Paula Kahumbu
Paula Kahumbu is a wildlife conservationist and chief executive officer of WildlifeDirect. She is best known as a campaigner for elephants and wildlife, spearheading the Hands Off Our Elephants Campaign, which was launched in 2014 with Kenyan First Lady Margaret Kenyatta. She has recently, in 2022 been appointed as the first National Geographical Explorer as a board of trustees member at the National Geographic Society.
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Quotes
[edit]- My job is to just bring sanity to the protection of our natural heritage.
- My purpose is not just to be a scientist, my purpose is really to do conservation through education, through innovation, through storytelling. As a conservation scientist, you’re only producing scientific articles that are only read by other scientists. But when you are on National Geographic or Disney, that inspires people and educates them to care about nature.
- Meet a champion of Kenyan wildlife protection, The Financial Times (March 10, 2023)
- What we know about elephants today is incredible,They are like people.[1]
- If we’re going to do conservation in Africa, we have to be audacious. We’ve got to be courageous, and we’ve got to think big.[2]
- We are losing our national heritage not to poverty, but to ignorance and greed. Our elephants, our rhinos, they don't belong to the government or to NGOs—they belong to the people of Kenya. We must become their guardians.
- On the Value of Wildlife and National Pride. A rallying cry that shifts responsibility for conservation from institutions to every citizen, framing it as a matter of national pride and heritage.
- For too long, conservation has been seen as a mzungu (white person's) thing. It's not. This is our land, our wildlife, and our story to tell. We must be at the forefront of protecting it.
- On the Role of Kenyans in Conservation: About her work from the Guardian's profile on her.
- We are in a crisis. We are losing species not in the future, but right now. We are the last generation that can save these animals. There is no plan B because there is no planet B.
- A direct and urgent call to action, emphasizing the immediacy of the extinction crisis.
- We have to tell stories that make people fall in love with wildlife. You don't protect what you don't love, and you can't love what you don't know. That's why we make 'Wildlife Warriors'—to show the beauty and the drama of our natural world.
- Explaining the philosophy behind her successful television show, highlighting the importance of emotional connection in driving conservation action.
Quotes about Paula Kahumbu
[edit]- If David Attenborough is the global voice of wildlife, then Paula Kahumbu is his fiercely passionate, Kenyan counterpart—a force of nature who has dedicated her life to saving her country's iconic animals.
- A review of her work in an international publication.
- Paula has achieved something many thought impossible: she has made conservation a mainstream, national conversation in Kenya. She has given it a Kenyan face and a Kenyan voice, inspiring a whole new generation.
- Highlighting her transformative impact on the public perception of conservation within Kenya at the Whitley Award.
- Kahumbu does not suffer fools gladly. She is a formidable and fearless advocate, known for speaking truth to power, whether confronting poaching syndicates or challenging government policies that fail wildlife.
External links
[edit]- Linkedin profile
- X (formerly Twitter)
- National Geographic profile
- WildlifeDirect profile
