Orokonui Ecosanctuary educator Tahu Mackenzie describes a week spent at the inspirational Jane Goodall Institute at Windsor Castle, near London.
Every individual makes a difference; it is up to you to choose what kind of difference you want to makeFrom July 30 to August 7 this year, I was fortunate enough to attend a leadership symposium for Roots & Shoots, the global education programme of the Jane Goodall Institute, JGI for short.
This wonderful week unfolded at the spectacular hub for ''wisdom through discourse'', St George's House, nestled in the historical splendour of Windsor Castle's grounds.
Jane has inspired Roots & Shoots groups to spring up in more than 130 countries worldwide, from Tanzania where it all began, to the UK and US where it is well-established, and now to New Zealand, where it continues to grow.
Roots & Shoots is a youth-led environmental education programme that encourages lifelong interconnected thinking for people, animals and the environment.
The programme is underpinned by the simple yet powerful message from Jane that ''every individual makes a difference; it is up to you to choose what kind of difference you want to make''.
Highlights for me included meeting fellow educators from all around the globe.
Lebo and Japhet from Johannesburg and Tanzania were particularly insightful about how education from Roots & Shoots programmes has healed rifts in their communities.
The highlight of the course for us all was Jane's grace and wisdom.
Her humility in the face of great adversity is second only to her tireless passion to share the message of her cause: the power of each individual to make positive change.
It was an honour and pleasure to spend more time learning from Jane and hear of her latest campaigns against wildlife trafficking and trophy hunting.
I was able to share the inspiring experiences in environmental education at Orokonui Ecosanctuary, where I have been privileged to run the education programme for the past six years, working with primary, secondary, tertiary and Otepoti community groups.
In talking with other educators, I felt blessed by the deep significance of environmental consciousness in New Zealand in a global context.
I feel so lucky to work in a place where ''education for sustainability'' is part of the curriculum and where everyone, whether it consciously resonates with them or not, has been raised with breathtaking remnants of native glory around them.
JGI also uses cutting-edge technology to unite and encourage groups around the world.
Exemplifying one of Jane's pithy mottos, ''think global, act local'', JGI has partnered Google to offer Roots & Shoots members the opportunity to map their actions on a local, national and global scale using satellite imaging technology.
This approach allows students to access imagery from as far back as the 1970s and bring it up to date with their own actions.
As the satellite records new images every two weeks, it thus serves as a document on the positive impacts Roots & Shoots groups are making in areas such as revegetation and habitat restoration.
Jane, who is also a United Nations Messenger for Peace, will be speaking to this global action map in terms of Roots & Shoots groups offsetting climate change at the United Nations Climate Summit in Paris later this year.
