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Resource and Environmental Management
SFU quarterback gains new outlook on learning on field school in Tanzania
Craving a change of scenery after the closure of the SFU football program last year, resource and environmental management student and former SFU quarterback, Luke Duxbury joined the 2023 inaugural Climate Change and Community Resilience Field School in Arusha, Tanzania.
Luke entered the program with an open mind and few expectations — ready for whatever the experience would bring. “It’s a unique opportunity to travel and experience different cultures while simultaneously being able to take classes toward the completion of my degree — it’s a win-win,” he says.
Alongside a couple of his peers, Luke spent much of his time in Arusha speaking with community members and reviewing literature to better understand how colonial ideas of land use impact wildlife conservation in Tanzania.
“I’m super interested in history and how it has built the world we live in today, so the colonial effects on Tanzania caught my attention. We wanted to understand what is being done and what can be done to improve the situation,” he shares.
Using Arusha National Park as a local case study, they highlighted the colonial history of national parks in the area and how this has negatively impacted local communities and the natural environment. This includes removal of Indigenous communities to allow areas of ‘wilderness’ to exist, only to commodify these areas for tourism (think safari), without allowing Indigenous people to benefit from the industry.
During the field school, students had the unique opportunity to see first-hand the results of varying land-management practices by visiting Arusha National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where the latter takes a slightly different approach to conservation, allowing Indigenous communities to continue to live within the area.
Towards the end of the program, students presented that they learned to an SFU delegation, including President Joy Johnson and AKU leadership who were in Arusha for the launch of the Arusha Climate and Environmental Research Centre. This included what they heard from local Indigenous leaders on what can be done in terms of wildlife conservation practices to enhance community resilience. The consensus was to decentralize wildlife management and engage in conversations with those who have cared for and lived in harmony with the land for thousands of years — and listen for solutions.
After four weeks in the field, Luke says that he feels he has learned more over the past month than he has in the past two years of lectures.
“I’ve always known I enjoy real life experiences and hands on learning rather than lectures in classrooms, I’m happy that there are opportunities to learn in the way we are.”