Map of South Africa from Safarinow.com.
It's before 6:00 am in the field with temperatures around -9C. Winter in South Africa. A thick sheet of frost covers the countryside. Our small caravan includes an ecologist, botanist, naturalist, biologist, herpetologist, theologian, and four of Stuart's current and former students. And me of course. Collectively we come from Ireland, Greece, South Africa, Great Britain and the US of A. It's a spectacular mix for good conversation and the opportunity to compare conservation practices in different parts of the world. After a week at the '07 Society for Conservation Biology conference listening to seminars and sharing experiences (for details of my talk click here), we are marching back to Pretoria. I'll be checking in as possible, but in the mean time, hope you'll hep me with a question I'm struggling with this morning... With so many fundamentally important environmental problems being addressed at these conferences, in film, and now large scale music concerts, what do YOU really think is the most critical conservation issue at this moment and what can we practically do to address it?
