About Marrian Tendai Rwizi
I have been a biology teacher for the past eight years and I am transitioning from teaching to the Ecology and Conservation field.
Which category below best describes the type of organisation you currently work for/or run?
Areas of expertise
Would you be willing to be approached and share your lessons learned in your area(s) of expertise with our community?
Would you like to be added to the calendar invitation for our monthly WildHub Socials?
Intro Content
Lessons learned
A Hunger Games analogy to entering the conservation field.
There is still a wider gap in empowering young man and women who are aspiring to be wildlife conservationists and ecologists globally especially in African developing countries.
Influencer Of
Popular Content
Topics
Channels contributed to:
Professional developmentRooms participated in:
Collaborate and help othersRecent Discussions
Greetings from Marrian
Hello everyone,my name is Marrian from Zimbabwe,and I am in my final semester studying an MSc in Ecology with NMBU,Norway. I hope to learn a lot from you!
Recent Comments
Thanks so much for this awesome piece @Marrian Tendai Rwizi and @Brian Heppenstall, so insightful!
Indeed, drawing from personal experiences in the sector, I can attest to that. Equity also still remains a huge barrier to fostering wildlife conservation especially in developing countries across Africa. Consequently, we still see business oriented conservation. A moment to revisit our wildlife conservation policies to ensure equity and accessibility- a value I strongly stand for and always want to contribute to!
Thank you Aiita, your contribution is greatly appreciated. If you know any conservation initiatives,ideas, please feel free to share
Thank you so much, @Marrian Tendai Rwizi and @Brian Heppenstall for this interview. Recently, I noticed to my surprise how many NGOs want volunteers to pay to volunteer their time (and I am leaving costs for lodging and living out of this). Now you are telling me it is the same for internships, which are supposed to be like real jobs. I would not take any job for which I had to pay. I mean what is the point?? One does real work for them and probably not a little, so I don't see how the NGO can justify that having you doing work for them actually costs them more than what your work brings in.
It is unlikely that NGOs do not know this, so we need to know why they are doing it anyways. To me it seems they are desperate for resources, but there must be more to it.
I think conservation jobs must be valued, same as the medical field etc. Because thats where we are going,climate change is real! T he majority of the people especially from where I come from have little to no knowledge on the importance of conservation and the ecosystem at large . However I think it all begins with the mindset,involvement of the local people at large and maybe introduce ecology and conservation from kindergarten. There is also the need to find a pulling factor to the field of conservation especially to this young generation who are the leaders of tomorrow.
Thank you @ Frank van der Most,for your contribution.
I think its excellent that we have a platform like WildHub so we can conduct these recorded conversations and share them. Thank you @Brian Heppenstall & @Marrian Tendai Rwizi It was great to hear about your roles in Europe and Africa. Thanks to @Thirza Loffeld for all your hard work!
I loved the way you gave responsibility to the students and that ownership of a project really helps!
I think most people on here will feel the same and I certainly feel that as I volunteered for many years before getting paid roles that this should not be the way. It's getting people to take the natural world more seriously by demanding better paid roles.
That's one of the reasons we started 9Trees and our 3 pillars are Wildlife & Environment / Countryside Jobs / Wellbeing & Mental health.
It is hard running a grassroots Non profit and we have all been volunteers and had the help of experts Pro-Bono. We have been paying from the ground up, paying for the materials to plant woodland, conservation Tree planters (who plant with an 80% survival rate, and we pay to replant for the first 3 years any losses).
People who join us usually take about 6 months to really get to know their role, by then we either start paying them as a contractor, like our Office manager (volunteered for 6 months), our Blog Co-ordinator and Web Developer (volunteered for 8 months) and we also now pay for a Landowner and contractor manager (volunteers 20% ongoing) We pay at a discounted rate for PR and now have started to pay minimum wage to management. We are also paying for Social media on an ad hock basis.
As time goes on we aim to be paying the living wage in the UK so its in all of our interests to make 9Trees work, whilst creating biodiverse woodlands across the UK.
We have space for more people to come on board and people either stay with us or they get jobs as they have gained experience. We have had help from all across the world, from Corporate fundraisers, Grant writers. We cannot say volunteers will get a role, however everyone knows for every hour put in we are creating the jobs of the future! if not for you for your colleagues.
There is probably loads I am not communicating effectively but it's built into our official documents as a CIC; Community Interest Company. We give back.
Mike C
You are really doing a good job Michael!
Hello everyone,this is my first interview per se,your support is greatly appreciated
This is a very good opportunity,