14TH annual cheetah gala strides to success
July 16, 2012The four Owambo regions
July 17, 20122012 Cheetah Conservation Farmer of the Year: Melba Tjozongoro
An Agricultural Extension Officer in Gobabis, Melba Tjozongoro grew up on a farm in Hereroland and her love for small stock has stayed with her all her life. Melba first came into contact with CCF in 2004, when she attended a week-long course on livestock, wildlife and predator management. There, she was excited to learn that donkeys, owned by many Namibian farmers, were very effective in guarding calves.
Last year Melba returned to CCF to buy some of our surplus goats and sheep. She was a very astute judge of livestock and armed with her clipboard she carefully assessed the animals, selecting only the best! She now has 195 goats and 85 sheep, no small accomplishment for a Namibian woman whose working life began in subsistence farming.
As an Agricultural Extension Officer she passes on her experience and skills to other farmers, thus setting an example to all Namibian farmers in her determination to learn farming skills, her desire to reduce livestock/predator conflict and her work in teaching and guiding new farmers.
Melba Tjozongoro is a woman of admirable achievement and is a most worthy recipient of the 2012 Cheetah Conservation Farmer of the Year Award.
Continental Outdoor Media is leading the way in the clever use of available resources to benefit both the company and environmental causes. Through the inspired leadership of Harald Fülle, the company’s Namibian General Manager, Continental Outdoor Media is making very effective use of otherwise blank outdoor advertising boards, filing them with eye-catching and informative “advertisements” about conservation issues. In Namibia the subject of the advertisements is the cheetah.
Feedback from these high visibility boards has been very positive and Continental Outdoor Media is demonstrating the potential for other companies to bring otherwise idle or unproductive resources to effective support of conservation causes. Both company and conservation gain from this approach.
In addition to his varied dental practice, Dennis has served on school boards, is a Rotarian, holds a commercial pilot’s licence and enjoys camping, sailing, metal work, adventure motor biking and reading.
Both having been outdoor enthusiasts from a young age, Doug Tompkins founded outdoor clothing and equipment company The North Face in 1966 and later co-founded the clothing company Esprit, which grew into a multinational company with over US$1 billion in sales. Kris Tompkins started to work for an outdoor company which later became the internationally recognised outdoor company Patagonia, Inc. During her 20 years as CEO of Patagonia, Kris helped its founder Yvon Chouinard build the company into a renowned anti-corporation and a leader in the outdoor apparel industry.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Doug’s and Kris’ lives changed direction after Doug had sold his share in Esprit and Kris retired from Patagonia. They became increasingly interested in environmental activism and moved to southern Chile where they started to work full time on conservation initiatives. Doug created the Foundation for Deep Ecology, as well as The Conservation Land Trust, an organisation that works to protect wildlands, primarily in Chile and Argentina, while Kris founded Conservación Patagónica, an NGO focused on creating new national parks that protect and restore Patagonia’s wildland, biodiversity and communities.
Both Doug and Kris have been widely recognised for their environmental work and have received accolades such as the “Good Steward Award” from the International Conservation Caucus Foundation and “Environmental Leader of the Year” award from Latin Trade.
Prior to the CCF Gala, the Tompkins have been touring Namibia, visiting CCF, Save the Rhino, NamibRand Nature Reserve, Etosha and Ongava to learn more about Namibia’s conservation initiatives.
