I have recently spent two weeks working as a volunteer on Amakhala - a game reserve based in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in a town called Paterson. Apart from the hospitality it offers to guests, Amakhala is also a centre for conservation,  focusing on the preservation of wildlife,  the welfare of its local community and the relationship between the two. The volunteer programme involves a number of activities which work to achieve these objectives.

 Throughout my time at Amakhala, I was introduced to many staff members each with their own role to play in its existence. Instrumental in running the volunteer programme and with her own passion for conservation is Pietro Rossouw. I sat down with Pietro, or “Peaches” as she is called by the volunteers trying to avoid an awkward pronunciation of her Afrikaans name, to chat about her work on Amakhala and the importance of conservation to her. 

 “My role at Amakhala is as a volunteer coordinator. What this means is that I am here to work out schedules for our volunteers and help them to carry out important projects which are meaningful for the reserve as a whole. I also assist with their time here and act as a liaison between the reserve management and the volunteers to keep everyone happy.” 

Peaches and I looked back at the projects I have helped her with whilst I have been on Amakahla and discussed the meaning of conservation in general. “The projects we work on with you guys really cover the different elements of conservation, each of which is equally important. Ecology is a huge part of what we do and that’s we why have to monitor the animals and record their movements on the reserve. Maintenance is also crucial because if we don’t look after this environment it won’t thrive and neither will the wildlife. The third limb is our community work - Amakahla really needs the involvement of the Paterson population  in order to survive. The majority of the staff here are from Paterson and the surrounding areas, and very few are from further afield such as the Western Cape like myself.”  

I thought a little more about the three different limbs of conservation which Peaches explained, and discussed these in some more detail with Johan Hugo one of the game rangers at Amakahla. He said that “conservation is really about conserving the biosphere in order to produce as many future generations as possible. We have to keep it balanced whilst also ensuring it provides a benefit for the local community and the reserve employees. Whilst protecting the wildlife and the environment is the centre of our work, making a profit from the reserve is also essential in order to provide for the community within which it exists and ensure that there is sufficient funding for the reserve’s continuity.”

Volunteers on Amakhala, whilst benefiting from animal monitoring (which is essentially safari), also help with a number of activities. Maintenance tasks include the removal of harmful plants in order to protect the animals, bush clearing so that vehicles can pass through the reserve more easily and planting of the evergreen South African Spekboom plant which has both carbon-balancing and medical benefits. Community work run by Amakhala involves helping local schools to improve their athletics and literacy curriculum. Further, the Beaded Bracelet Bursary Project engages local teenagers in the making of beaded bracelets. Once the bracelets are sold by Amakhala the profits are used by the Amakahla Foundation to help fight HIV and AIDS as well as to provide a school bursary for one child of a staff member per year. A percentage of the profit from any bracelet goes to the teenager who made it. 

 The volunteer programme run by Peaches ensures contribution to all angles of Amakhala’s conservation goals, helping to protect the animals but also generating revenue from the reserve for the community.  

Peaches journey into working in conservation started with a passion for veterinary work. “I wanted to be a vet and so when I was 15 and had to work shadow somebody for school, I shadowed a vet. When I nearly passed out watching the vet castrating a dog, I realised I was too squeamish for the profession. I studied Nature Conservation at university and specialised in Environmental Education and Human Resource Management. Surprisingly, when I had to dissect animals as part of my degree, I seemed to have developed a stronger stomach and wasn’t phased. Being a vet however, you’re very confined to just working with animals and I wanted a bit more than that. It is easy to get lonely working with animals but my current role, whilst giving me leniency to work in the field, also has a great people aspect. Working with people every day, laughing with volunteers and teaching them about conservation is what makes this job special to me. Volunteers can also come from very different backgrounds and have a range of personalities which keeps it challenging.”

I asked Peaches about the future and she said “I’d love to work more on the ecology side of things and the ultimate dream is to open up my own animal rehabilitation centre. To me, conservation is about conserving what we have for the generations that come after us.”

 Whilst working at Amakhala I have become increasingly aware of the effects that climate change is having on our planet and the importance of conservation at such a time. Waterholes and rivers are drier than ever making it more difficult to preserve species such as hippopotamus and elephant and agriculture is made more difficult by the erratic seasons and the dry soil. Conservationists like Peaches and Johan dedicate their lives to ensuring that the wildlife which is natural to their beloved landscape flourishes despite changing climates and societal strains. Whilst we live our busy London lives, we should bear in mind those who commit themselves full-time to the benefit of our environmental and be mindful that we each do our bit to contribute to conserving the planet that we inhabit.

Visit the Amakahla Game Reserve Website to find out more.

Words by Lucy Firestone