Each year, the National Geographic Society recognises and elevates people who are leading a new age of exploration through science, education, conservation, technology, and storytelling, through its Wayfinder Award.
In 2022, three African explorers, including a South African marine researcher have been honoured for their work as influential leaders, communicators and innovators, whose work has inspired others to care for and protect our natural world.
Resson Kantai Duff, Zoleka Filander and Gibbs Kuguru, are all engaged in groundbreaking work that challenges the most entrenched stereotypes in the animal kingdom, focuses on inclusive and community-based conservation, and blends social justice with ecological scientific research and promotes racial literacy in education.
Zoleka Filander is a South African deep-sea researcher who identifies and documents seabed species in South Africa’s uncharted oceans. Her findings have contributed to assessments of South Africa’s biodiversity and ecosystem classification maps and helped lay the groundwork for the establishment of a network of offshore marine protected areas.
Zoleka Filander
Resson Kantai Duff is the deputy director of Ewaso Lions, an organization dedicated to helping people and lions coexist in northern Kenya. Duff is passionate about decolonising conservation and works to renew Kenyans’ sense of ownership over their wildlife, culture, and land.
Resson Kantai Duff
Gibbs Kuguru is a Kenyan scientist who studies the DNA of sharks. Kuguru is using his genetic research to better understand the unique DNA elements that shape the populations of sharks. He is a passionate communicator and has a multidisciplinary approach to shark conservation.
Gibbs Kuguru
The Wayfinder Award recipients join the National Geographic Society’s global community of National Geographic Explorers and each receive a prize to continue conducting their work.
Pictures: Supplied
ALSO READ
