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“People die in the name of nature conservation in my immediate surroundings” 

How is your life in South Africa?

I am originally from Germany, and living in South Africa has been an adventure. I moved to South Africa just before the COVID-19 pandemic started. I was finishing my training and then I had to move back to Germany and go through quarantine and lockdown. Finally, I’ve managed to move back to South Africa and I expect to be here at least for two years. 

Africa, in general, and South Africa, in particular, never lets you stop and take a break — here I experience a vibrant life. Especially when you live in the bush, every day there is something happening that you did not expect, so the bush will never let you settle down. Long story short, my journey to South Africa has been the greatest journey of my life.

Could you briefly explain to us what your work here consists of?

I am a safari guide and I also work as a field/trails guide at Kings Camp Lodge in South Africa. Usually I get up at 4 am and start working. I am also a nature-conservation student; I study it part-time. When everybody else is sleeping, I’m normally studying or taking care of my social-media profiles. I keep myself busy with communication and walking safaris and I like to see myself as an educator. I like to teach people about the importance of nature and biodiversity. This is my grain of sand to conservation.

With almost 20K followers, you are a very popular figure on Instagram. What are you trying to communicate?

I didn’t feel like the safari industry was represented enough on social media, so I wanted to explain how our life is and what we really do. When you are a guide, you have so much material and so many stories, both from your daily work as well as from your guests. It is mind-blowing to see how people perceive nature depending on where they come from. Europeans have a very different sense of what nature is compared to North Americans or Russians.

Also, as a safari guide, you go through many unbelievable situations every day, so I wanted to use social media to explain that. And very slowly, but regularly, I’ve started to get feedback. At the beginning, I struggled to understand what was the message I wanted to communicate. But then everything started to move smoothly. I think as an influencer, I’m holding a big responsibility because somehow I’m impacting… the way many people in the world will perceive us. 

Where do your followers come from?

In the beginning, 99 percent of them were from South Africa, so they were very aware of what was I talking about, like the way you should behave with animals, how to avoid certain dangers… but now I have many followers from other countries, so I’ve started to change my point of view and the way I explain my stories. Now I try to explain them from the animal’s point of view

What is the question you get asked the most?

I think it is, “should I feed animals when I’m touring in a national park?” Obviously you shouldn’t; wild animals should not rely on humans for survival. I think teaching that to people is one of the most important things one can do.

You always raise serious questions with great originality. What kind of feedback do you usually get?

Ninety percent of the messages I’m getting are positive. People encourage me with my work and find my content useful, as they find it funny and light, and they say they understand better what we do

Also, the safari-guiding job is pretty much dominated by men, so people are surprised to find a woman doing that job. So I get asked about that a lot too. 

How do you see the state of South Africa in terms of nature conservation?

It is a very difficult question, because nature conservation involves many different things. It is not simply protecting nature and animals, it goes hand in hand with social structure, infrastructure, and with the government. I do work next to Kruger National Park and I see many people engaged with nature conservation. Their commitment and their passion is mind-blowing; they truly give their lives to protect animals. 

Especially the rhinos, due to illegal hunting and trafficking, we lose about two rhinos every day. However, lots of funds are coming from South Africa and other countries, and, although sometimes it might look like a hopeless fight, we can’t stop fighting

What policies should be improved in this respect?

There are many animals who are in danger which are not as popular as rhinos, for example. Birds have a critical impact on biodiversity and they are being overlooked, I think simply because they are not as majestic as the rhino. South African vultures play a key role in balancing the ecosystem and they are at risk, but a rhino would get more funds because it is cuter (for humans) than a scary vulture.

This might sound a bit controversial, but we receive lots of funding for nature conservation, and sometimes these funds are coming from unexpected sources. For instance, the hunting industry invests in nature conservation, or there are efforts put on the communities living within national parks. Sometimes conservation is not as cute as you would think. Burning the bush is a very important part of nature conservation, but it doesn’t look good in the pictures.

Is there a strong sector of non-governmental organizations carrying on effective initiatives?

I don’t know how many there are, but people have put a lot of effort here and it is impressive to see how many ongoing nature-conservation initiatives are currently taking place. People on the ground, people in the field, are truly doing an amazing job.

In the time you have been working, what made you feel most impotent?

Sometimes people humanize animals and would do to them what we would do to a human in order to save them. That makes me feel uncomfortable, because that’s not how nature conservation works. What helps animals long term might not be easy to accept in the short term. 

