Protip #5: How to create win-win situations and gain popular support

Pan Wenshi was recently featured by the International Herald Tribune for his success working with locals in a small Chinese village to protect the white-headed langur. But it wasn’t until Pan lent a hand to help locals that he began to realize success. After Pan helped a villager to get clean drinking water, the villager freed a langur from a trap and brought the animal to Pan, who learned from the experience. Now, Pan advocates for new schools and health clinics in the area where the langurs live. In return, he gets local support. “When you help the villagers, they would like to help you back,” says Pan. “Now, when outsiders try to trap langurs the locals stop them from coming in.”

Pan’s success grew when he won an environmental award that allowed him to install biogas collectors. The villagers could now cook without the toil of chopping firewood and the langurs benefited by slowed deforestation. Serving the needs of others has allowed the langur population in Pan’s nature reserve to expand from 96 to over 500. “This [serving the human community] is the most important thing we can do,” says Pan. “If the villagers can’t feed themselves, the langurs don’t stand a chance.”

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I’m thrilled to be asked to be a regular blogger here at Eco Child’s Play. I want to tell you a bit about myself and what I hope to contribute here. I am the author of the Gaia Girls Book Series, a wellness columnist, speaker and presenter, and doing my best to live lightly on the earth.

The first book in the seven-book Gaia Girls series, Gaia Girls Enter the Earth, came out in 2006 and won several awards, including the National Outdoor Book Award. I routinely present to schools and groups, email and blog with my young readers. Let your hearts be light…there is a real passion brewing in the next generation!

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