Lindy Rodwell (born 13 February 1962 in Johannesburg) is a South African zoologist and conservationist who dedicated herself to ensuring viable wetland habitat and population sizes for the cranes of Africa south of the Sahara, namely the endangered Blue and Grey-crowned and the critically endangered Wattled Cranes.
Lindy Rodwell was awarded a BSc(Zoology) and a Higher Diploma in Education from the University of Cape Town. After a five-month internship with the International Crane Foundation in the United States, and having started work at a bird park in South Africa, she became aware that she could make a greater contribution to wildlife by becoming involved in local and global conservation politics. She became Africa programme coordinator for the South African Crane Working Group of the Endangered Wildlife Trust. Due to her efforts over the past decade, the future for Blue and Grey-crowned Cranes is beginning to look more secure within South Africa; however, beyond South Africa’s borders, Wattled Cranes range across ten countries: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Angola, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, each with its particular hazards. She believes that cranes are sensitive indicators of the health of wetland systems and streams issuing from them, and that the well-being of many species, including Man, is intimately linked to this issue, and therefor the responsibility for reclamation and conservation of these systems, rests squarely on global shoulders. Nevertheless, she does not believe that an adversarial attitude will achieve as much as the education of and sensible collaboration with farmers and their workers, developers, construction companies and authorities, both local and national.
In 2003, in order to devote more time to her family, she handed over leadership of the African Wattled Crane Programme to Kerryn Morrison, who is working within a new formal partnership between the International Crane Foundation in the USA and the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
She is currently a Trustee of both the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the World Wildlife Fund, and devotes much of her time to the Nature's Valley Trust (NVT), an NGO she founded together with her husband, James van Hasselt. The NVT has become a driving force for conservation along the Garden Route.
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