Damien Mander is on a mission to protect animals

June 20, 2016June 26, 2016 / The Village / Leave a comment

Damien Mander with an orphaned nyala Photo by Andrew Craig

We all come to forks in the road. What matters is what we do when we reach them.

Damien Mander has worked in the navy, toured Iraq 12 times as a private military contractor and travelled the world, but the biggest journey he has taken is inside himself. After travelling to Africa and witnessing the effects of poaching, Damien decided he couldn’t return to his previous life. He took a different path, one which led him to setting up and running the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF).

I was intrigued to find out why Damien chose a difficult route. What I found was a man disarmingly honest about his life choices, his motivations for change and his journey from mercenary to a vegan animal activist.

I’ve got salt water running through my veins. I grew up initially in the Northern Beaches in NSW. Dad ran the Mona Vale Hotel so I lived there for the first nine years of my life, then we moved down to the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. We were always on the beach. I used to get up early and ride my bike down to the pier. I’d go free diving and collect all the fishing lures and the squid jigs that had been lost overnight by the fishermen and sell them back to them. I started diving off piers when I was 13. I’d be down there rain, hail or shine trying to make a dollar. I used the money to pay for my own scuba diving equipment and got right into scuba diving, which gave me the ambition to join the navy as a clearance diver.

Until I started doing what I’m doing now, I was a selfish person. I didn’t join the military to serve my country, I joined the military because it was a challenging job. I was also very self-conscious of image growing up. I don’t know why, just a testosterone fuelled teenager always interested in trying to impress other people. It was the same when I went across from the navy to the army to special operations. It wasn’t because I wanted to be part of a national response team to terrorists on home soil, it was because it was the next challenge, and again it was about me and nothing else. I suppose I was trying to create this image of being a touch guy, being a person in control, being a person who is not scared of anything. I went to Africa with the same mindset.

When I saw what the rangers in Southern Africa had to go through and realised I was trying to have an adventure on the back of their hard work and dedication, that was probably the lowest point in my life. I went over there to spend six months running around in the bush doing something I thought would be cool. I saw rangers who were living away from their families for up to 11 months of the year for a minimal salary, risking their lives every day to protect animals. I don’t know why, but seeing what happens to these animals affected me in a way that was worse than what I’d experienced in Iraq.

I called bullshit on myself: “You are full-of-shit as a person, everything you do is about yourself and nothing else,” and put my money where my moral mouth is. I decided to give up a comfortable life of travel and holidays. I didn’t have to work again for the foreseeable future. I had money and a property portfolio and a certain skillset that is unfortunately required to look after animals. So I was left with a choice, “Do I turn my back on this? Or am I actually going to do something about it?”

After what I’d been through in Iraq and my time in Africa I realised what real courage is and that is being honest with yourself. Every person has their own switch, for me it was seeing what was going on over there and acknowledging the truth. That’s not just in regard to setting up the IAPF, but also in terms of my veganism and the way I choose to speak out on behalf of all animals. We have sub-categorised animals into sexy ones and ones that are convenient for us to ignore. The suffering of a rhino is no different to the suffering of a cow, the only difference is the difference we allow ourselves to accept in our own minds because it’s more convenient for our conscience. There’s no ethical way to kill something that doesn’t want to die. If people want to eat meat, then they need to to understand the suffering that animal has been through to reach your dinner table.

There are tens of thousands of animals in reserves that we look after, but it’s not just about protecting elephant and rhino, but everything those animals represent. We train local people, make sure they are well equipped to go out and risk their lives and give them a better chance of survival. I am now feel hopeful for the future. As our organisation has grown and the success we are having with our projects, that feeling of despair, has drifted away. Thanks to the support of our donors around the world, we are seeing very positive results on the front lines.

I want to be part of the last generation that has a negative impact on earth. I don’t know what our generation is going to have on our headstone, but I want to continue to be part of something that is positive. For me, helping animals and protecting nature is the greatest opportunity I’ve had.

Visit International Anti Poaching Foundation for more information.

Juliet Le Feuvre is a water warrior

May 23, 2016June 12, 2017 / The Village / Leave a comment

Juliet relaxing in her backyard with her dog Tessa Photo by Charlotte Bowra

I met Juliet Le Feuvre, Healthy Rivers Campaigner Manager for Environment Victoria, a few years ago and was stuck by her depth of knowledge and deep commitment to improving natural resource management.

After initially meeting Juliet in the city, I was surprised to bump into her walking her dog in a local park. We discovered we live round the corner from each other and both like walking our dogs early in the morning. This created opportunities for unplanned, highly enjoyable chats which have kept me up-to-date with the happenings at Environment Victoria. But I’ve always wanted to know why she choose to dedicate nearly 30 years of her life to the environment movement? I was delighted when she agreed to share her story.

Nature is what feeds me and replenishes me. I have always loved nature and being outdoors, particularly near water. Water is the start of life, it’s really precious stuff, particularly somewhere like Australia which is a very dry place. I find the contrast between the dry landscapes and beautiful aquatic environments astonishing. I find it truly amazing we have wetlands at all.