For instance, in Africa, we had many campaigns to protect elephants; everywhere you could see messages like “save the elephants.” But these campaigns did not take into account the people who live close to the elephants, so, as the elephant numbers increased, some communities developed an interest in getting rid of them because they might be eating their fruits or creating an imbalance in their system. So, in a sense, this campaign kind of increased the risk to the elephants of being killed. It would have been better to invest in finding a balance between humans and wildlife, and that is also part of what a nature conservationist would do. 

Have you seen an improvement in the quality and biodiversity of the places and species you work with?

For decades, people have been told about climate change and [its] consequences, and we are already feeling its effects. We see that biodiversity is going down day by day, people know what’s going on, but maybe people have been scared to endlessly and they’ve been blamed too much. What can you do when you’ve been responsible for so much damage and when there’s really no hope left?

I think organizations such as This is My Earth play a very important role in giving people hope and the sense that they are participating in conservation. It is about feeling you are doing something and taking action.  

A big challenge for you is…

I think a big challenge for me is when I have people coming over that have never been to real wild environments. They come with so many Disney-movie ideas about how animals should look like or how they interact. They charge animals with their emotions, but this is not how animals work. Like the lion is the king of the jungle, yes, but lions are also stealing lots of food from other animals!

What do you think of democratic, transparent and scientific conservation projects like those of This is My Earth?

This is My Earth is truly participating in the process of protecting nature and using science to save as much biodiversity as possible. Not giving up and not losing hope are the most important things, and TiME brings that to everyone.

If you feel like you want to help and you want to participate, TiME is a good starting place to do so.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to follow in your footsteps?

I would say, “find what you are good at and, at the moment you start participating and taking action, everything will make more sense to you. Keep on going and you will succeed!”

If we are speaking about safari-guide work, I would suggest to them to choose a place they like and also find a working and lifestyle philosophy they feel comfortable with, because there are many places where you can live and all of them are very different. In my case, we are like a big family here and we share all sorts of maintenance tasks. That works for me, but I would tell you to make sure you are engaging in the type of work you really want. 

TiME is truly participating in the process of protecting nature. If you feel like you want to help, This is My Earth is a good starting place to do so

Regarding new generations, what message would you send to them?

Our Earth is going a big global change. Mindsets are being changed, balance has broken down, and a big part of it is because social media is playing a key role in shaping new perspectives and public debates. We were not aware of some of the problems around the world, and now we have access to what’s going on.

I would encourage new generations to keep on believing and trusting in the process. I would tell them to engage and follow what is really going on. I can tell you, here in South Africa, young people are getting involved, and they have almost nothing they can call “their own,” and yet they are giving everything they have. People die in the name of nature conservation in my immediate surroundings. If this is not reason enough to keep going, I don’t know what it is.

Every day I will try to protect this beautiful world, because I’m privileged to be able to enjoy it. I know many people that would do the same. I’m not the only one that is thinking like that, and neither are you. 

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“La fotografía de la naturaleza tiene que enseñar y despertar curiosidad y compasión por la biodiversidad”

[INTERVIEW IN SPANISH] – Entrevistamos a Santiago Rosado Hidalgo, biólogo y fotógrafo en la reserva El Silencio de Colombia, y colaborador de This is My Earth. Buenos días Santiago, ¿cómo te presentarías? Buenos días, mi nombre es Santiago Rosado Hidalgo, soy un biólogo colombiano y me dedico desde hace años a las estrategias de conservación…

TiME ∙ Oct 1

12 min read

The Cry of the Jocotoco

In 1997, the ornithologist Dr. Robert Ridgley and his scientific team discovered a new species of bird, until then unknown to science. It is a beautiful, long-legged, land-dwelling bird with a distinct call, from which its name, Jocotoco Antpitta, was derived. Deemed Endangered by the IUCN Red List, the Jocotoco is estimated to have only…

TiME ∙ Sep 12

13 min read

“We should let people understand the true cost of their choices because nobody is paying for the disaster that has been caused”

We had the privilege to hold an interview with Amanda Sturgeon, CEO of Built by Nature and contributing author to All We Can Save (allwecansave.earth), with her, we’ve discussed architecture, sustainability solutions and This is My Earth‘s contribution to nature conservation. How do you define yourself? I’m CEO of Built by Nature. I’m an architect,…

TiME ∙ Aug 28

10 min read

Wildlife trafficking is one of the world’s biggest international crimes

Wildlife trafficking is one of the world’s biggest international crimes Opinion column from Noga Syon - September 2022 (Part 2)

TiME ∙ Aug 28

9 min read

The transfer of animals from one location to another carries diseases, which spread and mutate easily

Wildlife trafficking is one of the world’s biggest international crimes Opinion column from Noga Syon - September 2022 (Part 1)

