Animal Keeper's Association of Africa

Ed note—Dr Penning is the PRESIDENT OF WAZA AND CEO OF SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION FOR MARINE BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH (uShaka Sea World, ORI & Sea World Education dept)  My boss.  And we are very proud of his role in international conservation.  As South Africans, we should all be very proud!!  He also has a great sense of humour.  Read on.

• What do you want to be when you grow up? I don’t plan to grow up! 
• Champagne or Whiskey? Definitely whisky (Scotch) – not whiskey (Irish). Champagne? No chance! 
• Reptiles or mammals?  Reptiles
• If a genie gave you three wishes, what would they be?  One - To go back a few hundred years knowing what I know now, and have the influence to change the course of history. Two – to keep the Beatles/Rolling Stones/ Led Zepellin etc. alive and playing music together forever. Three – to visit every country in the world with my mates to see wild creatures. 
• If you had an opportunity to live a double life, what would your double do for a living?  Professional musician. 
• Tell us about your musical fetish. Food for the soul! I have a gorgeous Fender Strat electric guitar, and can bumble along on drums and bass guitar. I do music instead of therapy….. ha ha. Best accompaniment has to be my dear friend Dave Morgan, who has an excellent voice, and Andrew Eriksen, who doesn’t. 
• What does conservation mean to you?  Living with nature, and not outside of it. We are one strand in a very big web, and we need all those other strands for our survival. 
• Who do you think has been the most successful conservationist of all time and why?  Noah… because he had some help from a higher power and a big boat. In modern times, Gerald Durrell was way ahead of his time, and Bill Conway has shaped the way we think in our industry. 
• Where will you be in ten years time? I hope to be a vet working with wild creatures and enjoying wild places…. Just as I am now. 
• What is your favourite animal and why? I have several, but I think the Amur tiger stands out. Beautiful, dangerous, elusive, powerful, mysterious… 
• What gives you hope for our planet? The fact that there are so many really amazing people trying to save it!
• How does it feel to be the President of WAZA?  It is a huge responsibility, and there is a lot of work to do. But the end product is enormously gratifying. Being WAZA President and being on the uShaka development and construction team are the two toughest things I have ever done. 
• Best animal moment? Being hugged by a wild Mountain gorilla in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest… 
• Best thing about our industry? Working with amazing animals and amazing people. 
• What do you want in your Christmas stocking? She won’t fit.

Dr Penning recently attended an important meeting where some amazing decisions were made for the planet. Here is his account of some important decisions that were taken for international conservation…
“I recently went to the Conference of Parties (COP-10) to the Convention on Biodiversity in Nagoya Japan.  There are 193 signatory countries, and some 18 000 delegates attended. The COP agreed to set targets of 17% land, 17% fresh water bodies and 10% coastline for protection, which is very encouraging, and set a target of 15% of degraded land to be restored in the next ten years. Japan committed US$ 2 billion to reach those targets, while Lifeweb does a lot of work on protected areas, and has US$ 110 million following the COP-10. The parties also agreed to commit US$ 1 million to work out a solution to access and benefit sharing, which is a major step forward. I was encouraged to see substantial collaborations from the business community geared toward more sustainable business practice, and all the big multinational players were there. All in all, it was a most heartening meeting, in that many people displayed a strong desire to address the loss of biodiversity.
However, it will all come down to execution and enforcement at the end of the day, and that’s where our conservation management agencies will need to build capacity. We must help them in every way that we can.”