in appropriate places. Let soil breathe. Allow leaves and organic matter to perform their ecological roles. Make space for birds, insects, and other wildlife.

Conservation, then, can be as much about subtraction as addition.

From a Rotary District to a Global Fellowship

Online connections during the COVID-19 pandemic helped Krishna meet Rotarians beyond his district and country. What began as local wildlife activities evolved into an international network.

RFWC was formally launched in December 2020 and approved as an official Rotary fellowship in January 2021. Six years into the journey, Krishna reported that it had grown to more than 1,000 members across more than 20 countries.

Members are encouraged to create regional chapters, visit one another’s countries, experience local wildlife and support Rotary projects. The fellowship is designed to make conservation social as well as practical—building friendships while expanding awareness.

That scale matters because Krishna does not believe environmental progress depends on a small number of flawless conservationists. “We don’t need 10 people doing conservation perfectly. We need 10 million people doing it imperfectly.”

The message lowers a barrier that can prevent people from acting: the fear that individual efforts are too small or imperfect to matter.

“We don’t need 10 people doing conservation perfectly. We need 10 million people doing it imperfectly.” Rtn Sanjay Krishna

A person can conserve water. Reduce waste. Protect a tree. Avoid a damaging purchase. Learn about local birds. Support habitat restoration. Share knowledge with young people. None of these actions requires professional credentials.

Collectively, however, they create a culture in which protecting nature becomes normal.

Practical Takeaways & Implications

Krishna’s approach offers a useful starting point for Rotary clubs, schools, community organizations and individuals: begin with what is close enough to understand and practical enough to change.

Look first for unnecessary harm that can be avoided. Reducing single-use materials, keeping waste out of waterways, saving water and protecting existing vegetation may accomplish more than launching complicated projects without understanding the local ecosystem.

When restoration is needed, work with local communities and people who understand the landscape. The lake project near Bangalore succeeded, Krishna emphasized, because local farmers participated and Rotary served as a catalyst rather than trying to control the entire process.

Education matters, too. Wildlife trips, birdwatching, documentary screenings and talks with knowledgeable speakers can turn curiosity into connection. People are more likely to protect species and places they have learned to notice and value.

Most importantly, conservation does not have to begin with perfection. It begins with participation.

Protecting the natural world is not simply an act of generosity toward wildlife. Healthy soil, pollinators, clean water, trees and functioning ecosystems support human communities as well. Conservation is therefore both responsibility and shared self-interest—and everyone can contribute.

About This Earth Talk

Speaker: Sanjay Krishna, Founder and Chairman of the Rotary Fellowship of Wildlifers for Conservation (RFWC). Krishna founded the fellowship to connect Rotarians, Rotaractors, and other wildlife enthusiasts around conservation, friendship, and service. In six years, the network has grown to more than 1,000 members internationally.

Date presented: 20 August 2026

🎥 Watch on YouTube: Link
🎧 Listen as a Podcast: Link
📖 Read the Blog: …and Conservation for All with Rtn Sanjay Krishna

🌱 Learn more / Project links: Rotary Fellowship of Wildlifers for Conservation

August 13 2026

Speak Peace, Save Nature: the Power of Conflict Sensitive Communication with Tapiwa Prosper Chimbadzwa

Protecting biodiversity is not only about ecosystems. It is also about relationships. Peacebuilder Tapiwa Prosper Chimbadzwa explains why listening, trust, and conflict-sensitive communication can make conservation more effective and more just.

Conservation is often described in terms of species, habitats, parks, and protected areas. But for communities living alongside wildlife and depending directly on land and natural resources, conservation is also about livelihoods, culture, power, and belonging.

That is why Tapiwa Prosper Chimbadzwa asks a deceptively simple question: What happens when conservation meets conflict?

Drawing on more than eight years of conservation and peacebuilding experience across West and Southern Africa, Chimbadzwa argues that environmental work cannot succeed for long if it ignores the relationships surrounding it. The words conservationists use, the people they listen to, and the way decisions are made can either build trust or deepen divisions.

His central message is practical: protecting nature and building peace are not separate tasks. Done well, they reinforce each other.

Conservation is also about people

Many biodiversity-rich landscapes are also places where communities face political instability, inequality, livelihood pressures, or disputes over land and natural resources. In those circumstances, conservation cannot be treated simply as the protection of plants and animals.

