The Garden Route is in my bones. I grew up here, walking the forest paths with my mother not far from where Strangefoot, our country’s last free-roaming elephant, once walked with her own mother. We were raised just kilometres apart, both shaped by the same land, both guided by our mothers. Yet today, Strangefoot walks alone, the last of her kind, while I am still together with my family, my mother still here as matriarch, watching my own children prepare to stretch their wings and explore new lands. I often think about how Strangefoot and I have the same homeland, but very different futures.

Eden to Addo was born from that contrast, recognising that all species deserve to continue their lineage here on our beautiful blue-green planet. 20 years ago my mother founded the ambitious vision to connect Eden to Addo, inspired in part by the last lonely Knysna elephant and by a simple truth she often repeats: you cannot save a species without saving their habitat. When landscapes are fractured and fragmented, life unravels, and this division is one of the greatest threats to life on Earth and our survival.
My mother has handed over the Eden to Addo leadership to me, as matriarchs do, and I now carry the vision forward, reconnecting land and life from the Indian Ocean to the Karoo, from the Garden of Eden to the plains of Addo, so animals can move, seeds can spread, rivers can flow, people can thrive and life can keep renewing itself.

At times it can feel overwhelming, but I am not walking alone. This work is carried by farmers, scientists, partners, land restoration workers, and by nature itself, which is always networking, always reconnecting, always striving for abundance. Already we have protected over 55 000 hectares of land, connecting nature reserves and national parks, and the most heartening of all is that the animals are using these ancient paths. They are remembering that life has always flowed.

We are at a turning point in our human story, and we can all feel the uncertainties of our future. The threads that bind us, to each other and to the living world, are fraying. Clean water, fertile soil, healthy ecosystems are no longer guaranteed. Healthy human communities with sustainable livelihoods are no longer guaranteed. This is the moment that asks something of us: to step up, to belong, to be good ancestors and save all that we love.

If you’ve ever felt that deep sense of belonging – with your loved ones laughing around the dinner table, in the dappled shade of ancient forest trees or under a sky full of stars, then you already know what’s at stake. And if this story resonates, perhaps this is where you belong too. Become a Guardian of Eden. Help keep life flowing and leave a legacy of life, now, while we still can.