Garth Owen-Smith (22 February 1944 – 11 April 2020) was a South African-Namibian

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

. He was awarded the

Goldman Environmental Prize The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists. History Awardees are named from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, an ...

in 1993, jointly with Margaret Jacobsohn, for their efforts on conservation of wildlife in Namibia, where illegal hunting was threatening species such as

elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...

s and

black rhino The black rhinoceros (''Diceros bicornis''), also called the black rhino or the hooked-lip rhinoceros, is a species of rhinoceros native to East and Southern Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namib ...

s. Garth Owen-Smith realised local communities are the solution to conservation, not the problem they were at that time believed to be. From this basic philosophical shift, flowed the community-based natural resource management concept, which is at the root of Namibia’s spectacular successes in large-scale conservation. He was awarded the

Global 500 Roll of Honour The Global 500 Roll of Honour was an award given from 1987 to 2003 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The award recognized the environmental achievements of individuals and organizations around the world. A successor system of UNE ...

in 1994.

Works

Garth and his wife are commonly known as the masterminds behind community preservation, and their collaborative endeavors have established Namibia’s conservation strategy as a blueprint to be admired and replicated throughout the African continent. They jointly establishe
Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation
(IRDNC) by building on their innovative alliance with community leaders in the 1980s to put an end to the rampant poaching and devastation that was rampant in the northwestern region of Namibia. After stepping down from the co-directorship of IRDNC, Garth and Margie Jacobsohn helped to mentor Conservancy Safaris Namibia, a tourism company owned by five Himba conservancies themselves.

Awards

In 2015 the

Prince William Award The Prince William Award is a character and resilience award programme for children in the United Kingdom aged 6–14. Founded on 1 March 2017 by Prince William. It is the first such award programme in his name. The award is delivered in part ...

for

Conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manage ...

in Africa was awarded to Garth Owen-Smith in recognition of his lifetime contribution alongside Dr. Margaret Jacobsohn to the restoration and conservation of wildlife in Namibia. The 1997 Knights of the Order of the Golden Ark Award from the Netherlands In 1993, Owen Smith was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize which is also known as the "Green Nobel". The award is used to recognize annually the grassroots

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

activists. He also received the 1994 United Nations Global Environmental 500 Award.

References

External links

Garth Owen-Smith (1944-2020) – A great tree has fallen

Daily Maverick ''Daily Maverick'' is an independent, South African, English language, online news publication and weekly print newspaper, with offices in the country's two most populous cities: Cape Town (the site of its headquarters) and Johannesburg. ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Owen-Smith, Garth 1944 births 2020 deaths White Namibian people Namibian environmentalists Goldman Environmental Prize awardees