Regular readers of our monthly newsletter Global Connections will be aware that this year has seen us take further steps in our long history of involvement with the global park ranger community. Our work with rangers is a wonderful example of the practical application of the concepts around emotional health to ‘real world’ situations.
Around the globe, rangers play a critical, and often under-appreciated, role in preserving, protecting and sustaining the landscapes, flora and fauna that make our planet the unique and precious place that it is.
Rangers’ roles vary with the countries they operate in, their tasks including everything from installing information signage and cleaning toilets to preventing the poaching of wildlife. They often work in challenging environments and, sadly, quite a number put their lives at risk because of the work they do.
Rangers are the human interface linking those who visit conservation parks (national parks, protected areas, etc.) with nature itself. As such, their role requires high levels of interpersonal skills. We understand that many people will venture into a conservation park perhaps only once or twice in their lifetime. As a result, rangers often play a critical role in making the public feel welcome while also educating them about how to behave in a way that won’t compromise the environment or risk their own safety.
Our connection to the community of rangers goes back to the early days of Global Leadership Foundation itself. Our very first leadership experience, back in 2006, was ‘Turtle Camp’ at Mapoon in Queensland, where we worked alongside two local rangers. We ultimately supported them in their work for 6 years.
We then continued, for another four years, with leadership experiences on the island of Tetepare in the Solomon Islands, again learning from and assisting local rangers in protecting this pristine environment through the work they did.
In around 2014, we were introduced by Brent Masters to The Thin Green Line, a wonderful organisation that, in its own words, ‘protects nature’s protectors’. The organisation was founded by Australian conservationist, documentary maker and park ranger Sean Willmore.
We worked with Sean and the board in the development of an early strategic plan, which also provided us with, in a sense, a more formal connection into the ranger community. We subsequently sponsored two rangers from Pacific nations to attend the International Ranger Congress when it was hosted in Australia.
A few years ago, Brent suggested to the Association of Rangers and Conservationists Victoria (ARCV) that we might host a workshop at a forum they were holding at the Phillip Island Nature Park.
Gayle ran the workshop and in doing so met Pete Cleary, a ranger on Phillip Island and member of the ARCV management committee. Pete immediately understood what we were sharing around emotional health and could see its enormous potential for rangers.
Since then, Pete has become an enthusiastic advocate for emotional health and the Global Leadership Foundation. He has consistently used emotional health in his own work, and has taken every opportunity to ‘spread the word’.
Pete deeply understands the importance of helping visitors have a positive experience, even if this involves a discussion with a ranger over breaking a park rule. For rangers, effectively having these conversations requires an above-the-line response so that visitors ultimately leave the park appreciating the importance of conservation areas, not begrudging a fine they received.
Through his ARCV connections, Pete and I were invited to speak jointly at the World Ranger Congress in Nepal in 2019. During 2022, we have taken all of this a step further. Ahead of the Oceania Ranger Forum last October, we interviewed a number of emotionally healthy rangers and former rangers from Australia and around the world. We produced a customised edition of our Emotional Health and Leadership booklet for the rangers, incorporating quotes from those interviews. Pete and I spoke together at the forum and shared the booklet with attendees.
From the ongoing work of The Thin Green Line to powerful individual campaigns such as that by Amanda Dudgeon, there is growing awareness of the need to support ranger wellbeing as a central tenet of conservation more broadly.
Global Leadership Foundation is proud that we have been able to play our role in this, and we look forward to continuing to do so for years to come.
Gayle
