Hamburger saves nature and animals in Zimbabwe

Nature conservation - Hamburger saves nature and animals in Zimbabwe

Wilfried Pabst only invests in projects that are profitable. Spending money just like that doesn't suit the Hamburg-born, thoroughbred entrepreneur. With one exception: 30 years ago, Pabst bought a huge cattle farm in Zimbabwe. The 60,000-hectare area had been grazed and was run down. The wild animals that once lived there - elephants, lions, rhinos, giraffes, antelopes - had long since been displaced by farmers to make room for their herds of cattle.

The purchase was certainly not a good investment from a financial point of view. But Pabst, who had made millions in the freight forwarding sector, had a vision: he wanted to return the land in south-eastern Zimbabwe to the state it was in before people began to profit from it. Pabst named the farm Sango, which means "forest" in the local Shona language, after the mopane forests that grow in the reserve and offer protection to endangered rhinos and wild dogs in particular.

Today, three decades later, around 200,000 wild animals live on Sango. The reserve is now part of the Savé Valley Conservancy, an association of private nature reserves in southern Zimbabwe.

Around 60,000 hectares, which is slightly less than the size of Hamburg (75,500 hectares), the city where Pabst grew up and initially began his training in the shipping industry. But ostentation is not for the 80-year-old. His tone is gentle. His style of dress is casual and sporty. Conversations are his favorite thing to do

Hard work with many hurdles

It took a good ten years for Sango to be rehabilitated to such an extent that wild animals were reintroduced in a balanced ratio. Pabst worked closely with nature conservation experts from the region to achieve this. "We want to lead by example and manage the farm as ecologists recommend," he explains. His goal is to create a nature reserve that is 100 percent scientifically proven.

It has been years of hard work with many hurdles, says Pabst, in a country that was systematically run down under long-term ruler Robert Mugabe and his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa. Sango cost him a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but it was always worth it.

Pabst's wife Kerstin also knows of many challenges: Droughts, forest fires, Zimbabwe's ongoing economic crisis, the poisoning of animals by anthrax bacteria and much more. Pabst overcame everything with his positive attitude to life, passion and determination, says his wife.

Pabst was drawn to faraway places early on. At the age of 18, he emigrated to South Africa - a friend had raved to him about the country. Pabst always liked adventure. In 1964, he landed in the business metropolis of Johannesburg and soon found a job as a department manager at a printing company.

A year later, an acquaintance invited him on a "test safari" in the Okavango Delta in neighboring Botswana. Safari tourism as we know it today did not exist back then. Pabst lost his heart to Africa's nature. It was then that the dream arose, albeit a vague one, of one day owning his own piece of nature on the continent.

"It was love at first sight"

But first Pabst went back to Germany. In 1992, a business partner told him about a cattle farm for sale in Zimbabwe. Without further ado, Pabst chartered a helicopter to take a look at the land. Then there was no turning back: "It was love at first sight," he recalls.

He has invested around 15 million euros of equity in Sango over 30 years, Pabst says openly. Every month, he adds a large sum from his own pocket.

He had an eco-luxury lodge built on the site, which mainly attracts photo tourists and big game hunters and generates profits. However, this does not cover the costs, says Pabst. After all, the most important thing is that the guests leave few traces in nature. "I don't want tourist buses with Coke bottles flying out the back or tarred roads in the bush," he explains. When it comes to Sango, he has always put nature conservation before profits.

Putting in a lot of time, energy and money

He knows few private individuals who are as committed to nature conservation as Pabst, says David Goosen, Managing Director of Sango since 1997. Pabst has invested an extraordinary amount of time, energy and money in Sango and the Savé Valley Conservancy. "I am sure that both reserves would no longer exist without him," says Goosen.

As long as he stays fit and healthy, he still has a lot planned, says Pabst. He wants to buy land to expand the reserve. In collaboration with conservationists, he is in the process of creating a climate project on Sango to store carbon.

Pabst says that he wants to start to slowly retire when he is around 85 years old. Then his youngest son Nicholas, who is currently studying industrial engineering in the USA, will take over. His older brother Andreas, who runs a trading company in Germany, will support him. That is the plan. But you can tell that Pabst is finding it difficult to let go and hand over his life's work to the next generation. "That will take a while yet," he smiles.