Paula Kahumbu

"My job is to just bring sanity to the protection of our natural heritage."

"My purpose is not just to be a scientist, my purpose is really to do conservation through education, through innovation, through storytelling. As a conservation scientist, you’re only producing scientific articles that are only read by other scientists. But when you are on National Geographic or Disney, that inspires people and educates them to care about nature."

"What we know about elephants today is incredible,They are like people."

"If we’re going to do conservation in Africa, we have to be audacious. We’ve got to be courageous, and we’ve got to think big."

"We are losing our national heritage not to poverty, but to ignorance and greed. Our elephants, our rhinos, they don't belong to the government or to NGOs—they belong to the people of Kenya. We must become their guardians."

"For too long, conservation has been seen as a mzungu (white person's) thing. It's not. This is our land, our wildlife, and our story to tell. We must be at the forefront of protecting it."

"We are in a crisis. We are losing species not in the future, but right now. We are the last generation that can save these animals. There is no plan B because there is no planet B."

"We have to tell stories that make people fall in love with wildlife. You don't protect what you don't love, and you can't love what you don't know. That's why we make 'Wildlife Warriors'—to show the beauty and the drama of our natural world."

"If David Attenborough is the global voice of wildlife, then Paula Kahumbu is his fiercely passionate, Kenyan counterpart—a force of nature who has dedicated her life to saving her country's iconic animals."

"Paula has achieved something many thought impossible: she has made conservation a mainstream, national conversation in Kenya. She has given it a Kenyan face and a Kenyan voice, inspiring a whole new generation."

"Kahumbu does not suffer fools gladly. She is a formidable and fearless advocate, known for speaking truth to power, whether confronting poaching syndicates or challenging government policies that fail wildlife."