This week, Up4Debate discusses the role that ordinary people play in setting the agenda for the politics of conservation in our local environment.

This week, Up4Debate discusses the role that ordinary people play in setting the agenda for the politics of conservation in our local environment.

We ask: are ordinary people in Makana involved? How are they involved? And why should this be a priority?

To help us explore these questions, we invited to our studio three campaigners for environmental conservation: Nikki Kohly, of the Kowie Catchment Campaign; Harry Owen, editor and publisher or “Rhino in a Shrinking World” and Mpume Luthuli, field manager at WESSA.

Harry Owen:  "People have to be given the chance to see what they are going to lose.  They don’t even know at the moment that they have it so why should they be bothered about losing it?"

Nikki Kohly: "Often there is a massive disconnect between our resources and the end users and you don’t really see all the ecosystem processes in between."

Mpume Luthuli: "We need to go to the community and make sure that we educate them, and make sure they are able to start their own projects."

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