TiME ∙ Jul 16

3 min read

“If you want the funding you need your followers and fans to vote in your favor”

SAM SHANEE on WHY protect Biodiversity through THIS IS MY EARTH – PART 4/4  What makes This is My Earth so special? This is My Earth’s funding model based on supports through crowdfunding and voting is fairly unique and it helps the people and the organizations like us who are waiting for the funding, to…

TiME ∙ Jul 13

19 min read

“TiME is this little animal running under the nose of more prominent corporations and saving the land before it’s too late”

This is My Earth Interviews artist Tomer Baruch. Hi Tomer! Thanks for your time. Can you please introduce yourself to the This is My Earth community? My name is Tomer, I am a musician, and I’ve created an Instagram account named “Animals and Synthesizers.” In that account, I take animal videos and compose electronic music…

TiME ∙ Jul 11

2 min read

“This is My Earth has been great in securing financing for land purchases”

SAM SHANEE on WHY protect Biodiversity through THIS IS MY EARTH – PART 3/4 How has your experience with This is My Earth been? Over the last few years we’ve worked several times with This is My Earth, they’ve been very great in securing financing for land purchases to extend or to create new land…

TiME ∙ Jul 8

3 min read

“Local communities are, by far, the best allies for nature conservation”

SAM SHANEE on WHY protect Biodiversity through THIS IS MY EARTH – PART 2/4 Neotropical Primate Conservation (NPC) is a registered charity dedicated to the conservation of primates and their habitats in South and Central America. NPC aims to promote conservation and protect biodiversity in the Neotropics by working in several ways. NPC uses monkeys as…

TiME ∙ Jul 8

2 min read

This is My Earth explained in 1 minute

We have created this short video to explained most of the things we do: This is My Earth explained in 1 minute

TiME ∙ Jul 5

3 min read

“Even though there are wild areas with intact forest you can see that some of them don’t have any monkeys left”

SAM SHANEE on WHY protect Biodiversity through THIS IS MY EARTH – PART 1/4 Neotropical Primate Conservation (NPC) is a registered charity dedicated to the conservation of primates and their habitats in South and Central America. NPC aims to promote conservation and protect biodiversity in the Neotropics by working in several ways. NPC uses monkeys…

TiME ∙ Jul 4

6 min read

An electronic music party raises funds for TiME, and ocean animals are the performers

“An organism is an evening dedicated entirely to the seam between the animal and the life. A protected space where algorithms can flourish and animals know how to play.” This is how artist Tomer Baruch introduces the party that will take place on the night of July 4 in Tel Aviv. Co-organized by the good…

TiME ∙ Jun 26

2 min read

Ask This is My Earth for funding: Here is how

This is My Earth is always actively looking for new nature conservation projects that have a key scientific and environmental interest. As you know, ours is a crowdfunding system through which empowered citizens around the world make small (or large) donations, as a gift, individually or in group, and vote on which nature conservation project…

TiME ∙ Jun 22

2 min read

What can YOU do to protect the planet? Join TiME’s team and help us spread the word through a monthly newsletter!

This is My Earth (TiME) is looking for a volunteer to craft their monthly newsletter to members. TiME is a non-profit, international environmental organization that seeks to protect biodiversity by purchasing land for conservation in biodiversity hotspots, in collaboration with local communities and organizations. Join our team and help TiME spread the word about: ·…

TiME ∙ Jun 19

22 min read

“Insects have survived the last five mass extinctions our planet has faced; but this time is different”

Dave Goulson (born 30 July 1965)  is Professor of Biology (Evolution, Behaviour and Environment) at the University of Sussex. Specializing in the ecology and conservation of insects, particularly bumblebees, Goulson is the author of several books, including Bumblebees: Their Behaviour and Ecology (2003), Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypses (2021), and more than 200 academic articles. In 2006 he founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust,…

TiME ∙ Jun 14

2 min read

The first international meeting of TiME volunteers puts Communication on the agenda

The first international meeting of volunteers of This is My Earth · TiME was held in virtual format on June 13th. People from all over the world, under the coordination of the organization’s Director of Volunteers, Reut Gilad, contributed their ideas and visions on communication, collaboration and how to grow the conservation project for almost…

TiME ∙ Jun 13

3 min read

We have created This is My Earth’s Annual Report for you

This is My Earth 2021 annual report collects the most relevant milestones achieved by the organization in the fields of conservation and biodiversity. It is open access and contains a fully transparent report.

