Why we miss out if we don’t involve women in conservation

Discover why conservation efforts fall short without women’s voices and how their unique contributions are vital to saving our planet.

Women are increasingly taking on dynamic leadership roles in conservation, breaking stereotypes, overcoming barriers, and driving impactful change — but it often comes with significant personal cost and sacrifice.

By Matthew Hattingh and Siziwe Hlongwa

Maybe Hollywood or King Kong were to blame, says Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka of her otherwise supportive mother’s dread at her daughter working with gorillas.

“She thought they would maul me or kill me,” says Kalema-Zikusoka, recalling the fieldwork she first did with the great apes while a student vet.

 “She was someone who always encouraged me to do things, but she was a little concerned about that particular species of animal.”

Years later however, when Kalema-Zikusoka’s mother (the trail-blazing Ugandan  politician, Rhoda Kalema) finally joined her to see gorillas for herself in the wild, she changed her tune. “Oh, they are just gentle, vegetarian giants,” said the older woman.

Stereotypes and what it takes to shift them are subjects all too familiar to Kalema-Zikusoka.

Diverse voices

As Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian and a woman to boot in the male-dominated world of conservation, she knows what it’s like when people jump to conclusions about others’ capabilities. Equally, she understands how determination, developing a strong skills set and pursuing unique research can help women conservationists see off the naysayers.

Kalema-Zikusoka, who was speaking at the 24th Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation Tipping Points webinar, co-founded Conservation Through Public Health. 

The not-for-profit uses primary health care and community coffee farming and marketing projects to tackle poaching and habitat loss, giving endangered mountain gorillas a better shot at survival.

The online seminar was held on the eve of South Africa’s Women’s Month and Kalema-Zikusoka’s overarching message to delegates was: “You are missing half the story and half the impact if you don’t involve women in conservation.”

Breaking stereotypes

Her fellow panellists were Simangele Msweli, senior manager for the youth leadership programme at the African Wildlife Foundation, and Sakhile Silitshena Koketso, head of science, policy and governance at the United Nations’ Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

They spoke on the theme “Wild leadership — Experiences from pioneering women in conservation”, with Nkanbeng Mzileni, general manager of South African National Parks’  Cape Research Centre, facilitating.

Trail blazers

Kalema-Zikusoka counts stellar women primatologists Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birutė Galdikas, as well as ecologist and Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathi among the women who’ve inspired her most. 

Having female role models and leaders was “really important” to getting people engaged in conservation, she said.

Women leaders were also more receptive and better able to address the needs of both men and women in the organisations they lead. 

“If it’s just male leadership a lot of women’s concerns are not addressed,” she said 

On the subject of stereotypes, she advised “very intentional” and innovative measures to break societal norms. 

If the field of conservation was to be more diverse, savvy ways must be sought to engage with women and youth (the subject of previous Tipping Points webinar), she said.

Navigating challenges

Msweli, who hails from Northern KwaZulu-Natal and has a particular interest in community engagement and policy development, spoke about the difficulties she has sometimes faced when seeking to include women in meetings during environmental awareness-raising exercises in rural areas.

Women were effectively excluded from meetings because of cultural norms and practices, yet “because of gender roles, women are the ones collecting water and firewood”.

“So you have a critical component of society that engages with natural resources daily, who’s insights should ideally be very important on how we manage the resources. But because of the context, they are the very same people who can’t be at the table to share their experiences and contribute.” 

Msweli said it wasn’t always possible to change the cultural context, but women who aren’t at community meetings could still be reached by, for example, going to the marketplaces and water collection points where they sell their produce or gather with their buckets. 

She told how she was thrust onto conservation’s big stages from a young age, attending her first Conference of the Parties (COP) international climate get-together at 19 and then at 27, taking a senior post at an international non-government organisation, sitting on forums that established programmes and projects or crafted important strategies.  

At such meetings she faced “new challenges at the intersection of being women and being young, in leadership”, said Msweli, explaining how by virtue of being both young and woman she was often expected to be the note-taker or to run errands, when her real responsibility was to listen and contribute.

She said young people participating in conservation leadership programmes reported similar experiences.

