Personal Perspectives of
Ian Player DMS
 Ian
Player is one of the world’s outstanding conservationists
and environmental statesmen. Born in South Africa in 1927,
he “earned his stripes” in the rough and tumble era of
creating Africa’s protected area system. With his team, he
also pioneered the saving of endangered species (Operation
Rhino), and then left government wildlife service to
found the Wilderness Leadership School, the first
organization in Africa dedicated to providing a pure
wilderness experience for people of all backgrounds, races
and nationalities. Starting during the troubled days of
apartheid, this multi-racial education and experiential
program spawned a global network of conservationists from
all sectors of life committed to saving wilderness and
wildlife. This work also insisted that matters of spirit
were as important to conservation as science, and that
people and cultures are an important part of the
environmental equation. With a group of American colleagues,
he established The WILD Foundation in 1974, and also created
or inspired our sister organizations in
The Wilderness Network.
 During
most of this journey he was accompanied by his mentor,
friend and brother, Zulu game guard Magqubu Ntombela
(pictured above with Ian), who died in 1992 at close to 100
years of age. Ian tells their story in
Zulu Wilderness:
Shadow and Soul (Fulcrum, 1998). In this space will be
occasional columns papers and perspectives from Ian.
Ian Player
 Ian
Player is a 'man of many reasons' for
wilderness: African game ranger, international
diplomat, writer, lecturer, wilderness guide, and a
man of culture, the arts and psychology. Ian brings
all of these parts of himself to bear on a single
mission: to assure that wilderness remains a
constant reality, and a source of spiritual
inspiration, prosperity and fundamental physical
life on planet Earth. Is there anything left to be
said?
His friend, mentor, father-and- brother figure for
forty years was Qumbu Magqubu Ntombela,
the Zulu chief and game guard whose knowledge,
dignity and humanity helped Ian found The Wilderness
Leadership School, The WILD Foundation, World
Wilderness Congress, Wilderness Foundation (South
Africa), Wilderness Trust (UK), and more. Together,
they inspired countless individuals, and walked more
kilometers in the wilder-ness than the rest of us
can even imagine. Ian continues the work today. |
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