Encomium
The need to protect endangered animal species will dominate the discussion this week as African Voices Changemakers, the magazine show of the Cable News Network (CNN) profiles two female wildlife conservationists.
The duo of Marumo Nene, a South African Species Monitor with the Wildlife ACT and Sheila Funnell, a Kenyan Research Manager at the Grevy’s Zebra Trust are guests on the show sponsored by telecommunications solutions provider, Globacom.
Nene, who hails from Hlabisa in Kwa-Zulu Natal, became part of the Wildlife ACT in 2008. There, she works as a Species Monitor specifically in charge of wild dogs which are nearly extinct in the country. She had earlier been part of an Alien Plant Removal project in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve. Trained as a Community Guide, Nene worked as an assistant on the African Wild Dog monitoring project and as a Community Environmental Educator.
Funnell on her own part believes that the conservation of zebras is a precursor to the sustainability of the livelihoods of the Samburu people of Kenya. The special Grevy’s zebra species are important in the local culture where they are deemed to lead the way to water during droughts, alert herders and livestock to the presence of predators. Their presence is also believed to symbolise the imminence of rains.
African Voices Changemakers will be on air from Saturday 9.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. on DSTV Channel 401 and Sunday at 3.30 a.m., 6.30 a.m., 11.30 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. The last repeat of the show will come up on Monday at 4.30 a.m.
