For 25 years, Nature Connect has been planting seeds of possibility, helping young people discover nature, build brighter futures, and become the next generation of environmental changemakers.
Cape Town, South Africa (29 June 2026) – How do you inspire people to love and protect nature?
There is no simple answer. It does not happen through a single lesson, one camp, or a one-off training intervention. It takes time, trust, and repeated opportunities for young people to connect with the natural world, see themselves as part of it, and begin to imagine a future where they can help care for it.
For the past 25 years, Nature Connect has been doing exactly that.
From its beginnings at Zeekoevlei, the organisation has grown into a long-standing environmental education, skills development, and conservation organisation, working to change lives through nature.
Its work has reached learners, youth, educators, and communities across South Africa, creating pathways that begin with connection, continue through skills development and employment, and ultimately lead to lifelong environmental stewardship.
Anwar Boonzaier
One of those stories is that of Anwar Boonzaier. As a teenager from an under-resourced community in Cape Town, Anwar attended one of Nature Connect’s sponsored overnight nature camps at a local nature reserve. Within a short drive from home, he encountered hippos, flamingos, open landscapes, and a side of Cape Town he had never fully known before.
That first experience was life-changing and opened a door.
Anwar reflects that when he attended the camp at False Bay Ecology Park Campsite in 2007, he was in Grade 9. For the first time, he saw a career opportunity that spoke to him.
“I was always that person who had the courage to speak in front of people, especially in school. I was always the first one to go for orals and things like that, so I could relate to the career that I saw. I saw Morne (the Camp Educator at the time), and I saw how they were engaging with the participants, with us. Ever since my camp in 2007, I had that goal in mind that I wanted to do what they were doing. But obviously, in the community that I’m from, Lotus River, and over time, this dream started to fade,” Anwar says.
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After school, Anwar returned to Nature Connect through a government-funded youth development opportunity, gaining work experience with the organisation that had first sparked his interest in the environment. He later completed a Nature Conservation learnership through Nature Connect, combining formal training with practical workplace experience.
Today, more than a decade later, Anwar has helped introduce thousands of children to nature through environmental education camps, creating for others the same sense of possibility that once changed the direction of his own life.
He further reflects that returning to the camp he first visited as a youngster brings back many memories and reminds him where the seed of his dream career was planted. Now, many years later, his life has changed remarkably, and he is helping inspire young people.
“My journey is still going strong. I’m still learning a lot, taking every opportunity I can, engaging, and making sure that all the learners can carry out their dreams, whatever goals or dreams they have. I’m a real testament to ‘if you can dream it, you can achieve it’. All you need to do is put in some hard work.”
Anwar credits Nature Connect for his growth and success and is committed to living up to the organisation’s slogan: changing lives through nature.
“We just keep on going and changing the lives of underprivileged youth, young people who can’t see any options, and youth who live in communities where a role model is very hard to find. If I can be that role model, along with my colleagues, then definitely we can be the best that we can and carry out this slogan.”
Anwar’s story is not an isolated one.
Over the past 25 years, more than 60,000 children have attended Nature Connect’s immersive overnight nature camps, often experiencing their first meaningful connection to the natural world. Many more learners have been reached through curriculum-linked environmental education, school-based activities, teacher support, youth leadership programmes, conservation training, and community-based environmental action.
For some young people, that first camp is simply a powerful memory. For others, it becomes the beginning of a longer journey.
Jumah Ali
Jumah Ali first joined Nature Connect’s Conservation Leadership Programme as an 11-year-old with a passion for nature in 2014.
Years later, while pursuing a degree in Accounting, he continues to give back by supporting environmental education camps and mentoring the next generation of Conservation Leaders. He has also represented youth voices in environmental spaces, including attending the Earthshot Prize Awards in South Africa and delivering a plenary speech at the 2025 Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa Conference.
Christyline Matthews
Christyline Matthews’s journey reflects the same long-term impact. One of Nature Connect’s first skills development participants, she began in a capacity development programme, became part of several key pilot programmes, and today supervises and supports young women as they navigate their own learnership journeys.
“My life started when I started working with Nature Connect, and I could see a bright future,” she says.
These stories show the true depth of Nature Connect’s work. Impact is not only measured in numbers, but also in the young people who return, lead, mentor, teach, and carry the work forward.
Connecting People to Nature and Building Bright Futures
Nature Connect’s approach is rooted in a long-term pathway often described as a Crèche-to-Career model. It recognises that young people enter the environmental space at different points in their lives, from early childhood activities to early-career conservation roles. Across these stages, Nature Connect’s work can be understood through three connected actions: Connect, Create, and Care.
It begins by connecting people to nature through real experiences in real places. It continues by creating skills, confidence, and opportunities in the green economy. It grows into care, where young people and communities become active participants in protecting biodiversity, restoring ecosystems, and shaping a more sustainable future.
“As South Africa faces the combined pressures of youth unemployment, climate change, and environmental degradation, we cannot separate people from nature,” said Dr Anthony Roberts, CEO of Nature Connect.
“If we want young people to care for the environment, we must first make sure they have the opportunity to experience it, understand it, and see a future for themselves within it.”
This work is especially important in communities where access to safe, meaningful nature experiences is limited, and where young people face barriers to education, employment, and opportunity.
Nature Connect’s programmes create entry points into the environmental sector while building confidence, leadership, practical skills, and a sense of belonging. Its Silver Jubilee is not only a celebration of the past 25 years; it is also a reminder of what long-term investment in people and nature can make possible.
The next generation of Christylines, Anwars, and Jumahs is already out there, waiting for the first spark, the next opportunity, and the chance to take up the baton.
Sources: Nature Connect
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