Markus Shinweda

Markus was born and grew up in northern rural Namibia with his subsistence farming family. He started school aged 12. He is now an Ecological Conservationist and Environmental Law Advocate. Namibia has been drought-hit for the past seven years and is the most arid country in the region.

Markus conducts Water Saving Campaign talks at various schools and from 2013-16 he was a student representative for his country and the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) at SADC and African debate champions where he also partakes in public speaking on regional and global environmental, socio-economic and political security concerns. He also volunteers as Environmental Educator, Regional Water Bird Count and Election Observer in Namibia, the second most peaceful country in Africa.

He holds a Diploma and a Bachelor’s degree in Regional and Rural Development, a Postgraduate Bachelor in Natural Resources Management in Nature Conservation (NUST) and is currently a final year MSc Applied Ecology student through the Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal. As a Field Manager, he leads research studies on localised desert elephant populations, conducts community conservation education and monitors an elephant-human water protection project.

Markus believes in a globally shared responsibility in taking care of ecosystems as the safest way to begin a common international sustainable future approach. He is passionate about sharing his views with young academics on nature conservation and sustainability.