In memoriam - Dr. Ian Player Grandfather of Conservation Passes Away

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Johannesburg - Nature conservationist Ian Player has died at his home in the Karkloof Valley in KwaZulu-Natal, the Wilderness Foundation said on Sunday.

"87-year-old Dr Ian Player, passed away peacefully at midday on 30 November 2014 after a short illness," said the organisation in a statement.

"Ian Player committed his life to conservation and, in particular, to the preservation of the rhino".

On Friday, rumours of Player's death arose after his brother and renowned golfer Gary Player tweeted: "My beloved brother Ian has cast his canoe onto the river of life that will shortly take him across to the other side. I will miss you. Love".

"Dr Ian Player is without a doubt the grandfather of conservation in South Africa," said PHASA head Adri Kitshoff at the time.

Player - who is credited with saving the white rhino from extinction in KwaZulu-Natal in the 1950s - suffered a stroke last Thursday.

During his career, Player served on a number of parks boards including that of SANParks.

He also established a number of conservation organisations and wrote books, including one about his passion for canoeing, titled "Men, Rivers and Canoes," and a biography titled "Into the River of Life".

Player is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

The Tootabi Team would like to express our condolences to his wife, family, friends and colleagues.

We are thankful for the work which Dr. Player did and re-commit ourselves to continue serving the conservation cause. We will not allow that the work which he and others did, especially in the area of rhino conservation, be destroyed.

May his legacy be an inspiration to us all to cherish and promote our natural heritage.

The Tootabi Team
 
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What a legend, he will be missed. Condolences to the family.
 
Another great tree has fallen in the forrest of conservation:( May God bless his family in this difficult time and may we aspire to be as great men as he was. RIP Dr. Player, you will be missed, may your legacy live forever.
 
All the very best Mr Player, I hope that the rest of us do not disappoint what you worked so hard for to conserve. RIP.
 
My condolences. Our prayers and thoughts are with his Family and Friends.
 
Dr. Ian Player 1927-2014

Ian Player died in November 2014, aged 87. The older brother of professional golfer Gary Player became involved in conservation in the 1950s as a game ranger on the Hluhluwe uMfolozi Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, Africa’s oldest official nature reserve. When it was established in 1897, there were only about 50 southern white rhinos left in the world, all of them on this reserve. By the time Player began working there in 1952, the population had recovered somewhat to under 500; by 1960 Umfolozi’s population of white rhinos had grown to 600. Player realized that it was dangerous to keep them restricted to one small park, so he convinced his reluctant superiors into allowing to move some of the animals to other protected parts of their former habitat.The resulting Operation Rhino became one of the most successful wildlife translocation programs ever. The southern white rhino became the first animal to be removed from the IUCN endangered species list and has been reestablished from Zululand over much of its former range in South Africa with a population estimated at over 20,000 today. Player eventually retired from the Natal Parks Board in 1974 as chief conservator in Zululand to devote more time to the wilderness movement.

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Ian Player learned his belief in the spiritual value of wild places and the principles of inhlonipho (respect) and ubuntu (compassion) from his fellow ranger Magqubu Ntombela, a charismatic Zulu of royal blood with whom he started working in 1958. “I was steeped in the racial prejudice of my country and Magqubu transformed me,” Player recalled. In 1963 Player and Ntombela founded a Wilderness Leadership School with the aim of taking young people with leadership potential into the wilderness to encourage them to “question their place in the great scheme of things”. The success of the project eventually led Player to establish an International Wilderness Leadership Foundation in 1974, followed three years later by the World Wilderness Congress, the world’s longest-running public environmental forum.

With his practical approach to conservation, Player influenced numerous crucial developments in the conservation field and was honored with honorary doctorates and awards from around the world. More recently, he came out of retirement to campaign for a relaxation of the ban on the trade in rhino horn following the present surge in rhino poaching. Player believed that government-controlled trading in horns from animals that died naturally could force prices down, undermine the illegal trade and provide a source of revenue for conservation. South Africa’s natural heritage is richer for his contribution and we thank his family for sharing him with us.

Gerhard R Damm
 

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