„We don’t hunt The Big Five because of ethical reasons – and because it is way too expensive”, the white-haired, elderly man says, sitting in a chair at the Nkasa Lupala Lodge in the Wuparo Conservancy, glancing over the wide savannah landscape. “The Big Five” refers to five certain animals living in Africa: elephant, buffalo, […]
The Germans are said to have a very special bond with their forests: Already the famous poets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller wrote several poems about the forest – back in the 19th century; today, 2 million people own forests; when big parts of German forests were dying in the 1980s, people took […]
The thin tent cover is cold and wet. It is this time of the day when day and night are fighting with each other. The “Namibian alarm clock” has done its job one more time: Loud, many-voiced chirring, close-by grunting and distant roaring. A look at the watch reveals: 5.50 am. Opening the tent’s zipper […]
As mentioned in one of our articles about the study trip to Namibia, we had the chance to talk to John Kasaona, executive director of Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC) in Namibia. This organization wants to “link conservation to the social and economic development of the people who live with wildlife and other […]
The smell of goats and cows fills the dusty air. Their bleating and snorting accompanies the slowly setting sun, which moves like a red fire ball towards the horizon. A loud “Moo” breaks the idyllic atmosphere. Georg Vermaak, who introduces himself as “Org”, folds his arms in front of his chest and lets his gaze […]
Today, two members of the blog, Katharina and Leonie, are going to go on an excursion to Namibia. We use the term excursion because it is not a random holiday or something similar but a research trip from university. So, it’s not going to be lying around at the beach, roaming around in the desert […]
Being a school groundskeeper might not be the most dangerous job. Maybe this was also Dewayne Johnson’s attitude , when he accepted this job in 2012 in a suburb north of San Francisco. But this idea turned out to be wrong: In 2014, Johnson got ill, very ill. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which […]
Imagine this: you stroll through the supermarket, looking for cotton buds – but you can’t find the little plastic sticks. When you ask the shop assistants, they look at you as if you were coming from planet Mars and answer: “Don’t you know that plastic cotton buds are now forbidden?” This situation could happen soon. […]
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breath in. Brea – what is this? My breath stops, my feet – till one moment ago flying over the ground – get slower, my heart still races. Next to all these physical sensations, another sentiment blazes a trail into my body: anger mixed with sadness. What might sound like the […]
Germany has been sued. Finally. These words may sound weird coming from the mouth of a person born in Germany. Let me explain, why I think this was about time. First things first. In the year 2016, the European Commission took legal action against Germany. The reason: The country did not show increasing effort to […]