TiME ∙ May 22

7 min read

𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲: This is our TiME List of protected animals

Since This is My Earth started saving lands in danger in 2016, the list of species and animals that have since been protected has not stopped growing. The international motto chosen for Biodiversity Day 2022 is𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲, and its objective is to promote the idea that we are all part of…

TiME ∙ Apr 18

7 min read

Join EARTH DAY global campaign to #InvestInOurPlanet – Download our Action Toolkit!

This is My Earth joins #InvestInOurPlanet campaign on the occasion of the Earth Day 2022 with a video and materials created by our network of volunteers.

TiME ∙ Mar 16

4 min read

Some highlights from the IPCC Climate Report

The Working Group from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from the United Nations invited TiME · This Is My Earth as a guest organization at the press conference where the 6TH ASSESSMENT REPORT – Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability was presented. On 27 February 2022, this international Working Group from the United Nations finalized…

TiME ∙ Feb 22

7 min read

History of the region’s Cacau-cabruca · Chronicles from Brazil

In 2020, hundreds of volunteers from all over the world helped us save an endangered land in the Sierra Bonita area of ​​Brazil (Google Maps +). Together, through TiME, we raised US$ 148,373 which helped Instituto Uiraçu organization – our partner in the area – to get down to work with the task of preserving…

TiME ∙ Feb 22

9 min read

Biodiversity faces its make-or-break year

The  United Nations decade-old plan to slow down and eventually stop the decline of species and ecosystems by 2020 has failed as most of the plan’s 20 targets have not been met. Among the strategic goals which have not been accomplished, there is the need to address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity…

TiME ∙ Feb 20

3 min read

Scientists map 80% of unknown species

New map shows where the 80% of species we don’t know about may be hiding in the very interesting study "Shortfalls and opportunities in terrestrial vertebrate species".

TiME ∙ Dec 30

12 min read

TiME’s Newsletters

Here you will find links to the 50+ newsletters we have published in recent years. Don’t miss the opportunity, if you haven’t already, to register and receive our emails with our latest updates, news and campaigns in our action of nature protection, education and solidarity. 2023 August 2023 – The birding adventure of a lifetime…

TiME ∙ Dec 29

2 min read

The ecological impact of war in Africa

Today’s declining number of large mammals around the world has been explained by many factors, including low reproductive rates, habitat destruction, and overhunting. However, uncertainties about the effects of armed conflict has complicated conservation planning and priority-setting efforts. In the past 70 years, humans have waged war continuously in the world’s most biodiverse regions. Between…

TiME ∙ Nov 30

6 min read

This is My Earth in Kenya with Professor Uri Shanas

The following interview with founder and co-chair Uri Shanas was published in our August 2016 newsletter: Hello, Uri. You’ve recently returned from Kenya. Can you tell us why you went? Kenya is one of the last places on earth where one can experience nature in all its might and beauty, so I was excited to visit TiME’s…

TiME ∙ Nov 29

3 min read

Chatting with Jasmine, a 12-year old TiME supporter

We spoke to Jasmine, daughter of two of TiME’s Board of Directors, Ondine Sherman and Dror Ben-Ami. She recently donated 1800 NIS (about 470 USD) to TiME, nearly a third of the gift money she received for her Bat Mitzvah. First of all, we asked Jasmine to explain a Bat Mitzvah: Jasmine: “In Jewish culture,…

TiME ∙ Nov 28

3 min read

A visit to TiME’s first biodiversity hotspot land purchase

“Please, Nestor, please continue to point out the orchid flowers,” I cried almost breathlessly to the CEO of Neotropical Primate Conservation (NPC) while we climbed up the land TiME had just purchased. “You know we both need these stops so we can catch our breath.” Nestor Allgas and I were trying to keep pace with…

TiME ∙ Nov 25

1 min read

Protecting megafauna and raising money for conservation

This piece was published in our March 2017 newsletter:

TiME ∙ Nov 21

4 min read

Ivory Belongs to Elephants

Since the dawn of humanity, we have been actively fighting nature: drying swamps, cutting down forests, using strong pesticides (such as DDT) and hunting wildlife to extinction (think of the dodo, Tasmanian tiger, passenger pigeon and many, many more). Today, experts believe that we are facing a sixth mass extinction, which is entirely attributable to…

TiME ∙ Nov 20

6 min read

Gold in Africa – an interview with Henry Gold, TiME board member

For TiME’s February 2017 newsletter we interviewed board member Henry Gold, co-founder of Canadian Physician for Aid and Relief (CPAR)and TDA Global Cycling: You worked in Africa for quite a few years. Can you tell us what kind of work you were doing? I’m trained as an engineer, but in 1984 I quit engineering and…

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