\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"Copy](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/58a8a_109533918.jpg\")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
INLSA<\/p>\n
Canadian conservationist, Shane Mahoney, who spoke at the International Wildlife Management Congress in Durban yesterday.
\nPicture: Tony Carnie<\/p>\n
\n
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
The old white conservationist with the big grey beard and booming oratory may not have won too many friends in Durban yesterday. <\/p>\n
This was when Shane Mahoney reminded a conference of mainly white wildlife managers and ecologists that most of the world\u2019s population was not white, and that there were many different views on environmental conservation. <\/p>\n
\u201cOf the 7 billion people in the world, only 1 billion are white. The rest are of different skin colours and have different views of the world\u2026 (yet) what is the make-up of this audience?\u201d he asked rhetorically. <\/p>\n
Mahoney, listed as one of the 10 most influential conservationists in Canada, said the \u201cEdenic myth\u201d was still common among many conservationists \u2013 that wildlife and animals would be just fine if humanity were to simply leave them alone. <\/p>\n
The keynote speaker at the International Wildlife Management Congress in Durban said he was convinced that wildlife and wild places could only exist in future by virtue of human actions and choices. <\/p>\n
\u201cNone of them will last without our interference.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mahoney said he also believed that the \u201cconservation war\u201d would never be over. \u201cIt is infinite and perpetual. There will never be a day when we can say, \u2018conservation has worked\u2019. It will be an effort every day to think about, and be concerned about and to do something about.\u201d <\/p>\n
He believes all people have to start thinking differently as the world begins to move from the \u201cage of entitlement\u201d to a new \u201cage of ecological consequences\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo one on the globe will escape this reality, no matter their skin colour or income.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mahoney, who hails from a fishing community in Newfoundland, said the massive cod fishery of his home coastline had been closed in 1992 after almost 500 years of overfishing. \u201cIt was an ecological collapse of monumental proportions \u2013 even though it attracted less attention than the plight of tigers or rhinos. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf conservation is to have any chance, it must be grounded in the hearts and minds of people.\u201d <\/p>\n
Conservationists needed to bridge the divide between animal rights movements and those who believed in the sustainable use of nature. <\/p>\n
The conservation movement should also focus less on cold science and return to a position of trying to \u201cmove people in their hearts\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cMartin Luther King did not open his extraordinary oration by saying: \u2018I have a strategic plan.\u2019 He opened by saying: \u2018I have dream.\u2019 So his words carry more moral weight than the word of any scientist on this planet today. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is power and inspiration in every individual of every race and colour.\u201d <\/p>\n
Nature conservation was \u201cthe most complicated business there is\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe ultimate goal is keeping wildlife with us, and intact \u2013 but we are not going to tell people that they cannot use wildlife, because cultural differences matter tremendously. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes people make the assumption that people who harvest bushmeat are \u2018bad\u2019 or don\u2019t value wildlife. But they are just trying to make a living.\u201d <\/p>\n
There was not one perfect world strategy or silver bullet to resolve the problems of conservation of nature, \u201cbut we either start to solve modern problems with modern solutions or we\u2019ll fail\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need something different. And that is in reaching individuals and making conservation an issue of nationalism, culture and pride.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA Canadian conservationist, Shane Mahoney, who spoke at the International Wildlife Management Congress in Durban yesterday. Picture: Tony Carnie The old white conservationist with the big grey beard and booming oratory may not have won too many friends in Durban yesterday. This was when Shane Mahoney reminded a conference of mainly white wildlife managers and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-12300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}