Garth Owen Smith runs a project in Northern Namibia to change local attitudes to wildlife, and to give indigenous communities a stake in its future.

He's worked there since Namibia became independent in 1990 to set up "conservancies" in which communities are given legal rights to the benefits from wild game, so that they have a financial interest in conserving animals which outweighs the short term benefits of poaching. The result has been a substantial increase in the number of black rhinos and desert elephants which had been poached to near extinction during the civil war. Many former poachers are now using their ancient tracking skills to gather scientific data on animals instead of killing them.

The nice thing about this project is that it is very people-focussed, based on the principle that wildlife protection is most effective when people have an interest in living side by side with wild animals, rather than heavy-handed top-down measures which make locals feel they are the problem rather than the solution.

Garth lives with his partner Margie Jacobssohn (very much involved in the project as well) in a very remote camp deep in the bush, near Windhoek.