Vimbainashe Chitauro on the Power of Conservation Education
Our friend of the month is Vimbainashe Eunick Chitauro from Zimbabwe. She is a conservation education specialist and the founder and executive director of WildEd Zim. We had a brief chat with her to understand her journey to conservation education and much more.
What do you remember about your upbringing, and how did that passion evolve as you grew older? When I was five, my dad bought a National Geographic VHS tape. It was a wildlife tape narrated by Sir David Attenborough. I watched that videotape and immediately fell in love with wildlife. My dad saw how fascinated I was because it was the only one that we had at that time. He then bought more wildlife VHS tapes, and when he saw that I was so interested, he started taking me to places like Lion and Cheetah Park in Harare, Snake Park, and Kariba to see animals.
I personally don't remember this, but my mother says that when I was younger, I would play with millipedes, ants, and other insects. I was also very much in love with dogs, although I was also very afraid of dogs! But I just loved animals. My dad was probably the first person to really encourage my passion for wildlife. My mom was a bit more afraid, because I loved all these animals, but when she saw that this was genuinely what I wanted to do, they both encouraged me very much in school. I went to a high school where I did sciences for my O Levels and A Levels, and then I went on to study Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at Chinhoyi University of Technology. After that, I entered the field of conservation as I had planned and eventually found my way into conservation education.
Where did the inspiration to start WildEd Zim arise from? And what did you feel was missing in the way conservation education was being approached? WildEd really started because I saw a very big disconnect between young people in urban and peri-urban areas and biodiversity. I also felt that most conservation education programs were almost like awareness campaigns and classroom learning, whereas conservation education is such a broad spectrum. I had seen the difference between young people who live in urban areas and those who live in rural areas or in and around protected areas, and there was such a gap in knowledge and connection.
What I also felt was missing in the way conservation education was being approached was that a lot of programs are project-based. An organization comes in with a conservation education program; they work for a year or two, and once they are done, that conservation education program collapses. If you go there a year or two later, after the organization has left the landscape, you will not find that program working. A lot of programs also position children at the receiving end of biodiversity knowledge. But for me, what works particularly well is giving young people the space to engage with conservation in ways that allow them to express themselves. They should not only be at the receiving end.
Through your work with schools and communities, what have you learned about how young people think about wildlife and the environment? I think I have two perspectives because I have worked with young people in urban areas and young people in rural areas and around protected areas. These young people are in two very distinct spheres. Young people who live close to wildlife literally live with biodiversity. Some of them are scared because they have learned to fear wildlife. But those who have had the chance to be educated about it can become very passionate about protecting it. They understand its importance and the need to live in harmony with nature. Then you have young people living in urban and peri-urban areas. They often don't have the same understanding. Most of them think that when we talk about wildlife, we are talking about animals that live in national parks like Hwange, Mana Pools, Gonarezhou, and places like that, and when we talk about the environment, they think it’s just about the trees around us, litter, and waste. When you talk to children in urban and peri-urban areas and ask them about their views on the environment or how we can save the environment, they will often tell you to plant more trees and pick up litter. Those are probably the most common answers you get. So I think young people are living in two different spheres that give them very different understandings of wildlife and the environment based on their interactions with biodiversity.
WildEd Zim brings together conservation education, art, sport, social media, and technology. What have you found works particularly well when you're trying to get young people excited about conservation? For me, what works particularly well is giving young people the space to engage with conservation in ways that allow them to express themselves. Like I mentioned earlier, young people have mostly been on the receiving end of conservation education. They are receiving knowledge, but they are not always given the opportunity to express themselves. You can give young people the opportunity to draw their favorite animal, write something about their favorite animal, write a poem, or watch a video about a certain environmental issue and then discuss it. It is those kinds of opportunities where, instead of young people just sitting down and hearing what they have to do and getting knowledge from a teacher or whoever is teaching them, you give them the opportunity to actually express their views and express themselves.
How has working directly with communities shaped your understanding of what it takes to build a lasting relationship between people, wildlife, and the environment? I’ve learned that helping people understand their relationship with biodiversity and the things happening around them will not only help the environment flourish, but it also improves issues of ownership. If people don't understand, firstly, why they are facing the problems they are facing with wildlife, why the environment is reacting in certain ways, or why things are happening the way they are within their environment, they will not understand why they need to protect wildlife or why they need to protect the environment. They won't even fully understand their relationship with biodiversity. One of the biggest things that has come up over the years is community ownership of biodiversity. But ownership can only come if someone understands what it is they are owning, and ownership can only last if someone understands why they have to protect what it is that they own. It is why WildEd's principle is, “There is no conservation without education.”
Zimbabwe has a rich wildlife heritage, including its elephant populations. What are some of the conversations you think we need to be having with young people about the future of elephants and wildlife in Zimbabwe? Elephants are a keystone species, and when people think about wildlife, elephants are one of the first things that they think about. For young people, there are fun facts about elephants, which is amazing, but I think young people also have to understand the role that elephants play in ecosystems. They are not just there as big animals that are lovely to look at. They are ecosystem engineers, and I think that is a very important thing for young people to understand. I also think young people need to be part of the difficult conversations around wildlife conservation. There are debates about elephant populations, culling, and the different policies and international frameworks that influence how we manage wildlife. These are conversations that young people also need to be involved in because elephants are a very big part of our heritage. I think we need to equip young people with enough knowledge to understand these issues and eventually participate in the conversations and decisions that will shape the future of elephants and wildlife in Zimbabwe.
When you think about the young people you are working with today, what kind of conservation leaders do you hope they will become, and what would you like to see them change? I would like to see responsibility, accountability, and connection. I got to where I am because of the personal connection I had with wildlife. Not just a logical connection, but an emotional connection. That connection has taken me from being a five-year-old who had an emotional connection with wildlife that she saw on a VHS tape to being the woman that I am today, who not only has a connection with wildlife and biodiversity but who wants to connect other young people to biodiversity. So I think I would want young people who are connected, because I think that emotional connection is very important. It allows you to take responsibility and to become a better steward of what it is that you care about and want to work with. I want to see conservation leaders who take responsible action towards biodiversity conservation and sustainable action as well. I think we need to make sure that there is sustainability. We are meant to benefit from biodiversity, but we are also meant to make sure that the next generation after us has access to it. And one of the things I would really like to see them change is how the next generation after them learns about biodiversity. I would like to see conservation education change.
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