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Our World
Wildlife Works is situated on the Rukinga Ranch, but its impact can be felt far beyond the ranch as it reaches out into the community of this area
L-R. Brett Girven, Principal - Arbor, Matthew Benjamin, Founder and CEO Kapes, Andres Foden, operations Manager - Arbor at Wildlife Works where the uniforms are made.
charcoal...conservation is the whispered undertone. The nursery garden employs gardeners, purchases seedlings from local individuals and gives those seedlings back to the community for free...more work, more self-supporting families...conservation goes from whisper to murmur. The rangers are locally employed, educated, trained, and unarmed. They educate their community, monitor and protect the environment, and minimise human-wildlife conflict... conservation begins to resonate loudly
throughout the community. Natural selection favours those communities in which individuals act for the benefit of the whole community. As humans, we call this ethical behaviour. Ethics always has to do with community; it is behaviour for the common good. This visit to Kenya is to find an exemplar of social enterprise - business for common good. It would be next to useless, of course, to talk about the possibility of good solutions to wicked problems if none existed in proof and in practice.
PROOF AND PRACTICE As a teacher, if you wish a student to know what an appropriate analysis of Othello might contain, you show them a previous example to critique. If you are teaching a multistep equation in a chemistry classroom, students need a worked example to see the process from start to finish. In the teacher world, these exemplars are called a WAGOLL - ‘what a good one looks like’. At Arbor, we are attempting to teach a programme of eco-literacy that moves from the obvious, practical and connected to the sophisticated and complex. Moving from muddy play experiential learning to social enterprise and environmental justice. What is missing at the highest level, for me at least, has been a tangible and successful WAGOLL of this nuanced approach. My visit to Rukinga and Wildlife Works has provided that WAGOLL, the proof and practice. In 1998 this success story kicked off as Wildlife Works opened with a vision of an ecological economy, an economy that had cooperation as a fundamental principle, where competition is subordinate, and where solidarity and compassion lead to a better outcome for everyone. With a dash of external expertise, these small but powerful community-based enterprises kicked off. Communities benefitted and began to own the solutions to the intractable problems that existed. But the major leap forward came when Wildlife Works and the local community monetized their number one asset... the trees. By monetizing the carbon-absorbing capacity (known as ‘carbon sequestration’) of shrubs, trees and soil, the impetus was created. Communities were encouraged and importantly resourced to start or restart
The new ready to go
