Sowry lives her dream: US university honours conservationist
Theresa Sowry, CEO of Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC) was recently honoured with a Distinguished Service Award from Michigan State University (MSU).
Sowry was appointed as the CEO of the SAWC in 2011 having worked through the training ranks since 2002. “Working at the SAWC is one of the most rewarding aspects of my life. I get to work with an amazing, dynamic, enthusiastic, and passionate team, not scared of hard work and or testing new ideas,” said Sowry.
She believes in an inclusive and holistic approach to conservation, with people needing to be part of the conservation success story. MSU has been visiting the college for several years. The college puts together bespoke programmes for university groups with different interests. These include social ecology, eco-tourism, conservation management, natural history, counter-poaching, and the like. They showcase African conservation practices while immersing the students in different sights, sounds, and cultures.
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The students also get a chance to interact with men and women working on the ground in conservation at various levels and within different jobs. Sowry said that her parents used to take her to the KNP once a year. “I always said that I would do anything, any job, to live in the bush,” she said. “Being married to a section ranger in the KNP, I understand the challenges facing today’s dedicated conservationists.
“My position at the SAWC helps ensure that the college addresses current needs within its training programmes. “A critical component is that people need to benefit from wildlife areas, if there is no benefit, there will be no ownership,” she said. She said that it is not sufficient to focus only on sustainability as this normally implies financial resources.
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“If you ensure all your decisions are responsible, then these decisions address environment sustainability (impact on the environment); social sustainability (benefits to our people); and financial sustainability (sufficient financial resources),” she said. Two of SAWS’s applied projects and a passion of Sawry, are the aerial support aspect, where she pilots a light sports aircraft and the free-tracking K9 programme.
She said the regional effectiveness of adding the free tracking K9 asset to ranger teams essentially allows for patrols to account for a 60% to 80% success rate in poaching activities. Previous rewards bestowed on Sowry include a prestigious Rhino Conservation Award, a Kudu Award, the Mail and Guardian Greening the Future Award, and the SANParks Innovation Award (K9 unit – free tracking dogs) among others.
