Passion for conservation: interview with Reuben Clements

Azrina Abdullah The Sun Daily 10 Oct 11;

I WAS reading the news the other day about students and their favoured career paths. I was struck by how little our future leaders were interested in conservation as a career and proceeded to contact one of the most passionate conservationists I know, Reuben Clements, a PhD candidate in Wildlife Conservation, to talk about his chosen career path. Reuben has numerous international publications under his belt and is highly respected for his work. Here is the interview with some fascinating views on how conservation became his passion.

Why conservation?
Life is too short, so why not make a career out of something that enables you to contribute to the well-being of this planet? When I saw hills being mined, trees being logged and animals being killed for no reason, I felt I had to do something about it. I feel many would be emotionally affected after seeing habitats destroyed and try to make a difference. To paraphrase Gandhi, if you want to make a change, be the best example of that change, and others will follow.

Were you always into conservation?
No. Before entering university, I did not know what to do with my life. I was “following the crowd” and pondered on safe career choices that would yield a comfortable monthly salary. Back in my time, few teachers or parents would ever tell their kids that they could make a career out of conserving biodiversity. But times are different now with greater awareness of green issues.

My turning point was doing a MSc at the National University of Singapore which focused on limestone karst conservation. I started to take more interest in conservation during my field trips to pristine and quarried limestone hills in Malaysia, where I witnessed both majesty and travesties. My involvement in on-the-ground conservation grew even more when I got a job with WWF-Malaysia as species conservation manager. Although I had limited opportunities to work on limestone karst conservation, I learnt a great deal more about the realities of conserving other ecosystems and species, and had the freedom to design and implement conservation programmes to help protect wildlife. I found this to be very fulfilling.

How do you think your PhD will benefit conservation, and society as a whole?
My PhD focuses on the issue of habitat connectivity for wildlife. Animals need to move safely across highways in order to find food and mates. We want to find out if highway viaducts are being utilised by large mammals, and the factors affecting their effectiveness. This will allow us to identify important wildlife habitats where highways should be avoided in order to reduce the risk of forest fragmentation. We are also conducting research to better understand the attitudes of indigenous peoples towards highways. Only time will tell whether our research will contribute to conservation and society – this largely depends on how effective we are at communicating our research findings to decision-makers who can make important policy changes.

What would you say to encourage youth to select conservation as their first career choice?
In order to do conservation, you need to have interest and passion. Even if someone forces you to be a conservationist, don’t listen to them. I always tell young people to follow their dreams. If a person chooses conservation as a career over a medical or legal path, I still think it is a valuable experience to try it out for some time. But if you still do not derive any satisfaction from it, then please vacate that position and let a more passionate person take over.

Azrina Abdullah conducts research on the links between indigenous groups and wildlife trade. She was regional director of Traffic, an NGO which monitors the global wildlife trade. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com