It has been a long time since getting a podcast out there, but here is the first for 2021! This episode is a continuation from the Walk Luangwa 2020 expedition where a small group of us walked 350km through the Luangwa Valley in aid of community and conservation organisations in the Luangwa that had previously relied on tourism bed-levies to be able to continue their operations. During the 17 days it took us we had numerous guests join us for portions of the expedition; from beneficiaries...

“We live in a very dynamic world. We can't be doing the same things we have done for years in the name of staying true to the mission. You know, you move and adapt and change as things present themselves.” Thandiwe Mweetwa, Project Manager, Zambian Carnivore Programme. It has been a long time, but the podcast is finally back and there are a lot of conversations to share from the last 5 months of remote travel through Zambia. Thank you for your constant support, especially to our Patreon...

This week’s conversation is with Allan Savory. Allan is a Zimbabwean ecologist, livestock farmer, and president and co-founder of the Savory Institute. He originated holistic management, a systems approach to managing resources. Our discussion takes us through the topics of reductionist management, where is the resolve for climate change going to come from, to the importance of organisations and how they behave.  The conversation was recorded over a poor network as I was talking to Allan...

This week my conversation explores new initiatives that surround the conservation sector in Africa. The complexities behind conservation are often misunderstood or completely ignored. How do we encourage an audience that otherwise would not have an interest in some of the issues facing conservation in Africa to start paying attention? By using “sport for conservation” the idea was born to integrate conservation messaging through an online trivia game where famous sports-people from Southern...

“The biggest problems about conservation right now is it is not nearly inclusive enough of local people. The same problems existed in Asia, and in India, where the local people feel alienated and excluded. From national parks, from problems that are supposedly needing solutions, they don't, they don't feel the ownership of it...conservation needs to accept that Africa is a landscape and the people of Africa are a part of the landscape. Africa has the most diverse assemblages off of herbivores...

“...at the end of the day, we all really have a common cause, which is to save the wilderness landscape and alleviate poverty on the outskirts of these wilderness areas...and we're all very passionate people about the wildlife and our communities. We're passionate about tourism.” - Beks Ndlovu, CEO African Bush Camps. How do tourism operators contribute to conservation efforts? My conversation with Beks Ndlovu of African Bush Camps and Katja Quasdorf of Hideaways explores how tourism funds...

The history of the Kafre National Park in Zambia goes back as far as the 1920’s, long before it was formally declared a National Park. To raise awareness for the park, Phil and his friend Jeff decided to walk 100 miles to commemorate 100 years of the declared park’s existence. Camping with simple bedrolls in the open and carrying all their supplies for the trek, Phil takes us through some of the experiences of the walk including climbing Kafue’s highest mountain, a hippo crashing through the...

For the first series of the Conservation Storytelling Podcast we focused on the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the world of conservation in Africa by talking to a variety of project leaders in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. The pandemic has affected everyone in a different way, but there were many similar take-aways from each of the guests where the primary concerns evolve around future funding, the impact this has had on the local communities and the protection of the wildlife...

"Its human behaviour that keeps causing these pandemics...and its our impact on the natural world that we must address...if we protect the natural world and our biodiversity, and we respect it, then we won't be having these issues." - Rachael Cooper-Bohannon, Founder, Bats Without Borders. My conversation this week is with Bats Without Borders founder, Rachael Cooper-Bohannon, who takes us through the misconceptions about the relation between bats and the virus, the status of the bat species...

"How do we do tourism for conservation, and not the other way round? How do we ensure that we don't get to a point where the impact of tourism is greater than our purpose in conservation?" This week my guest is Simon Capon who is the Business Development Manager for the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust (GCT) in Zimbabwe. The GCT is a partnership between the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority, and the Frankfurt Zoological Society. Simon gives us an insight to the holistic approach that the GCT...

"This is our opportunity, as human-beings, to make a difference." - Reilly Travers, Conservancy Manager. A sector of conservation that is often overlooked is voluntourism- essentially a blend of volunteering and tourism. The value behind voluntourism is to contribute in a selfless and meaningful way, and to give back to the project and the people of the destination that tourists are visiting. Imire has been running a volunteer programme for 14 years, and in that time the operation of the...

"The Lower Zambezi community is a very low income community...they are not going to be able to sustain their livelihoods anymore, and so we fear that this is going to lead to a rise in poaching." - Nikita Iyengar, General Manager. One of the most publicised topics that has been centred around COVID-19 is the effect it has had on the tourism industry. With travel international travel restrictions firmly in place through most countries, the tourism sector is facing a major setback. Without...

Welcome to Conservation Storytelling, with me, Matthew Blair.  In the face of COVID-19 the paradigm of conservation is changing. The world has changed. As funding is redirected, and tourism inflow is reduced, the priorities on the ground at a project level remain the same- to protect and conserve our wildlife and our wild places. The size of the task has just gotten bigger. Through this series I aim to increase awareness on issues such as COVID-19 and the impact it has on the conservation...