McIntire Professor Mark White and Environmental Sciences Associate Professor Tom Smith were having lunch at the Colonnade Hotel, a faculty gathering spot, when Smith came up with the perfect name for a course they were planning—“The Business of Saving Nature.” White wrote it on a napkin and the rest is recent history in cross-disciplinary collaboration.

In May 2003, the faculty team that also included Professor Dave LaRue set off for South Africa with a group of 15 students from McIntire, Environmental Sciences, and the Curry School of Education. The class prepared for their 12-day educational adventure with coursework every Wednesday evening from the beginning of the spring semester until spring break.

“Tom Smith and I first collaborated with Jim Childress from Religious Studies in teaching a course, ‘Environmental Choices,’ which was enthusiastically received by a class of about 400 students spring semester,” White says. “’The Business of Saving Nature’ is a continuation of that interdisciplinary collaboration. Both classes were supported by the recent John Griffin [McIntire ’85] gift to fund interdisciplinary studies.”

Biological Diversity vs. Economic Needs
“The Business of Saving Nature” course draws from each professor’s expertise in business development and environmental preservation. “There is always a tradeoff between economic and environmental concerns, and nowhere is this tradeoff more apparent than in developing countries,” says White. “We chose to explore these tradeoffs in South Africa because its economy is highly dependent on natural resources. We visited agricultural concerns in the Cape Town region, mining operations around Johannesburg, and game reserves along the eastern border of the country. There, despite growing demands for land and natural resources, the government has encouraged eco-tourism as a means of sustainable development.”

“The Business of Saving Nature” class trip explored both the Skukuza Camp in Kruger National Park, where students met with park managers, and Honeyguide Tented Safari Camp, a private game reserve. “I’m not a camper,” says Blair White (McIntire ’03), an accounting concentrator. “But the tents in the private game lodge were gorgeous—carved wooden beds and beautiful mosquito netting, breakfast drinks brought to your tent. It’s easy to see how wealthy foreigners would be attracted to this setting.”

The state-run parks are also trying to broaden their array of services to attract more tourists and are accessible to the less affluent who find a hut with a bathroom adequate for their visit to view wild game in its natural habitat.

Serious Safaris
Saket Narula (McIntire ’03) was exhilarated by a nighttime drive with a ranger looking for lions. “One of our group was in the pool swimming at that time—late at night—and was asked to leave because lions often come to drink there,” Narula says. “We didn’t find lions that night, only tracks, but it felt like a real safari.”

Narula, a finance concentrator, was a volunteer for the International Crane Foundation and also worked for National Geographic in television production and story writing. “’The Business of Saving Nature’ course was a great opportunity for me because not only was it a Commerce class, but it was very relevant to what I’ve been thinking about—finding out how business can help save nature,” he says. 

For accounting concentrator White, the combination of disciplines was inviting. “In the Comm School it’s all very focused. This course was still business, but it exposed us to other interesting subjects you don’t often touch on in class.”

A visit to Lonmin’s Western Platinum Mine also sparked discussion among the students. “There’s a company town at the mine, just like something out of 1920s America,” says Colin Peppard (A&S ’03), a environmental thought and practice concentrator. “Everything is provided for the people who work in the mine—food stores, clothing, everything. I’d never seen anything like it.”

Peppard and others noticed the AIDS education signs posted everywhere in the mining town and learned that the mine lost one to three employees to AIDS every day, a profound loss of human life—and labor. “We visited Welverdiend, a village near the Kruger National Park, and a teen center there provides some AIDS prevention information,” says Laurel Woodworth (A&S ’04), “but the subject of AIDS in South Africa is still a hushed subject.”

Woodworth, a double major in environmental sciences and environmental thought and practice, found the class an excellent fit with her interests. “I was already planning to go to South Africa next year, and I’ve always been interested in environmental studies, but until this class I’d never seen the economic side of this issue. This was the perfect way to integrate both environment and business.”