Tag Archives: Ian Player

Ian Player on the African Wilderness

We’ve got three million years of Africa imprinted on our psyche…to see how people are gripped by the spirit of Africa, particularly at night when they sleep on the red earth, that very ancient earth, and they dream their dreams. There is a connection that is evoked from the depths of the collective unconsciousness that has drawn us all together. And also when they hear the leopard at night. That rasping call. It sparks something inside…It is an experience that has awakened thousands of people to the value of African wilderness, and the understanding that it was once their home. And it inspires them to protect it, because it is the landscape of the human soul.

(The late Dr. Ian Player in an address to the eighth World Wilderness Congress.)

Ian Player

Ineke, who blogs at “I scrap 2“, kindly invited us to join in the “3 days, 3 quotes challenge”. We in turn extend an open invitation to all de Wets Wild’s friends to join in, and we look forward to the wise words you have to share!

Tribute to a hero of conservation: Ian Player

The 30th of November 2014 is a sad day in South Africa’s conservation story, with the passing of one of this country’s most influential environmental activists, Dr. Ian Player, at the age of 87.

Dr. Player was the driving force behind so many of South Africa’s crucial conservation successes, from saving the southern white rhino from extinction to protecting the dunes of Lake St. Lucia from being mined, but his most important legacy is probably the establishment of a network of organisations dedicated to the protection of the world’s wilderness areas.

Many of the wonderful reserves we so love to visit are what they are today due to this visionary man’s hard work and ethos, and we owe him a personal word of gratitude. Our upcoming visits to uMkhuze, Imfolozi and iSimangaliso will be especially poignant.

Please visit the website “Ian Player, A voice from the Wilderness” for a precis of his life’s work and achievements.