Sarel van der Merwe |
Former Chair, Special Matters Committee, Electorate
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During fieldwork in the Kgalagadi-South Region of Botswana
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Sarel obtained his Diploma in Soil Conservation Engineering in 1971. He worked some seven years for the Department of Agriculture, five years in the Kruger National Park and assumed his position as Curator: Bloemfontein Zoo on 1 March 1980, which he held until August 2008, when he went on early retirement. He later switched to the natural sciences and obtained his Master’s Degree during September 2009, some two weeks after his 62nd birthday.
Sarel was the initiator and founding member of the African Lion Working Group during October 1999 at Warm Baths, South Africa, during the annual general meeting of the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group of IUCN/SSC. Since its founding, member numbers have grown steadily from 15 to 107 highly qualified lion specialists today. His passion is the conservation of the African Lion in Sub-Saharan Africa. |
