How it all started
For as long as I can remember, wildlife, nature and environment have always been a big part of my life. On one hand, I had a father who was obsessed with wildlife documentaries to such an extent that if we were not watching cartoons or news then we were watching wildlife documentaries all day, every day. On the other hand, I had a mother who was obsessed with plants. You could literally break all the dishes in the kitchen and get away with it, but make no mistake of stepping on a plant in the yard causing it to break or die… all hell would break loose. My mother would always say, “if you cannot create it, why destroy it”.
My parents made me realize from a young age that there is life out there, a life other than human life, which is important, precious and irreplaceable. Naturally, that appreciation of nature instilled in me made me want to contribute towards its protection (nature) as best as I can & thus I became an Ecologist.
Why & how I decided to create this platform
For some years I’ve been trying to encourage wildlife conservation discussions, mainly just on my Facebook personal account. It was working but one day I woke up feeling like the discussions were not reaching as many people as I would have loved it to & as fast as it needed to. I felt like I was slowly running out of time…
I’ve always believed that the day-to-day “ordinary” people/non-scientists are the ones with the power to make real conservation change.
In trying to figure out what else I could do, I then came across a quote by Michael Selous – a preeminent conservation biologist who said, “We can only protect what we love & can only love what we know“.
And that’s when I realized that I had to change my approach. I had to do a little bit more than just the “#WhyIFindWildlifeFascinating” series that I was doing. And instead, in addition, encourage people to travel more but specifically to conservation oriented destinations. In travelling, people will see the beauty & the importance of our wildlife & environment & when things start going wrong we would have passionate people speaking out about it from community level (e.g. wetlands being converted to residential areas, poor mining methods, deforestation, etc)
The amount of misconceptions about touring is one of the biggest reasons people do not travel much. I realized I could help by disseminating travel information, (i.e. list of options of places to go to (many of which are unknown), the charges, the contact details of those destinations, etc). I realized I could also Partner with service providers in wildlife tourism with the same conservation goals & principles as me & build a strong network where people can travel for as cheap as possible & most importantly have the whole network speak the same language of real conservation & put a lot of emphasis on it.
Real conservation does not require scientists to be in the forefront, neither does it require scientific Latin terms. It only requires a community which sees the beauty & value of nature & feel the need to conserve it. A community that gets the chance to experience nature’s magic & full benefits. Our grandparents & great grandparents are proof of this. To date, they still prove to have been the best at conservation & I believe it is because they lived with nature, experienced it every single day. Something that the modern way of living has robbed us of. When we have experienced nature at that level, conservation only starts coming to us naturally.
Personal benefits of travelling to nature reserves and game parks
Being in & around nature comes with this inexplicable calming effect. The stress, fear and anxiety that is felt by many of us due to busy and draining city life just vanishes by spending time in nature. The feeling of being stuck, your brain failing to process things & come up with new ideas, all gets sorted out by being in nature.
How?
So, we have what are called positive ions in our bodies… but then, they are increased when we absorb more of them from our phones, laptops and other electromagnetic gadgets. This increase in positive ions end up impairing brain function, and messing up with our mood, suppressing our immune system & make us feel really stressed out.
Mountains, beaches, forests and waterfalls however, release negative ions which then balance out the positive ion levels in our bodies, causing the release of a hormone called serotonin….
Serotonin is the key hormone that makes us feel stress free, calm and happy. It also improves our brain function, stabilizing our mood. Basically every single positive internal thing you get in your body is coming from this serotonin hormone.
What I offer you
Unfortunately, the biggest limitation for you and many of us when it comes to visiting nature reserves and game parks are the funds to cater for the trips. And here is what I am offering you: –
- To help you plan your trips, giving you the best advice on places to visit, accommodation options, vehicle hire options, etc according to your budget.
- To give tips on budget travel and everything there is to know about visiting nature reserves and game parks in affordable ways in Zimbabwe.
- To give tips on places to visit in Zimbabwe which are affordable and which will also give you value for your money, because unfortunately, many of these places are not easily found from a quick google search & are not popularly known.
- And finally to talk about the beauty of nature, fun and interesting facts about wildlife that will uplift your spirits, leaving you, hopefully, in a better mood even if you cannot travel just yet.
Thank you so much for stopping by 😊
You can get in touch with me HERE
#ConservingByTouring #IntimacyWithNature #Eminently Eve
