At the behest of Ellie Jones-Perrott aged 10, she and I completed a 20 kilometre sponsored walk yesterday through the Ol Pejeta Conservancy.  I had forgotten how far 20km is!  Suffice to say I have blistered feet and sore legs this morning.  Ellie undertook to do this walk to raise money (she raised nearly $3000!) to support our bursary scheme by sending 2 orphaned children to secondary school!  She did it because she understands that ultimately conservation is all about people and that, unless the process of "conservation" somehow benefits humans, it will never succeed.  

Ellie is luckier than most in that she has the benefit of living on a wildlife conservancy, and so is able to appreciate how our success depends upon the engagement of surrounding human populations.  She is probably also beginning to understand the value of conservation in terms of its ability to provide those ecosystem services - fertile soils, flowing rivers etc. etc. - upon which all of humankind ultimately depends. 

However I suggest it is a sad indictment of the educational process (as promulgated by adults) that many children still grow up believing we are somehow divorced from the natural world, able to live apart from those processes upon which life depends. Until such time as systems of education around the world formally teach all children that their future depends upon proper respect for and stewardship of the natural world, our abuse of the environment within which we live will continue at dramatic cost.  

Nevertheless there are signs of progress; when on holiday on the Kenya coast, Ellie (and her sister Georgia, aged 8) now stop people (often perfect strangers) from buying shells harvested unsustainably from the coral reefs.  In general the younger generation takes conservation very seriously, much more seriously than their parents.  So perhaps now is the time for us adults to capitalize and make sure that proper management of the environment becomes an intrinsic part of all national curricula?