Protected areas may carry deep cultural and spiritual meaning. They may also provide food, income, water, grazing, medicine, or other necessities. When conservation decisions restrict access without meaningful community participation, even well-intentioned projects can create resentment.

Key Takeaways

Conservation succeeds more readily when communities are treated as partners rather than obstacles.
Conflict-sensitive communication emphasizes listening, respect, inclusion, local context, and doing no harm.
Visible disagreements often reflect deeper issues involving trust, power, livelihoods, identity, and exclusion.
Local knowledge and lived experience can strengthen conservation decisions and create more durable solutions.

This is especially important where conservation has historically relied on a “fortress” approach: drawing hard boundaries between people and nature and assuming ecosystems will be safer when local communities are kept out.

Chimbadzwa encourages conservationists to look beneath the visible disagreement. Conflict, he explains, often has deeper layers involving exclusion, inequality, identity, emotion, and damaged relationships.

Communication can build trust—or undermine it

Early in his presentation, Chimbadzwa offered a straightforward definition of conflict-sensitive communication: communication that is respectful, inclusive, aware of local context, and guided by the principle of doing no harm. “Conflict-sensitive communication is not just about information sharing, but meaningful, intentional, respectful and inclusive communication.”

That distinction matters. Communication is not successful merely because information was delivered. People also need to feel heard, respected, and able to influence decisions that affect their lives.

Conflict can intensify when conservation organizations arrive with predetermined messages, dismiss local experience, or communicate in ways that sound accusatory. By contrast, listening first can reveal concerns that would otherwise remain hidden.

“Communication is not just about information sharing, but meaningful, intentional, respectful and inclusive communication.” Tapiwa Prosper Chimbadzwa

For conservation practitioners, this means paying attention not only to what is said but to how it is received. Tone, language, timing, history, and relationships all shape whether a conversation creates cooperation or defensiveness.

Look beneath the visible conflict

Chimbadzwa uses an iceberg as a way of thinking about conflict. What people see at the surface—a protest, argument, disagreement, or confrontation—may be only a small part of what is happening. “There are so many layers to conflict. There are so many dynamics to conflict and there are so many types of conflict.”

Underneath may be fear, loss, mistrust, unequal decision-making, cultural exclusion, or years of feeling ignored. Communities living alongside wildlife, for example, may experience the costs of conservation very differently from people designing conservation policy from farther away.

This is why emotions and relationships matter. A dispute may appear to be about a single decision, while the real source of tension is how people were treated during the process.

“There are so many layers to conflict.” Tapiwa Prosper Chimbadzwa

Recognizing those layers does not mean abandoning conservation goals. It means understanding the social conditions needed to achieve them. When people believe their knowledge and concerns matter, collaboration becomes more possible.

Start by listening to local realities

Chimbadzwa proposes three questions conservationists can use before advocating, planning, or communicating. “Are we listening to communities that we are dealing with? Or are we just thinking of relaying the messages that we want to relay?”

The second question asks whether local knowledge and practices are genuinely valued. The third asks whether conservation messages reflect local cultures, values, and lived realities.

These questions are especially relevant to large environmental transitions. Global calls for cleaner energy, new technologies, or increased mineral extraction may sound positive at an international level but create very different experiences for communities living where resources are extracted.

“Are we listening to communities, or are we just thinking of relaying the messages that we want to relay?” Tapiwa Prosper Chimbadzwa

The lesson extends far beyond conservation. Solutions are more durable when communities participate in shaping them instead of simply receiving instructions after decisions have already been made.

From “us versus them” to shared stewardship

Conflict-sensitive conservation does not mean everyone will agree. Disagreement is normal wherever people have different needs, histories, responsibilities, and interests.

The goal is to prevent those differences from hardening into an “us versus them” relationship.

That requires seeing communities not as obstacles to conservation but as partners with knowledge, experience, and a direct stake in the future of the landscape. It also means creating space for people who are often underrepresented in decision-making, including women and young people.

The result is a broader understanding of conservation: one that protects ecological systems while strengthening the relationships that make long-term stewardship possible.

Practical Takeaways & Implications

Chimbadzwa’s approach offers a useful checklist for anyone working with communities on conservation, climate, or sustainability.

Begin by listening before explaining. Ask people what they are experiencing, what they value, and what risks they see. Community engagement should uncover information, not merely transmit it.

Next, pay attention to who participates. Decisions are less likely to endure when affected groups are excluded. Women, young people, Indigenous peoples, land-connected communities, local leaders, and other stakeholders may bring different knowledge and priorities.

