Garth Owen-Smith
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Garth Owen-Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born | 22 February 1944 |
| Died | 11 April 2020 (aged 76) |
| Occupation | Environmentalist |
| Partner | Margaret Jacobsohn |
| Awards |
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Garth Owen-Smith (22 February 1944[1] – 11 April 2020) was a South African-Namibian environmentalist.[2] He was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1993, jointly with Margaret Jacobsohn, for their efforts on conservation of wildlife in Namibia, where illegal hunting was threatening species such as elephants, lions and black rhinos.[3]
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.[4]
He was awarded the Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1994.[5]
Garth and his wife are commonly known as outspoken proponents of 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 established 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.[6] 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.[7]