Review: agriculture and conservation

When a monkey joined her in playing the piano, 12-year-old Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka knew she wanted to work with animals. Little did she know that her passion for primates would eventually lead to her to become Uganda’s first wildlife vet. This week, we look at the topic of agriculture and conservation, and hear how Gladys’ love for gorillas grew into a community coffee and conservation project.

Whilst Gladys tries to clean up the practices of local communities in rural regions of Uganda, another of our contributors this season, Nzambi Matee, is fervently trying to clean the streets of her capital city Nairobi. Just a few years ago, Nzambi decided to do something about the plastic pollution that she saw all over Kenya. Now, she has designed and built a thriving recycling and brick production facility, and her social enterprise Gjenge Makers has recycled plastic waste weighing more than five elephants.

Finally, we look at the role of sustainable home-grown farming, and good nutrition, and speak to Diana Nambatya Nsubuga from the non-profit Living Goods, who tells us how good food can be just as important as having easy access to medical expertise.

Catch up on the full interviews included in today’s show:

Gorillas, coffee, and communities

Building a future from plastic waste

Integrating public health, urban farming

Africa Science Focus, with Harrison Lewis. 

Do you have any comments, questions or feedback about our podcast episodes? Let us know at podcast@scidev.net