Kamal Naicker

Leaving a footprint for the future

Kamal Naicker, newly appointed business manager of SAEON, has been interested in the dynamics of environmental change from an early age.

An eager reader since his teens, his interest in the environment, archaeology and wildlife was first stirred, and then entrenched by books such as The Kontiki Expedition by Thor Heyerdal and National Geographic.

It was this interest that encouraged him to follow the progress of SAEON over the past few years. He is clearly excited at the prospect of being part of the programme.

“Researchers and scientists in South Africa and around the globe are constantly requiring verified environmental data for research and analysis," he says, “and access to such data is a critical need in order to produce high-quality, hard-hitting research”.

Now, with SAEON being established as part of an international network for Earth observation, environmental management and research, and setting up observation nodes in all South Africa’s primary biomes, the information generated in the process can start working for our continent, our planet and our future generations – by influencing decision-making and policy on a national and global scale, he explains.

“SAEON is about further raising awareness of the need for environmental sustainability in the mind of the public, stimulating an interest in the environmental sciences in our youth and providing the tools for researchers to do world-class environmental research. It is about leaving a footprint for the future … a sustainable future,” says Kamal, and refers to the words of Dr Khotso Mokhele, President of the National Research Foundation: “We cannot pursue progress in a wasteland. The achievement of enviable human capital and sustainable national wealth must take place within the context of a protected natural capital.”

As a young researcher in environmental science, his research programmes took him to wild places such as the Kruger National Park and two maritime reserves on the Wild Coast, but for now he is content to be posted at the SAEON National Office in Pretoria in the heart of the concrete jungle. He describes it as the epicentre from where everything is currently happening, from the link to international networks to the establishment of the various observation nodes throughout South Africa.

With responsibilities that include the administration of the growing business of the SAEON network, he is being exposed to a range of new activities.

“It is early days but very important days for SAEON,” he says. He sees the programme’s role as pivotal in setting up platforms to enable and inform policy into the future. He also sees it as instrumental in breathing life into Nepad’s mission of global African citizenship.

For Kamal, man will always be central to the ultimate determination of a sustainable future, a way of thinking entrenched in the days when he was a coordinator for a United Nations funded research programme into human needs, resources and the environment. Other research projects in which he was involved include nature-based tourism in the Kruger National Park, and the role of eco-tourism lodges in South Africa, where he investigated socio-economic challenges, and ways and means to capacitate local communities to arrive at a win-win situation, to benefit both the environment and the people it sustains.

Funded by the Mazda Wildlife Trust, and in partnership with Rhodes University, he was also involved in a six-year long research programme to map coastal reefs, grassland, vegetation and forest cover in two maritime reserves on the Wild Coast.

“It was here that I saw how essential the environment is to man’s existence,” he says.

Kamal also spent four years as professional officer at the National Research Foundation’s Technology for Human Resources in Industry Programme (THRIP), where he became very aware of the need for industry to take the environment into account.

“Each of us has a vital role to play in safeguarding the future of our planet, and at SAEON I want to make every effort to try and make sure this happens,” he says.