Environmentalist

Junaid Francis may be the seafood industry liaison officer for the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa, but this is just the latest in a series of roles he has played that focuses on the way people relate to the environment. In 2011 he worked with the Centre for Environmental Rights, acting as project officer for the Promoting Participation Programme that provides impoverished communities with the skills and capacity to partake meaningfully in decision-making processes about their environments.

He has facilitated workshops across the Karoo to address hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and has worked with communities in the environmentally sensitive Nyl River and Nylsvley wetland system. He recognises the need for young people to engage actively in the environmental sector, despite the current lack of job opportunities, describing the work as “morally satisfying, by promoting the protection and distribution of the nature’s services to all”.

— Lisa van Wyk

Website: wwf.org.za