Women Who Keep the Wild Alive - Part One

Conversations with women leading conservation in South Africa - protecting our natural heritage and refusing to give up on nature. 

In this five-part feature, we meet women whose paths into conservation could hardly be more different: Aileen Anderson, Linda Fletcher, Christina Mars, Naomi van Schalkwyk, and Gill Simpson. Some built careers in science and environmental management, while others brought skills from business, education and communications into a lifelong commitment to nature. What connects them is a conviction that conservation is not simply about protecting beautiful places or individual species. It is about people, communities, future generations and the living systems on which we depend.

In the first conversation, Aileen Anderson of the Grootvadersbosch Conservancy explains why water became the thread running through her career, how practical experience can matter as much as academic qualifications, and why conservation needs to be understood as a long-term investment in both nature and rural communities.