I wouldn’t say it’s changed my life in any profound way. Rather, it’s about the work taking you ever deeper into the challenges we face, and this leads to a greater understanding of what’s at stake and what needs to be done. Over time, you also get to meet many inspiring people working on environmental issues. It’s all these experiences that dictate the passion and levels of commitment.

My thoughts here are like those above. The more you travel and learn about the state of our continent, the more you understand the changes that need to occur as well as the urgency required to implement them.

In general, the biggest challenge environmentalists face is to get people to understand and accept the roles we are all playing, as individuals and communities, in the destruction of our planet. And then the issue of urgency comes into the equation again. We need to act today, not tomorrow.

And then more specifically on Blood Lions, it’s the pushback from the vested interests and countering the lies and misinformation. Most of these facilities have nothing to do with conservation; they are merely commercial operations exploiting wildlife.

Choose the field you want to focus on carefully. And it’s best to do this by truly getting to understand yourself and where you will fit in best to harness your full potential. A central part of this will be to explore whether you are best suited to working with animals, landscapes, people or in the administrative processes for example. And then become as educated or aware as you can on all the issues. And finally, be aware that this is work with long time horizons, which means you must be able to show commitment to see projects through.

That is for others to interpret and determine.

Just start getting involved. And educating oneself is the best place to begin. In this way, we each get to understand the role we are playing with regards to our impacts on the planet. This in turn should make it clearer where you can make an obvious difference.

Environmental work is complex and multi-faceted as a single issue involves a host of factors across the economic, political, cultural and ecological spectrums. While mavericks and strong personalities are vital, so too are qualities that embrace being able to collaborate and work within broad coalitions and groups. Blood Lions has been successful because of the many passionate and committed people involved. The film and campaign would never have succeeded if it were not for them, or the way they have been able to work together with so many other partners around the world.