Inspiration And Integration: Starlion Stakeholder’s Weekend

As a frontline conservation and leadership organisation, the Global White Lion Protection Trust has been pioneering and modelling ecocentric initiatives since its inception in 2002. Alongside its successful scientific reintroduction program of White Lions who were one generation removed from their ancestral homelands, the Trust initiated a multi-level strategy to re-establish the cultural importance of these magnificent creatures in the hearts and minds of humanity – both locally and internationally. This strategy focuses on bringing human behaviour back into alignment with the laws of Nature – known as the 13 Laws of LionHearted Leadership™.

One important tenet of this strategy is the Trust’s StarLion Eco-Cultural Educational Initiative: commencing in 2004 and growing from strength-to-strength ever since, this initiative delivers an inspiring and exciting extra-curricular program, based on the LionHearted Leadership™ model, to local schools and community centres. This pioneering initiative is an essential part of the Trust’s greater vision, which aims to achieve “revival beyond mere survival”: restoring health and pride to the human world, and abundance to the natural kingdom, by nurturing wildlife champions committed to celebrating the White Lions as a living heritage.

In January 2024, the Trust hosted its annual StarLion Stakeholders’ event, during which our StarLion team (as well as CEO, Linda Tucker, and General Manager, Gavin te Brake) welcomed representatives from participating schools for a team-building weekend. Taking place at Koru Camp, located near Hoedspruit in the Big Five Olifants Reserve, the representatives from the Acornhoek and Bushbuckridge areas already had an understanding of the need to promote environmental awareness and leadership in order to guide the youth in their role as custodians of Mother Nature.

Led by Head of Eco-Cultural Education, Rueben Hlangano, and StarLion team members, Lidia Sifunda and Tebogo Mahlake, the stakeholder group immersed themselves in the 13 Laws of LionHearted Leadership™ over the busy two-day workshop.  At the core of this ecocentric, service-based leadership model is the understanding that humanity’s future is dependent on us restoring right-relationship with Nature. LionHeartedness is described as “that quality of fearlessness, inspired by Love and Respect for the natural world, that enables us to transform our human world. It makes us unstoppable.”

 

It is a sad and sobering fact that wilderness habitats across the globe are at risk of collapse due to increasing human pressure. Many experiences with Nature that past generations might have taken for granted are no longer commonplace: questions such as, ‘Why haven’t we seen a chameleon in the last 5 years?’, ‘When last did you hear a cacophony of frog calls?, or ‘What was it like to hear the chorus of bird song at sunrise?’, are now a reality. One solution to halt habitat degradation and promote the rewilding and regeneration of biodiversity is to ignite love and appreciation for the natural world in today’s youth – we protect what we love. Conservation education at school level should be a top priority in current and future curriculums – achieving greater protection for both biodiversity and cultural diversity through the promotion of pride in our natural heritage.

Nature is the keeper of Earth’s resources; these resources are needed not only for human survival but also for our ability to flourish. Our natural environment is full of romance and therapy and also the key to all-round healthy living.

The StarLion Eco-Cultural Education Initiative, pioneered by Linda Tucker, is founded on the relationship between Lions and leadership – which applies not only to the protection of Nature, but also in the everyday lives of people striving to be good leaders. The UNESCO Kruger-to-Canyons Biosphere Region, in which this initiative operates, is home to approximately 1.5 million people living in under-resourced and poverty-stricken communities. Despite the region being a hotspot for high-income wildlife tourism, less than 3% revenue brought in from foreign visitors is ploughed back into these communities. With the knock-on effects of unregulated human encroachment, inadequate environmental management, and in some cases, poaching, the relationship between Nature and humans in these communities has been less than harmonious. It is for this reason that, for the past two decades, Linda Tucker and her team have been delivering the StarLion Initiative to the youth of the region who hold the future of wilderness areas in their hands.

One of goals of the Initiative is to ignite cultural renaissance and socio-economic opportunities in these local communities, promoting skills development and an innate love for wildlife through celebrating the White Lion and integrating the ancient African term Ubuntu – ‘I am because you are’.

As the apex predator, the Lion is at the top of the food pyramid, holding all other levels of the pyramid within its constitution and, as such, responsible for the flourishing of all. It is a representative of good governance, creating balance and harmony in the ecosystem in which it lives (this concept is known as “trophic cascading”). In the LionHearted Leadership™ model, these attributes are innate to all humans, and simply need to be reignited through a remembrance of our connection to Mother Nature.

The StarLion Stakeholder’s event was set in a beautiful natural environment, where elephant bulls visited to drink from the strongly flowing Olifants River, and a pod of hippos responded with deep rumbling agreement to the group’s open-ended discussions. The StarLion team’s insightful, thought-provoking teachings, educational game drives, team-building activities and wonderful hospitality at Koru Camp brought light, hope and balance to the group.

Participants journeyed between gathering information, learning new concepts, dancing joyously and expressing compassion and appreciation towards one another and the natural world. The Ubuntu spirit was felt in every moment.

The 13 Laws of LionHearted Leadership™ provides students of the program with tools to be highly effective leaders in answer to the evolving environmental and humanitarian crises faced by the world today. It is a window to a hopeful future, where both humanity and nature thrive in harmonious coexistence.

SUPPORT the StarLion Eco-Cultural Education Initiative.

ENROL in the 13 Laws of LionHearted Leadership™ online course.