Use language that reduces defensiveness rather than assigning blame. Avoid framing environmental challenges as a contest between enlightened conservationists and resistant communities. Shared problems are more likely to produce shared solutions when people are treated with dignity.

Finally, examine what lies beneath disagreement. Conflict may signal unmet needs, unequal power, historical grievances, or fear about livelihoods. Addressing those concerns can strengthen conservation rather than distract from it.

For Chimbadzwa, the message is ultimately hopeful: conservation becomes more resilient when peacebuilding is woven into the work. Saving nature is not only about protecting places. It is also about protecting the relationships that allow people and nature to thrive together.

About This Earth Talk

Speaker: Tapiwa Prosper Chimbadzwa is a peacebuilding professional with more than eight years of experience in conservation across West and Southern Africa. He works with communities and conservation groups to transform conflict, promote grassroots participation, and foster peaceful coexistence between people and wildlife.

Date presented: 13 August 2026

🎥 Watch on YouTube: link

🎧 Listen as a Podcast: link

📖 Read the Blog: link

🌱 Learn more / Project links:

August 6 2026

Project Teaser: Anysa Santini on the Re|Root Collaborative

Anysa Santini introduces the Re|Root Collaborative and its work addressing the public health and environmental effects of waste in Kumasi, Ghana. She highlights the Pelele River Cleanup Project, where volunteers remove accumulated waste while exploring longer-term solutions for flooding and inadequate waste management. Leaders interested in community health, sustainability, environmental education, and locally driven nonprofit initiatives will gain a useful preview of Santini’s practical, mission-focused approach.

Please visit Re|Root Collaborative.

Watch the Project Teaser recording: [link]

August 6 2026

Cultivating a Greener Agriculture with the Istanbul Agriculture ROTARY Club, RID2420

Across Türkiye, Uganda and other farming regions, communities are confronting water scarcity, soil degradation and changing growing seasons. The Istanbul Agriculture ROTARY Club argues that resilient agriculture begins with healthy soil, locally appropriate solutions and long-term collaboration.

Introduction

Agriculture is never only about crops. It is also about water, soil, livelihoods, culture, technology and the relationships that enable communities to respond to change.

In his Earth Talks presentation, Turkish civil engineer and agricultural specialist Ali Gökçe Yaşar explored how these connections are shaping agriculture in Anatolia, the Mediterranean and beyond. Drawing on the work of the Istanbul Agricultural Rotary Club and its partners, he described a practical vision of farming that protects biodiversity while strengthening food security and rural economies.

Their central message was hopeful but demanding: sustainable agriculture cannot be delivered through a single technology or short-term grant. It requires communities to understand their local conditions, measure results, share knowledge and remain involved through complete growing and harvesting cycles.

Agriculture Begins with Place

Anatolia lies within one of the world’s historically significant agricultural regions. Its varied landforms, soils and microclimates have supported crop cultivation and animal husbandry for thousands of years.

Yaşar connected this agricultural diversity to the geological forces that formed the mountain belt stretching from southern Europe through Türkiye and toward the Himalayas. These landscapes create sharply different growing conditions over relatively short distances. A method that succeeds in one valley may be unsuitable in another.

Key Takeaways

Healthy soil is the foundation of food security, biodiversity and resilient rural livelihoods.
Agricultural solutions must reflect local climate, water, soil, crops and community needs.
Regenerative practices can restore damaged soil while farms continue producing food.
Data helps farmers measure results, anticipate change and improve future growing seasons.
Long-term cooperation must continue through planting, harvest, processing and sales.

This is why agricultural projects must begin with regional circumstances rather than imported assumptions. Water availability, soil composition, seasonal temperatures, local crops and market demand all influence which solutions will work.

The same principle applies internationally. Türkiye experiences distinct seasons and generally one major annual harvest, while equatorial Uganda may support two production cycles without a winter period. Cooperation can transfer knowledge between regions, but each practice must be adapted to local climate and ecology.

Healthy Soil Supports Healthy Communities

Yaşar presented soil, food, people, technology, and international cooperation as interconnected pillars of sustainable agriculture. Of these, soil is the foundation.

Soils affected by intensive pesticide use, industrial residues or declining organic matter cannot always transition immediately to certified organic production. Regenerative agriculture can provide a practical pathway. The term describes farming practices intended to restore soil fertility, improve water retention and support biodiversity while continuing to produce food.

