Francois Odendaal (PhD, FRGS)completed his doctorate in ecological studies in 1981 in Australia and then joined Stanford University to do research in the Colorado Rockies and in tropical rainforests in Costa Rica. He subsequently joined Duke University as a research and teaching associate doing field work in the south-eastern USA. At Connecticut State University he taught a range of environmental courses for a decade to over 300 Masters students with over one hundred participating in field studies in Latin America, Africa and the USA. He returned to South Africa in the early 1990’s to become Principal Research Officer in the Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies at the University of Cape Town. He specialises in tourism development, integrated coastal areas management, protected areas development, heritage preservation and policy formulation processes. He has published numerous scientific articles, and taught government officials and NGOs from more than twenty countries in environmental and development-related courses, and wrote several books.
EcoAfrica represents a network far larger than its own operational staff. The reason is that the company has a strong ethic of mutual capacity building, both within the company itself and its clients. It believes in devolving responsibility and sharing opportunities by including other groups, organisations and individuals in its projects and programmes. In this manner larger networks are established at all levels of society. As an example, EcoAfrica has trained over thirty tour guides in several countries, more than fifty trainers in various fields and more than twenty development facilitators from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. Over a thousand people have been directly employed on projects managed by EcoAfrica, and many of them have started their own organisations, businesses, NGOs, and other development entities. This policy of collective action has allowed the small, close-knit EcoAfrica team to substantially enlarge its footprint in the developing world.
EcoAfrica is intensely aware of the power of public opinion and collective thinking. Awareness raising at all levels is considered pivotal to providing a sound basis for policy processes, natural resource management and equipping teams to deal effectively with a range of environmental issues. Therefore every opportunity is taken to share information and improve access to appropriate training that include hands-on training, short tailor-made courses and innovative information sharing platforms and other ICT applications such as www.dlist.org. EcoAfrica is closely aligned with its sister company Francois Odendaal Productions (FOP) that looks after many of its own media needs and that of its clients.