“What those players don’t realise is that it’s not so much about you at a personal level (the sense of being undermined). At a greater level, it’s about how the world is missing out on the insights and experiences of young women, just because they have chosen to not think that they have something to offer… to underestimate what they bring to the table.”  

Personal sacrifice

Koketso began her presentation by sketching out a career journey that has taken her places.

She started out at a small game reserve outside Gaborone around 1998, working for Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks. Next she coordinated the drafting of the country’s first biodiversity strategy before spells with the Kalahari Conservation Society and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, an environment, politics and policy focused organisation, in Cape Town. 

In 2010 she joined the UN’s Secretariat on Biological Diversity.

Koketso acknowledged she had been fortunate in her career. Conservation had taken her from the local to the international stage, but it had come at a personal cost, most of all to her as a mother. 

“I am not trying to stop anyone from joining conservation, but would like people to make informed choices,” she said, advising others to “put in place contingencies to help them”.

Support systems

“I used to go away for months at a time and not see my children. The kids would be crying because for them it would be mommy’s leaving; they don’t know mommy’s coming back.”

She told of an email from her daughter that read: “Mummy, I know you are not like other mummy’s and you are not able to come to all my (parent-teacher) meetings and all my conferences, but I know you love me.”

Koketso said she kept the email for years because it “hurt my heart and it made me want to be better at what I am doing”.

“If I am going to have this cost to my kids, I might as well make that cost count,” she said.

In addition to the personal cost, her work in international conservation exacted a psychological cost too, said Koketso.

She spoke of the exhaustion, burnout, depression and anxiety that her work risked. “You also have the cost of cynicism and that’s the biggest thing I have seen in my career. If I don’t guard against it I tend to get cynical, not just about the environment, what’s happening in the environment, but the organisations I work for.”

Role models

How does Koketso cope with this and what lessons can the high-flying conservationist share with other women? 

She told the webinar she drew strength and guidance from others, including by following the online posts, especially book excerpts, by people she admired like Indra Nooyi, the former PepsiCo chief executive.

Koketso said Nooyi, a mother of two and the first woman to head the food and beverage multinational, rightly called it a lie, the notion that women can have it all – enjoy a top-flight career and the pleasures and rewards in full of motherhood and family life. On the other hand, Nooyi had been able to count on “great support” from her husband, mother and personal assistants.

 “Find people whose stories reflect yourself or whose progress reflects the progress you are trying to make in your life and try to do that,” said Koketso.

She advised women in conservation to find ways of “putting in structures around you to protect yourself”. 

Joining a group of like-minded women in the UN had been a source of great support and encouragement for her, she said. 

“And might I say, if you have a job that has benefits that can afford it, please try to get a therapist, or a psychologist or a coach or something that can help you to navigate those spaces.”

Resilient pursuits

Responding to a question put to the panel on how women can best “navigate the conservation space”, Msweli also stressed the value of establishing support structures. 

Conservationists, she said, found it easy to join networks for advocacy, to fight for causes, but were slower off the mark in joining networks for self-care.
Happily, Msweli said she could also count on supportive men and women friends and a husband who kept the home fire burning while she is based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Those less fortunate might turn to social networks, not necessarily online, she said. 

She reminded delegates that most of us were unable to control others, but we could develop and exercise self-leadership. We needed to learn how to set boundaries, and become confident and assertive, without necessarily being rude.

Empowering change

How do you manage politics in your work to get this far in your career? the panel were asked.

Kalema-Zikusoka advised women to stay focused on their goals. 

“Don’t allow people to discourage you and just keep going,” she said.

She also stressed the importance of seeking support and “looking out for female role models.”

But if that support was not forthcoming, Kalema-Zikusoka advises women to take heart and steel themselves for a lengthy struggle.

She spoke about Goodall and how her professors at Cambridge did not take her seriously enough because she was a woman. 

“So she had to fight a lot. Now everybody thinks she had an easy ride, but… she had to fight a lot and it’s the same for other women.”

Sometimes, you just have to keep fighting, said Kalema-Zikusoka. 

“Just keep talking about what you are doing. Sometimes as a woman you just have to speak louder than everybody else. But don’t give up the fight. And a lot of people end up joining you in that fight.” – Roving Reporters

• This story was produced with support from Jive Media Africa, science communication partner to Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation (OGRC).