The thing that struck me when I moved from Britain to Australia in my 30s was how much untouched bush there was. It was amazing to see you had areas that were not protected that could be protected. There were opportunities which were not available in Europe where there were hardly any wild places left. It was the late 80s and it was a very exciting time in the environment movement. The Hawke Government was doing a lot of world heritage work, there was a feeling conservation was possible. I’d never experienced that before.

My interest in Australian rivers was triggered by a camping trip when the youngest of my three children was two years old. We went to Hattah Lakes up near Mildura for our first family camping holiday. Our campsite was on the lake shore in a beautiful spot under the red gums. The water in the lake kept rising. We had this row of sticks which we moved every day as the water came higher. The campground was gradually going under water and it was not raining, there was no flooding in Victoria and I wondered, “What’s going on here?” Eventually I realized the water was coming down from a flood event hundreds of kilometres away in NSW. This was a pretty unfamiliar type of river system. In Europe, rivers don’t work like that.

I never imagined I would build a career as a rivers campaigner in my 50s. I’ve had a pretty unconventional career path. After I studied zoology at Cambridge, I had all sorts of jobs from teaching to working on a farm and home decorating. When I arrived in Australia, I started volunteering for environment organisations. While I was volunteering at the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), I got involved in the campaign to halt the Jabiluka uranium mine in the Northern Territory. It was a full on period with blockade buses going up and people getting arrested. It was all new to me. I hung around as a volunteer at ACF, made myself indispensable and eventually they gave me a job.

The most difficult part of my current role is persuading people that just because a river has water in it, doesn’t mean it’s in good health. In Australia, without man-made intervention, our rivers would either be in flood or virtually dried up, there is not a lot of in between. What we’ve done with all the dams is make a lot of in between. People don’t understand, they think if it’s got water in it, it’s fine. If it weren’t for the dams, the Murray River would be dry right now and there wouldn’t be anything the matter with that.

I find the crunch I’ve identified between climate change and population growth truly scary. There is less water coming in to our rivers and more demand for water going out. You have two really strong pressures colliding and the jam in the sandwich is the natural environment. I am really concerned, but I don’t think it’s hopeless. If we are smart enough and we care enough and we put a bit more money into it, we can come up with the solutions.

Businesses are now facing community pressure to make positive change and this is creating opportunities. The traditional environment movement path is to jump up and down and say “You are damaging the environment,” until something changes, but that’s not necessarily going to happen. You need more elements in the mix so we are forging new and different partnerships to create change and build a level of support for the environment the politicians can’t ignore.

Visit Environment Victoria for more information.

Cassie Duncan is giving us food for thought

April 26, 2016May 31, 2016 / The Village / Leave a comment

Cassie Duncan with her son Luca Photo by Libby Gott

Growing up on a farm in Northern Victoria fostered a close connection with the natural world and showed me how food ends up on our plates. Since my childhood, the way we grow, distribute and purchase food has changed dramatically. Now we live in a world of choice and convenience, but at what cost?

While the established environmental organisations focus on issues such as climate change and renewable energy, Sustainable Table, a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting a more humane, environmentally friendly food system, has taken a different approach .

Last month I had the pleasure of sharing a cup of tea with Sustainable Table Co-founder and General Manager, Cassie Duncan, and learning why she is passionate about empowering consumers to support healthy, sustainable food production.

I was blessed to have part of my childhood in the country. I grew up in a single parent household and so when Mum was working, I used to spend holidays with her parents who live in Yarrawonga on the Murray River. I made friends, including my best friend who I met when we were five years old. Her family really embraced me and her grandfather ran a farm so we’d spend time on the farm, going around on motorbikes and doing things you just wouldn’t experience as a city kid. We’d take our bikes out to the bush and pick mushrooms and as long as we were home by tea time, it would be ok. That side of my childhood really informed my interests later in life.

During year 9 at Methodist Ladies College, I spent a term on a remote farm called Marshmead which was hugely life changing. Enjoying nature was something Marshmead introduced me to. I really loved the sense of peace I got out in the bush. I adored being in nature and loved every minute of it. From that point on, I felt this deep sense of connection with the earth and wanted to do something connected to that in my own life.

Connecting how I choose to eat with the impact I have on the environment was a really empowering moment in my life. Prior to that, I was focused on having shorter showers and switching to green energy, which are all really important, but food is something I make decisions about three or four times a day. Each time it’s an opportunity to consider how I’m impacting the environment and how I’m supporting our community. That, for me, is the power of food. It’s not a chore, it’s a joy. I think most of us find joy in food, and to attach that with how we choose to care for the world I think is a very positive message.

Everyone has to eat and how we choose to eat has the power to change the world. We get to choose where we spend our money every single day and that’s a very powerful vote. But making ethical decisions can be very complex and confusing. We realised if we can do all the hard yards and simplify that for the masses, then maybe more people would jump on board.

