Lessons Learned the Hard Way as a Conservationist

First at all, I think the answer to the question, what is a conservationist? is vital to understand the hard way you may have to go through if you want to conserve an animal, a plant or an ecosystem, today.

In my case I started participating as a volunteer in reforestation activities and community workshops celebrating environmental days: e.g. World Wetlands Day, Earth Day, Water Day, etc. These happened more than 20 years ago, when I first started my bachelor University career. I was inspired by a group of senior students and one professor who engage in volunteering activities. This was the beginning…

As time went on and you start nurturing yourself with new knowledge and the environmental catastrophes around the planet increased: e.g. Exxon Valdez, Fukushima, Prestige Oil Spill, etc, you started to realize you must do something more prolific, more profound and impact-driven.

Then the first lessons come out. In order to achieve a more broadly result in terms of conservation you may need more people and money! The “more people factor” encompasses two issues: these people must have to be compromised and aware of what conservation implies and the sacrifices you may have to do; second these people should have some degree of expertise in order to help you. Then, where to find these special people?

The “money factor” is the more difficult one, because few people or companies want to invest in something from which you can’t see a direct-fast benefit. After all, saving the planet for the next generation that still does not exist and from which we are not sure we will get something, doesn’t sound exciting!

Another lesson comes from your family. As you get more and more involved and exposed, the complains jump out because there is not suffice explanation to literally “wasting your time” doing something no much people care about and even without receiving a cent. Then you start realizing that you do conservation because you like it and it is something you can be proud of… a kind of legacy, after all there are no tycoon conservationist up to date.

Another hard lesson is to understand that other people considered in the public media as exemplar conservationists are in fact what I call “merchants of the environment”. These people just want to make a name by highlighting minor efforts, little things without a real focus on conservation. However, these activities render them exposure to the general naïve public and some income. There are a lot of such persons nowadays.

As an example of learning the hard way, I will tell you something about a specific campaign I joined year ago. Back in 2013 a friend of mine contacted me because near his community the government planned to build a hydroelectric dam without make the necessary consultation and obtaining the opinion of local residents. The area as many others in Panama is relatively poor, as long as you go away from the main and only pavemented road then poor farmers appear try to make a living by cultivating basic crops. A private company with liaison to the President of the country at that moment, promised to local people they will receive free electricity, schools and new houses all over, in change for their approval and signature to abandon their land. Well, after hearing all these, I decided to join the local committee to defend the local river from the destruction. One of my contribution was to review page by page the Environmental Impact Assessment Study, which turned out to be a total disastrous document, lacking real field and local data, revealing the real interest of simply producing electricity at any costs, including the sacrifice of local people and the local environment. We then created a team of young people and we went trough 17 km upside the river to survey for amphibians and reptiles and produce a sensible report. I was able to write down and publish four new distribution accounts for species in a herpetological journal. But then the repression came. The government simply didn’t want any resistance to go ahead with its plans and literally overshadow the local committee and its leaders. Today the dam is operating, hundreds of square meters of land were inundated, people was disposed of their houses and sadly no any fauna or flora rescue programme was implemented prior to the filling of the dam.

The previous one was just an example of things that have been the wrong way even I put a lot of effort as a conservationist in recent years. Today I look forward to just make as much as I can, but also understand that my individual, small contribution is nothing compared to the level of destruction and ignorance that our society has reached towards the environment. Perhaps focusing in just a couple of projects you may handle and witness some result will be an exit door to the hard way.