Educational Background: National Diploma Natural Resources management (Nature Conservation) Polytechnic of Namibia
Where I live and how I view my environment: I live in Etosha National Park. Etosha is one of the Flagship park and it is of grat significance that , this park has just celebrated 100 years of existence. Over the past century Etosha has played a major role in Preserving our National and International Biodiversity from Extinction, these include the Black rhino and black-faced Impala to mentioned few. With Abudantwildlife population, Etosha is playing a vital role in restocking conservancies and other consrvation areas with wildlife, bringing new economic opportunities to many of the local people.
Biodiversity means to me personally: For me biodiversity is about more than plants, animals, and micro organisms and their ecosystem. It is about us (people) and our needs for food, security , medicines, fresh air, water, shelter, clean and healthy environment in which to live. It is what makes our planetory home what it is and make our life possible, in turn it is biodiversity that we must use to build our sustainable future.
My Symbol of biodiversity: A dung beetle
My motivation for participating: Althought most countries are signatory to the convention on biological diversity, it is the responsibility of everyone of us to ensure that countries achieves the objectives of the convention.Attending the sunnit will equip me with invaluable experience, knowledge and skills that i can share with my fellow Namibian upon return. Equally, the exposure to other participants and the sharing of diffrent problems on biodiversity and how they are mitigated in other country will allow me to reflect on Namibian situation.
How did I show I am ready to "Go 4 BioDiv": I studied Nature Conservation at the Polytechnic of Namibia.During the course of my studies, I completed a variety of different projects. January to June 2005, at Namib Spreetshoogte Nature Reserve in the south, I did a project on Sociable Weaver nesting behaviour and base line study differentiating plant communities in the reserve. In addition, I also established a herbarium for the reserve. 2006 I spent seven month at Cheetah Consrvation Fund as an Assistant Environmetal Education Officer.My duties were Environmental Education, Facilitating farmers workshop on Intergrated livestock and Predator management, and establishing a field guide book for CCF. I also done a project on Using Road strip counts surveys to Estimate population trends of common wildlife species (Kudu, Oryx, Red hartebeest, Warthog, springbok, and Steenbok on CCf Farmland.2007 February to June I joined the Round River Conservation Studies, a field research program based out of the United States as field research assistant. We worked with Save the Rhino Trust tracking and Moniktoring black rhino in the Kunene region. We also interwied farmers about their land use and compared plant communities on different soil types. This was accompanied with everyday studies of Natural History and diversity in Namibia. In june to July 2007 i had an internship with the Ministry of Environment's Etosha Ecological Institute in collaboration with PHD candidate from Berkeley University In USA, where i assited with data collection on Anthrax strain in Etosha. I also got involved with Moring forest monitoring as it currently on the verge of total Extinct in Etosha National Park. In August 2007- present I got employed by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism as a ranger with the Wildlife Protection Service(Anti-poaching Unit) at Okaukuejo. Main Activities involved Law enforcement and crime prevention, data collecting, Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) problem animal control and personeel management.
My message to other participants: Fellow participants, our leaders have done some ground work on biodiversity by ratifying the CBD and now have thrown the ball into our court as youth to ensure that the legacy lives on. We are therefore a link between the older generation and the future generation to come. It is expected of us to pas the touch of conservation to future generation. With the demand for natural resources higher than before, we are faced with a daunting task of ensuring the survival on mankind without compromising that of biodiversity.
