Fireside Chat with Damien Mander

Damien Mander is an Australian born, Zimbabwean based environmentalist. The former special operations sniper and navy clearance diver served in Iraq from 2005-2008. In 2009 while travelling through Africa post military, he was inspired by the plight of wildlife. Liquidating his life savings, Akashinga was established.

Akashinga is a leader in innovative, scalable, sustainable and impactful people-centric conservation in Africa: revitalizing ecosystems in partnership with communities. Akashinga connects, protects and restores at-threat landscapes and coastal regions as a key mitigation towards climate crisis. Akashinga has a permanent operational presence in 6 countries with 13.6M acres of wilderness under management.

More than six times the size of Yellowstone National Park and overseen by ~600 staff. In 2021, Akashinga co-founded the African Ecosystems Alliance, a US$300M initiative to engage local and indigenous communities as custodians of threatened wilderness areas, prospering 184M acres of at-threat African landscapes by 2030. This represents one of the largest positive environmental ambitions on the planet, driven by local communities for global benefit.

He is the winner of the 2019 Winsome Constance Kindness Gold Medal for services to animals and humanity. Past recipients include David Attenborough and Jane Goodall. He was featured in James Cameron’s documentaries ‘Game Changers’ and ‘Akashinga - The Brave One’s’, about his work with the women of Akashinga.

Damien is a resident speaker on National Geographic’s ‘Live’ Bureau and recognised by the Dutch Government as a Gender Champion. Damien resides in Zimbabwe and spends the majority of his year in Africa.

“I am staunchly committed to supporting Damien Mander and Akashinga’s work in protecting both the diversity and beauty of our wildlife.”

Dr Jane Goodall DBE - UN Messenger of Peace

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