Africa Travel WeekIn this webinar, Colin Bell and Ian Michler join Responsible Tourism advocate, Harold Goodwin in a debate on whether to trade or not to trade Rhino Horns. Colin shares some of the myths surrounding the trade of Rhino horns and the role of the travel and tourism industry in the preservation of Rhinos.
Meet our panelists:
Harold Goodwin – WTM’s Responsible Tourism Advisor
Harold is WTM’s Responsible Tourism Advisor. He put together the flagship Responsible Tourism programme at WTM London which attracted 4000 participants in 2020 and the programmes ran at WTM Africa, WTM Latin America and Arabian Travel Market.
Harold has worked on 4 continents with local communities, their governments and the inbound and outbound tourism industry. He is the Managing Director of the Responsible Tourism Partnership and chairs the panels of judges for the World Responsible Tourism Awards and the other Awards in the family, Africa, India and Latin America.
Harold works with industry, local communities, governments, and conservationists and undertakes consultancy and evaluations for companies, NGOs, governments, and international organisations.
He is also a Director of the Institute of Place Management at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he is an Emeritus Professor, and Founder Director of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism promotes the principles of the Cape Town Declaration which he drafted.
Colin Bell – Co-founder of Natural Selection
Colin Bell made his own luck – instead of going into the world of finance after completing his economics degree at Wits University, he landed his first job as a safari guide in Botswana in 1977. In those days a cold beer came out of a wet long sock, tied to the side mirror of his Land Rover. That was as good as it got.
In 1983 Colin co-founded Wilderness Safaris and later on went on to co-found both Great Plains Conservation and Natural Selection Safaris in 2006 and 2013. In between Colin co-authored two books on wildlife, the environment and sustainable tourism - Africa’s Finest and The Last Elephants?
Over the decades the companies that Colin founded have grown to manage camps and lodges across nine African countries, employing more than 4,000 people and successfully and sustainably managing millions of hectares of prime wildlife reserves throughout east, central and southern Africa.
Many of these lodges gained their “bush cred” through partnerships with local communities: it was through those negotiations and relationships that Colin has learnt what has worked sustainably and what did not. All three of those companies are now regarded as being some of the most successful specialist safari and wildlife land management companies in Africa.
One of Colin’s great career successes was to initiate and drive the process (and sign the first cheque) in 2001 that resulted in the reintroduction of both black and white rhino back into the wilds of the Okavango Delta.
Ian Michler – Graduate of Sustainability Institute, Stellenbosch University
Ian Michler, a graduate of the Sustainability Institute, Stellenbosch University, has spent over 30 years working across Africa as an environmental photojournalist, wilderness guide, ecotourism consultant and company owner.
He has published several natural history and travel books on Africa and his conservation and travel writing has appeared in publications around the world. He is well-known for his conservation work, including the award-winning feature documentary Blood Lions.
In 2019, he was listed as one of the 76 Influential Voices speaking up for the environment in Africa (https://www.treeshake.com/twig/50-south-african-voices-speaking-up-for-the-environment).