We need to educate people about the true cost of their food choices. I remember chatting to Sylvia, who runs Bass Coast Farm in Gippsland, and she was saying she had watched 34 dairy farmers close in her region in the last 20 years. She said, “People don’t realise what that does to our communities. Who is running our CFAs? Who is filling our footy teams?” So we might corporatise farms and people are still getting food, but at what cost?

You have to believe we are all good at heart, but I think there is a real disconnect in the way people behave. You have animal lovers who donate to the RSPCA monthly, but eat meat three times a day from God knows where. They haven’t connected their sense of care and love for their pets with their sense of care and love for the animals that they consume so we are trying to bring that to light. That’s why we are currently in the midst of our Give a Fork! Campaign. We need a national food campaign that gets people talking and discussing the impacts our food choices have on the environment, our health, on animals and on farmers. We would love to see the Give a Fork! campaign grow to be the sort of national voice for food system issues in a way that Movember is for men’s health issues.

Developing connections is really important to me. When it comes to food shopping, that’s been a big influencing factor. It’s not just the sustainability aspect of shopping at a farmers’ market, it’s the fact I get to have conversations with the people who grow my food. I think that’s how we should be relating to our food and how we are born to connect with people and communities. Sometimes in cities we are lacking that. For me, I’ve been able to create that sense of community through how I purchase food and that’s incredibly empowering.

Visit Give a Fork! or Sustainable Table for more information.

James Fitzgerald is dreaming big

April 7, 2016April 10, 2016 / The Village / Leave a comment

James Fitzgerald on the roof of The Dream Factory. Photo by Charlotte Bowra

I’ve always liked James’ love of new ideas and big picture optimism. The longer I’ve known him, the more apparent these traits become.

When I first met him a few years ago, we were both working at the same engineering company. We didn’t realize until later we were simultaneously hatching plans to find new roles.

James was the first to jump ship. He left his job as a certified civil engineer to become Director of Members and Supporters at Engineers Without Borders (EWB). Recently, he’s moved on from the non-profit sector to take up a new role as General Manager Community at the Impact Investment Group’s latest venture, The Dream Factory; a former woolshed in Footscray that has been converted into a hub for start-ups, creative entrepreneurs, social businesses and not-for-profits who focus on design, technology and social change. I caught up with James to find out what inspired his involvement with The Dream Factory.

My Nonno was a big influence on me. As an Italian migrant to Seddon, he was really big on family and local community. He was one of the community leaders at the time and helped a lot of Italian migrants settle in Australia. He was also really big on small business, had a fruit shop and was very passionate about looking after his customers. Even though he has passed away, people still talk to me about Frank and tell me how he treated people really well in business. I really resonated with that. He was introverted, the flip side of me. I liked going there because he was very calming. He led by example and was very entrepreneurial, but very family and community focused.

Education was a passport. I was the first person in my family to go to uni and the first person from my school in Hoppers Crossing to go to the University of Melbourne. Pursuing a career in trade was common practice, going to uni wasn’t. In year 11 and 12, I had checkboxes on my bedroom wall about getting into Melbourne Uni Arts/Engineering and travelling the world. It wasn’t a checklist like a bucket list, it was because I wanted options and flexibility. I did engineering because I liked maths and science, and so I could get a well paying job. But I also studied Arts as I’m passionate about humanitarian issues and social change, so I thought I’m going to do both and see what happens.

As a teenager, I realised I needed to have options, I needed to have vision and I needed to be around people who were thinking big. Now I want to work where I can have the most impact fast; that’s impact investing and social enterprise. We need to encourage people to innovate and take risks. You have all these old industries like mining and manufacturing that are going out of business, but there’s no point debating the macro economic stuff because that’s government and they are going to take 20 years to make up their mind. We need to create jobs for people through socially focussed businesses that are more aware of what’s going on in their community, and they’ve got to make money.

The Dream Factory could have just been set up as a normal commercial project, but instead the Impact Investment Group set it up as a socially-focused design and tech precinct. This means we can focus on supporting businesses and not-for-profits who are utilising design and technology to create positive social and environmental outcomes. It’s enabled us to create a centre for like minded individuals and organisations where they can share ideas, skills and experience. Since it’s launched, the amount of good will it’s generated has been overwhelming. So many people have emailed and twittered us and said “Thank you for creating this opportunity for people to be able to use their skills in business and design for good.”

We can harness the power of business, design and technology to create large scale social change. The core of the change I want to see is for everyone to double or triple their empathy. If we had more empathy, I think people would think about their impact more. They would think twice about what sort of careers they did, or how they invest their money. There are multiple pathways for improving empathy, but I think one of the best ways is through enabling that connection between technology and design with humanity to create social change.

The generations coming through, they don’t just want to work for money, they want a job that makes money, but also has an amazing impact. I’ve only got 40 years left of my career; that’s not a long time. So for the next 40 years, I want to be dedicated to ensuring that business is a massive force for change and I want to create social change fast using design and technology. I see huge opportunities and the most talented people will only want to work for companies that are doing amazing stuff.

See The Dream Factory or The Impact Investment Group for more information.