“Healthy soil sustains biodiversity and is the foundation of everything we do.” The Istanbul Agriculture ROTARY Club

This may include composting, reducing harmful chemical inputs, maintaining ground cover, and using locally produced biological preparations to manage pests.

Yaşar described cooperation between agricultural Rotarians in Türkiye and the Kinoni Rotary Club in Uganda. Partners discussed plant protection methods using substances such as vinegar or garlic to repel insects rather than eliminate them indiscriminately. The objective was to protect crops while preserving beneficial organisms.

These experiences demonstrate an important distinction: agricultural success is not simply a larger harvest. It also includes healthier soil, safer food, stronger biodiversity, and farmers who can sustain their work economically.

Climate Resilience Requires Measurement and Adaptation

Early in his discussion of climate pressures, Yaşar emphasized the need to prepare before conditions become more severe. “We have to take precaution even earlier.”

Changing rainfall, rising temperatures and drought risks are already influencing farm decisions. Yaşar pointed to rainwater collection, efficient irrigation and controlled-environment systems such as hydroponics and aquaponics as possible responses. Hydroponics grows plants without soil, while aquaponics combines plant cultivation with fish production in a recirculating water system.

Technology, however, is valuable only when it responds to a real local need. Farmers need usable information about rainfall, soil condition, crop quality, yields and market performance. Consistent records can help communities evaluate one season and make better decisions for the next. “Technology should help us digitally monitor sites and establish databases.”

Measurement also allows project partners to define success more clearly. Useful indicators might include soil organic matter, compost use, pesticide reductions, the number of farmers trained, food produced, women and young people participating, and households gaining access to healthy food.

Data should not replace farmers’ experience. Instead, it can strengthen that knowledge, helping growers recognize emerging patterns that differ from the seasons their families have known for decades.

“Technology should help us monitor sites and prepare for future seasons.” The Istanbul Agriculture ROTARY Club

Training is equally important. School gardens, farmer workshops and community demonstrations can turn abstract sustainability goals into everyday skills. Children can learn composting and food production directly, while producers can compare methods and coordinate their actions.

Cooperation Must Last Beyond a Funding Cycle

Agricultural transformation takes time. A project cannot be judged only by whether equipment was delivered or a training event was completed. It must continue through planting, cultivation, harvesting, processing and sales. “Agriculture is not like having project funding and giving it away. Agriculture requires a term.”

Yaşar outlined a collaborative model in which interested groups first exchange information, identify stakeholders and funding partners, prepare documentation and secure district support. From there, projects require regular meetings, site visits, shared publications and ongoing evaluation.

“Agriculture requires time, from planting through harvest and income.” The Istanbul Agriculture ROTARY Club

Cooperatives can play an especially valuable role. By organizing collectively, smallholder farmers may gain access to equipment, technical advice, processing facilities and stronger markets that would be difficult to reach individually.

Women and young people should be central to this process. Yaşar highlighted women’s roles as producers, educators and holders of practical agricultural knowledge. Supporting them can strengthen entire households and help transfer skills to younger generations.

International partnerships are most successful when they do not impose standardized solutions. Their role is to connect professional knowledge with local experience, help communities obtain suitable resources and create systems that can continue after external support ends.

Practical Takeaways & Implications

Yaşar’s presentation offers a useful framework for Rotary clubs, nonprofits, educators and community leaders considering agricultural projects.

Begin with local evidence. Study soil, water, climate, existing crops and community priorities before selecting technologies or funding equipment. A highly advanced system is not automatically the most sustainable one.

Design projects around full agricultural cycles. Budgets and reporting schedules should recognize that farmers may need six months, a year or longer before outcomes can be evaluated.

Measure environmental and social results together. Crop yield matters, but so do soil health, biodiversity, farmer income, food quality, training and participation by women and young people.

Support knowledge exchange rather than one-way instruction. Farmers already possess valuable experience. Outside specialists can contribute most effectively by testing ideas with communities and adapting recommendations to local conditions.

Finally, make sustainable practices visible and accessible. Composting household and garden waste, collecting rainwater, creating school gardens and monitoring soil conditions are practical entry points. Individually, they may appear modest. Together, they can build the habits and knowledge needed for more resilient food systems.

The future of agriculture will not depend on one crop, country or institution. It will be cultivated through patient cooperation among people who understand that caring for soil also means caring for communities.

