Mlinda founders, Liesl Eisenbeiss and Richard Azarnia, have long been attracted to the idea of wildlife conservation, while taking a strong, parallel interest in the unintended harm that economic growth can have on the environment and biodiversity. They set about addressing these concerns by creating the Mlinda Foundation in 2005 while also juggling other full time activities.A key part of Mlinda’s initial focus was on the need for direct action to protect threatened specifies, such as the elephant of East Africa. Elephant herds, particularly in Kenya, have been ravaged by poaching and the continuing illicit trade in ivory, despite international bans being put in place. Mlinda has also taken an interest in the broader environmental challenges, looking at the impact of desertification on natural habitats and biodiversity, the pressures from climate change and shifts in land use as more food is grown to feed expanding populations.
Taking into account the work done by more experienced organisations in trying to balance the needs of the human population and wildlife, Mlinda has sought its own niche in working to safeguard the environment. Mlinda’s has decided to prioritise energy issues, tackling the root causes of habitat change and addressing the overexploitation of non-renewable resources to address the problems.
A key part of Mlinda’s brief is to challenge and change consumption patterns, raising awareness of the threat they pose to the planet and the importance of behaviour change.
Mlinda has also decided to promote sustainable alternatives patterns of production and consumption, particularly in expanding economies like India’s, looking at how growth can be achieved with less damage to the environment, learning lessons from the negative (if unintended) consequences of economic development in Europe and North America.
In its quest to create models that protect biodiversity and develop less harmful forms of economic development Mlinda has been drawn to the Sundarbans in West Bengal to establish its first programmes. The Sundarbans is an area of immense biodiversity, under threat from rising sea levels where populations are struggling to co-exist with a diminishing natural environment.
