Download Sheila Berry - Harmony with Nature

Sheila Berry has been associated with wilderness in South Africa for more than 30
years. She facilitated wilderness experiences for youth at risk of pursuing a life of
crime. She also accompanied youth from violent townships to experience the peace
and healing of unique wilderness areas. Her M.A. dissertation “The Therapeutic Use
of Wilderness” helped pioneer Wilderness Psychology in South Africa. She is
currently WAG ’s Deputy Chairperson and is also a trustee of the Ian Player
Foundation, the Magqubu Ntombela Memorial Trust, the Global Environmental
Trust, and EarthLore, and is an advisor to the Wilderness Leadership School. She has
worked with indigenous people, focussing on hunter-gatherer communities in Africa,
and spent four years on Bazaruto island in Mozambique, working with artisanal
fishing communities. As a champion of wilderness and environmental and social
activist, she has been involved in various successful campaigns including the
Campaign to Save St. Lucia opposing titanium mining of vital dunes, and Save the
Vaal Environment, a campaign that successfully opposed SASOL's Wonderwater open
cast coal mine that would have contaminated the Vaal river and destroyed a vital
wetland. She is currently spearheading opposition to Ibutho Coal's proposed Fuleni
open cast coal mine on the boundary of the iMfolozi Wilderness Area and affecting 7
villages.