Around the age of 10 I had visited an Outdoor expo, this was where I would meet the wonderful students from the Technical University of Pretoria and decide that this is where I would like to go to university and obtain my degree in Nature Conservation. Each year around 200 students walk into the university to start their Conservation careers, only about 20 to 60 graduate.
The reasons for the dramatic drop in numbers are many so I will only name the most prevalent. Firstly the lack of understanding of what Conservation is. Many first year students walk into their first classes thinking they are going to walk around a ranch or reserve ( if they know the difference ) with a rifle of some-sort shooting poachers, or working with animals in enclosures; petting cheetahs and riding elephants. That is not the focus of conservation, only a small part of it, for which you do not necessarily require a degree. Once the students realise this they drop out, following a different career path entirely or finding some other way to enter the industry for example The Field Guide Association of South Africa (FGASA) or similar courses. Secondly is the coarse material itself. Conservation flows over into many arenas, many conservationists fulfil their careers sitting in an office and never spending a day in he field, however, to reach this point you are still required to complete the coarse and all the scientific subjects it entails. This proves difficult for some students and again they drop out. Last but not least, in fact this may be the most prevalent reason of all, is finances. Going to a tertiary education institution of any sort is already difficult enough, and this is true for many countries throughout the world, but in Africa it is made so much more challenging due to the corruption, protests and discrimination the youth face today. Student loans are not only exorbitant to pay back but are increasingly difficult to obtain. For a conservation student this is an even bigger problem as the general salary a conservationist could expect to receive at entry level (and even into management positions) would be barely above the bread lines and most certainly not enough to repay the monthly instalments.
Finances has always been a big issue in conservation. One only needs to look at the amount of foundations and conservation funds that exist to understand that there is very little money going from the country's coffers to the aid of conservation and research. Many projects spend years lobbying to foreign investors in hope of finding a compassionate soul with deep pockets who doesn't mind throwing their loose change to the critically important research and work conservationists are doing.
Conservationists never worry about money when it is for themselves, many conservationists do the work they do voluntarily, they live in small rural communities with the people they are helping and feed themselves and community members off the small vegetable gardens the grow, help communities raise money by collecting and recycling any and all recyclable materials, they get communities involved in assisting landowners in the fight against poaching and the landowners reward them with small amounts of money or food. When a conservationist does worry about money, it is about their projects. In order for us to be able to see the dramatic drop in Leopard numbers in the Soutpansberg, a conservationist or related professional needed to do the research. This research requires years of hard work, tracking collars, darting expeditions, trapping cameras and so much more, which all require money. Money is the only way this research can come to life and we can do what is needed to determine what is happening to the species around us and what we can do about it. Without the finances for this research to continue, these animals would all go extinct.
The struggle is real. Yet conservationists will always find a way to get done what is needed. It would simply be so much easier with the support of local governments, to have them recognise the need for and importance of this research and work.
Education is the key, the world needs to be told about environmental issues and each country must make a point of it to have finances available for conservation work and research.
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The WOMA Scholarship : Conservationista by Bianca Botha
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