Umzi Learners experiencing the wilderness trail. © Sian Davies
Okavango lily pads. © Karen Ross
The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation provided a grant of £52,560 for two projects in 2007/08.
The Wilderness Foundation, South Africa is a conservation organisation that encourages, plans and manages wild lands and wilderness, uplifts the knowledge and lives of historically disadvantaged citizens, and stimulates an environmental ethos among current and future leaders.
Umzi Wethu
This is a dynamic model for transforming youth that show resilience and ambition – but despair of any opportunity to support their households – into skilled and highly employable young adults with secure, well-paying jobs in ecotourism. Called the 'Umzi Wethu Training Academy for Displaced Youth' this model of conservation-based economic development targets AIDS orphans from among the most impoverished communities. During 2007/8, The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation kindly supported the Umzi Wethu Hospitality (Intake 3) learners who are based in the Port Elizabeth Umzi Wethu Training Academy. The learners spend two weeks a month training in the Umzi Wethu Coffee Shop 'Conyngham’s' (located inside the Training Centre), which is open to the public to offer the Umzi youth with their practical job experience. The students maintain an organic garden behind the residence, its produce serving the residence and families of the students, and being sold to the coffee shop.
Umzi Wethu learners spend approximately one week (every two months) off-site at 'bush camp' where they experience South Africa’s great wildlife and plant biodiversity as they take to trails interpreted by traditional elders steeped in local indigenous knowledge of plants and animals and the culture of nature conservation. The remainder of the time they spend on theory and practical training in the kitchen for professional cookery. The Hospitality Students are due to Graduate as Junior Chefs in August 2008.
Okavango River Basin
The Okavango River in southern Africa is the region’s third largest river and one of the few remaining ‘wild rivers’ on the planet. The Okavango rises in the Angolan highlands before entering north-west Botswana to create the famous Okavango Delta. Botswana, Angola and Namibia are promoting equitable sharing of the Okavango’s waters through the Okavango River Basin Commission (OKACOM), an initiative supported by the GEF International Waters Facility. During this lengthy process other conservation mechanisms such as World Heritage status would provide international protection and recognition for the Okavango’s global value. Threats to the Okavango include unchecked water abstraction, dams for Hydroelectric Power, excessive irrigated agriculture and deforestation, planting of alien biofuels, unsustainable mining activities, and loss of connectivity from cattle fences.
The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation is supporting the work of the Wilderness Foundation in promoting and catalyzing the process of World Heritage listing by networking with government officials, NGOs and civil society within each member state.