About This Earth Talk

Speaker: Ali Gökçe Yaşar is a civil engineer with a master’s degree in hydraulics and professional experience in irrigation, drainage, water structures, construction management, and technical marketing. He is also pursuing graduate studies in field crops at Ankara University and serves with the Istanbul Agricultural Rotary Club and the Rotary Fellowship for Agriculture and Farming.

Date presented: August 6, 2026

🎥 Watch on YouTube: Link
🎧 Listen as a Podcast: Link
📖 Read the Blog: Cultivating a Greener Agriculture

🌱 Learn more / Project links: Rotary Fellowship for Agriculture and Farming

July 30 2026

Growing Climate Leaders One School at a Time with Felix Kariuki

A Kenyan initiative is turning school grounds into living classrooms where students restore nature, grow food and build practical leadership skills.

Across western Kenya, a different kind of climate education is taking root. Students are not only learning about environmental change from textbooks. They are selecting seeds, preparing compost, testing soil, raising indigenous trees and growing food.

This hands-on approach is at the heart of Seeds of the Future, an initiative presented by engineer and sustainability leader Felix Kimani Kariuki during the 30 July 2026 Earth Talks program.

Its goal is ambitious but practical: help children become capable environmental stewards while they are still in school.

“Why don’t we grow climate leaders from school itself?” Kariuki asked. Schools, he explained, are trusted community institutions. When environmental learning becomes part of daily school life, children can carry that knowledge home, influence their families and eventually help shape better public policy.

From Depleted Farmland to a Place of Learning

The story begins at the Mary Okello Conservancy near Kenya’s Nandi Escarpment, an important water source for Lake Victoria.

The land had long been used for sugarcane cultivation. Over time, repeated production and chemical use contributed to depleted soil and declining biodiversity. Dr. Mary Okello set aside approximately 200 acres to demonstrate that the landscape could be restored and used differently.

Key Takeaways

Schools can turn climate education into practical skills through nurseries, gardens and composting.
Students learn to raise indigenous trees suited to their local ecosystems.
Fruit trees and vegetable gardens connect environmental restoration with better nutrition.
Selling surplus seedlings can teach financial literacy and help sustain school programs.
Children carry climate knowledge home, creating change from the community level upward.

Trees were planted, soils were renewed and the former plantation began developing into a conservancy. It also became a learning centre for schools, visitors and farmer field schools—practical programs where farmers learn by observing and testing methods in real conditions.

But bringing students to the conservancy was only a beginning. The project’s leaders wanted schools to create their own small areas of restoration and food production.

Seeds of the Future, founded by Joseph Okello, emerged from that vision. Rather than treating environmental education as an occasional field trip, the program helps schools build permanent spaces where students can learn by doing.

Learning the Full Life Cycle of a Tree

“Why don’t we grow climate leaders from school itself?” Kariuki asked.

The question captures the program’s central idea. Instead of waiting for young people to become adults before involving them in climate solutions, Seeds of the Future gives them practical responsibility now.

“Why don’t we grow climate leaders from school itself?” Eng. Felix Kariuki

The project goes beyond distributing seedlings for a ceremonial planting day. Participating schools receive approximately 90 days of guided support. Students and teachers work together to establish a nursery and learn the full process of raising healthy plants.

“We’re making it practical—not just theoretical, but practical,” Kariuki said.

Activities include selecting locally appropriate seeds, propagating seedlings, making compost, assessing soil and understanding the nutrients plants need.

The program works with knowledgeable partners, including the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, to identify species suited to each location. This matters because planting the wrong tree in the wrong place can waste resources or disrupt local ecosystems.

Indigenous trees are a central priority. Native species are adapted to local conditions and can provide habitat for wildlife, protect soils and support the wider ecological relationships that make a landscape resilient.

“We’re making it practical—not just theoretical, but practical.” Eng. Felix Kariuki

Students also grow fruit trees and vegetables. This broadens the project from tree restoration into an integrated lesson about biodiversity, nutrition and food security.

By following the complete life cycle of a plant, students learn that successful restoration requires more than putting a seedling in the ground. It requires appropriate species, healthy soil, water, monitoring and long-term care.

Climate Education That Also Addresses Hunger

For Kariuki, environmental action cannot be separated from people’s daily needs.

Many communities face both ecological decline and unreliable access to nutritious food. School gardens and nurseries can help address those challenges together.

Fast-growing vegetables can supplement school meals. Fruit trees can provide food over many years. Regenerative multi-storey gardens—compact gardens designed to grow crops in layers—can help schools produce vegetables where land or water is limited.

