"A great light has gone out in the world*"

Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest leaders of the 20th Century, passed away last night. As the world pays tribute to Mandela, it is helpful to remind ourselves of the values and issues he fought for so passionately. As accolades and condolences come pouring in from right and left wing governments, it is easy to forget that when Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island in the early 1980s, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan both labelled him as a 'terrorist'. Today the foremost legacy of Mandela is that of the man who emerged from those 27 years of political imprisonment. The statesman and father of the nation who was able to so generously forgive his captors and lead his country through the difficult process of reconciliation. The dignity, grace and humility with which Mandela was able to forgive his enemies and become the first Black President of South Africa and the head of a government of diverse races, interests and beliefs, has been an inspiration to many. 

Now, as we bid farewell to Madiba, those of us working in South Africa and across the world to fight for equality, freedom and justice should remind ourselves that while his legacy is indeed enormous and inspirational, there is still much work to be done. Racial and economic divides persist across the world today. Perhaps the best way to honour the work Mandela has done is to acknowledge this reality and continue to speak up for the issues he cared so deeply about.

*F. W. de Klerk

Blog Post on Conservation and Human Rights

From its origins in seeking to protect disappearing wildlife at the behest of big-game hunters, conservation has evolved unpredictably and substantively over the past century. With a firm conviction that the practice of conservation, to paraphrase Dr Martin Luther King Jr, is long but ‘bending toward justice’, Dr Kent Redford recently traced the developments in conservation practices and the increasing emphasis on the need to incorporate human rights discourses and practices into conservation in a blog post for Just Conservation.

According to Dr Redford, “change also came about at the turn of the last century because of the issue of justice. The arc of conservation was bending with the realization that our moral argument for the value of conserving biodiversity was seriously flawed if we ourselves were acting immorally towards people. Seeking one justice did not justify abrogating another. So conservation entered the period of accommodation, of self-examination, and of change. It was clear that we needed to seriously consider how our actions, taken in pursuit of conservation goals, affected the rights of the people impacted by those actions.” 

Find the full blog post here.