CR: That’s great. So let’s talk about women and children.
CC: Sure, please.
CR: WWF launched a partnership with CARE five years ago on the coast of Mozambique, focused on governance, communities and natural resources. CARE’s pivot point is development and the role of women, so they’re the perfect partner for us. I’d love for you to talk about how you see the connection between your work with women and your work with conservation.
CC: I think that women are at the forefront of everything. And certainly everything at the community level. So for example, I know WWF has a highly successful communal conservancy program in Namibia. I would imagine that even if women weren’t the explicit focus of your work in Namibia when it began 17 years ago, you had to work through women to get almost anything done, right?
CR: Absolutely. In fact, many of the conservancies are managed by women.
CC: Right. So I think you’ve answered your own question in a way. In sub-Saharan Africa, women are 70% of the smallholder farmers. So when we think of where elephants are and the surrounding communities, it’s clear that many of the people who are and will continue to be most impacted—whether by elephants roaming through their land or by poachers intruding on their land—are women. Ensuring that women smallholder farmers are enfranchised into the solutions to help conserve and protect the elephant populations is, as we often say around here, not only the right thing to do but the smart thing to do. If these women feel invested in finding a solution, the outcome will be the best thing for their own security, certainly. But also for the viability of their farmland and their children’s future by being able to have greater economic opportunity, connected hopefully to the ongoing conservation of the nearby elephant populations.
CR: So, this question’s a bit more personal. The perfect day—what does it look like to you?
CC: Oh, goodness. I would love to spend the day with my husband, and then have dinner with my parents. And then in between, a new shared experience—whether that was a new place we’d never visited, or a play here in New York we’d never seen, or going for a walk in the city somewhere we’d never ventured before. So I guess it’s more about the raw materials to me: being with the people I love and sharing something new. Some new discovery about the world.
CR: When you think about the work you’re doing with women and children, and in conservation, who are your heroes?
CC: Certainly, my parents. And my grandmother was a huge influence in my life—even though she is no longer with us she remains a tremendous influence. I think about Graça Machel, who has led such an extraordinary life in Mozambique and South Africa, and everything she has done for women in those countries and now broadly across the African continent. And I think I’m one of the millions of people who look up to Wangari Maathai and everything she was able to do through her Green Belt Movement. That she created a system that endured beyond her life is, I think, a testament to what a revolutionary she really was.
CR: So I’m going to end with a quote from Pete Seeger, who captured an imperative in our work when he said: “Participation—that’s what’s gonna save the human race.”
CC: I absolutely agree. Pete Seeger was fabulous. He did so much for conservation in New York.
CR: You’re doing so much for elephants and wildlife, and helping to encourage people to think more broadly about what they can do to help. All of that will be part of the solution.
CC: I hope so. I’m just tired of cynicism.
CR: Yes. There are plenty of signs of hope all around us—we just need to get more people involved.
CC: I agree. Big tent.
