Resson Kantai Duff is Kenyan conservationist and the deputy director at Ewaso Lions.

Early life and education

Kantai's father belonged to a nomadic Maasai community, which gave her an early knowledge about wildlife and how to protect them.[1] She earned her Bachelor's degree with honours at the University of Nairobi. She received a scholarship from the Wildlife Conservation Network and she went to study at the University of Oxford, where she obtained a MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation, and Management.[1][2][3]

Career

Kantai worked at Save the Elephants, first as a Projects Officer and later on as the Head of Awareness.[1][3][4] She was also a writer and editor for the International Institute for Sustainable Development.[5] She currently works at Ewaso Lions as the Deputy Director.[6][7]

Early in her career, Kantai was part of an elephant conservation project aimed at improving cross-cultural understanding between China (the world’s biggest consumer of illegal ivory) and Kenya. She participated, together with Chris Kiarie, on the "From Kenya to China" conservation tour in June 2014. As part of this trip, they travelled to five different cities in China, to better understand ivory trafficking and use, as well as to provide educational talks on elephant conservation.[8][9][10] In late 2021, Kantai gave a TED talk on the importance of empowering local communities in conservation biology.[11]

Leadership

Kantai is a strong advocate of the importance of diversity in conservation science. She participated in the conference Pathways Kenya 2020 "Open the Door to Diverse Voices".[12][13] She has spoken about the need to decolonise conservation. Most notably, in November 2020, she wrote a commentary article on Mongabay, where she addressed racism in conservation science in Africa. In this article, twenty African women shared their experiences of inequality in the workplace.[14] This article was amongst the ten most viewed articles that month in the website.[15]

Kantai is also a board member of the Conservation Alliance of Kenya; at her time of joining she was elected as the youngest member of the Board.[6][16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Nyaga, John (8 March 2016). "Resson Kantai's mission to save Elephants". Swara. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  2. ↑ "Resson Kantai". iisd.
  3. 1 2 Ella, Ivory. "Honoring Our Matriarchs". Ivory Ella. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  4. ↑ "Elephant On The Menu? It's Not Just A Birthday Dish For Robert Mugabe". Colorado Public Radio. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  5. ↑ "Ewaso Lions | WCN Expo". WCNExpo. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  6. 1 2 "Our Team is Growing!". Ewaso Lions.
  7. ↑ Wangui, Vicki (2017-03-09). "Women in Conservation Being Bold for Change". Nyika Silika. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  8. ↑ Luo, Yu; Gao, Yufang (2020-02-03). "In the wake of the China-Africa ivory trade: more-than-human ethics across borders". Social & Cultural Geography: 1–22. doi:10.1080/14649365.2020.1724320. ISSN 1464-9365. S2CID 213215293.
  9. ↑ "Save The Elephants Visits China". Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  10. ↑ Halliday, Paula Kahumbu with Andrew (2015-03-12). "We must keep up pressure on China to end the ivory trade". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  11. ↑ "What Now … for planet Earth? Notes from Session 4 of TEDWomen 2021".
  12. ↑ "Open the door to diverse voices: Pathways Kenya 2020". Elephants & Bees. 2020-02-26. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  13. ↑ "Home". Pathways Africa. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  14. ↑ "Building a road to recovery for subtle racism in conservation (commentary)". Mongabay Environmental News. 2020-11-19. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  15. ↑ "Our most popular conservation news stories in November 2020". Mongabay Environmental News. 2020-12-09. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  16. ↑ "2019 Wildlife Conservation Expo" (PDF). WCN. 12 October 2019. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
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