Students learn that soil health, water protection, biodiversity and human health are connected. They also gain skills they can use at home or carry into future employment.

The approach reframes climate leadership. It is not limited to public speeches, international conferences or national policy. It can begin with knowing how to make compost, keep a seedling alive and grow food without exhausting the soil.

By giving young people the ability to act, the program also replaces helplessness with competence. Climate change can feel distant and overwhelming, particularly to children. Caring for a nursery offers a visible task and a measurable result.

Growing Skills—and Financial Independence

Seeds of the Future also introduces students to enterprise and financial literacy.

Schools can use some of what they grow while selling surplus seedlings or produce. Financial partners can then help students understand saving, reinvestment and responsible management.

The aim is not to turn every school into a business. It is to help programs become more self-sustaining while showing students how environmental restoration can create social and economic value.

Kariuki described the model as teaching someone to fish rather than simply giving them a fish. Students learn how to establish a nursery, care for it and use its outputs to support the next cycle of planting.

This structure also improves the likelihood that projects will survive after an initial donation or launch event. Teachers are involved from the beginning, and schools develop the knowledge needed to continue the work.

At the time of Kariuki’s presentation, more than 12,000 students had participated. The long-term aspiration is to reach every school possible.

Children Can Move Communities

“The youth are eager,” Kariuki said. “They’re hungry to do something to make a difference.”

One of the program’s most powerful ideas is that environmental learning travels.

A child who learns about composting, tree care or water conservation may return home and share that knowledge. Students can question wasteful habits, encourage relatives to plant appropriate trees and demonstrate methods their families have never encountered.

This bottom-up influence may sometimes be more effective than instructions delivered from institutions far away.

“The youth are eager. They’re hungry to do something to make a difference.” Eng. Felix Kariuki

Young people, Kariuki argued, already want to contribute. They understand that their future depends on clean air, healthy land and reliable food. What many lack is not motivation but a practical framework.

Seeds of the Future provides a place to begin. A school nursery gives students a manageable project, visible progress and responsibility for living things.

It also allows leadership to grow gradually. Students learn to cooperate, solve problems and care for resources before they are asked to lead organizations or influence policy.

Practical Takeaways & Implications

The Seeds of the Future model offers useful lessons for schools, Rotary clubs, nonprofits, local governments and funders around the world.

First, climate education is most effective when students can apply it. A small nursery, pollinator garden, composting site or vegetable plot can transform abstract lessons into practical understanding.

Second, locally appropriate knowledge matters. Schools should work with forestry agencies, farmers, Indigenous knowledge holders, conservation groups or universities to select suitable species and methods.

Third, long-term care must be designed into every planting project. Trees need water, protection and monitoring after the launch photographs have been taken. Training students and teachers together creates continuity.

Environmental projects also become stronger when they address community priorities. A school nursery can restore biodiversity, improve nutrition, build vocational skills and create modest income at the same time.

Rotary clubs and other service organizations can help by funding materials, connecting schools with technical partners, supporting teacher training and providing mentorship. Every form of support can help a school move from a one-day activity to an enduring environmental program.

A seedling may be small, but the habits formed while caring for it can last a lifetime. By investing in practical climate education now, communities can raise a generation that sees environmental stewardship not as a special activity, but as part of everyday life.

About This Earth Talk

Speaker: Felix Kimani Kariuki, Engineer and Paul Harris Fellow

Felix Kariuki is a strategic management, project development, and knowledge-management professional with 16 years of experience. He serves as Great Lakes Regional Director for Seeds of the Future and as a consultant to the Mary Okello Conservancy Project. His wider work spans food security, agricultural data, technology training, climate action, and Rotary environmental service.

Date presented: July 30, 2026

Links:

🎥 Watch on YouTube: Link

🎧 Listen as a Podcast: Link

📖 Read the Blog: Growing Climate Leaders

🌱 Learn more / Project links: Mary Okelo Conservancy

July 23 2026

Project Teaser: Reducing Food Waste with Danny Sudman

Danny Sudman, founder of Green Camps, introduces a community-based approach to reducing wasted food through data collection, team building, practical strategies, and measurable action. He also highlights Compost Heroes, a collaborative card game designed to teach composting through problem-solving and play. Leaders interested in sustainability, community engagement, environmental education, or locally driven projects may find Danny’s approach valuable to preview for a future full-length presentation.

Watch the Project Teaser recording: [link]