Aishah, full name Aishah Ali Abakar Abdallah, has been reaching out as a wilderness leader, environmental educator, and example for women’s groups and youth leaders in Saudi Arabia since 1999, when she initiated preliminary discussions on establishing wilderness leadership and Leave No Trace programs in the country.

This trailblazing progress began while she was a young wife and mother to a now University-going daughter of her own. She lives with her family in Riyadh, the capital, but has travelled the length and breadth of the land applying her interpretive awareness activities in the country’s various desert, mountain and coastal/marine ecosystems. She also continues to serve as a member of the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (CEC).

Aishah is of Bornu heritage and a national of Chad, but was born in Makkah, Saudi Arabia and has made Riyadh home. She gives back to her adopted homeland by striving to share the preservation of its natural diversity and beauty, beginning a cycle that she hopes will continue to grow excellent leaders of tomorrow and the future.

In 2009 Aishah was appointed as Coordinator of Saudi Arabia’s national Leave No Trace Master Educator training program. This September, she has been in Jordan conducting Leave No Trace training for protected area management staff, tour guides, heads of community-based organizations, and students involved in conservation and environmental awareness.

Working with local youth, she creates and shapes curricula for conservation development programs while also working with expatriate youth groups, such as the Girl Scouts USA (Overseas) in Saudi Arabia to extend appreciation of the Arabian Peninsula’s wildlands across the globe.

She intentionally focuses on wildland ethics, aiming to provide experiences that prepare competent outdoor leaders whose care and compassion extend to all beings, who understand the processes that have shaped the places they visit and the diversity of life they harbor, and who practice and communicate the ethics of stewardship on Earth. Her newest initiative is EcoClubKSA, an ecological leadership program for schools and youth in the Riyadh region. Its nature exploration activities currently concentrate on hiking, but Aishah hopes soon to add climbing, boating, and riding animals such as horses and camels.

On the international scene she contributed actively to the drafting of the “Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change” launched in Istanbul in August 2015, and has delivered presentations at the WANA Forum in Jordan, 2010, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) at the Crans Montana Forum in Morocco, 2016, and the 2017 Zawiyah Rosales symposium-retreat at Alqueria de Rosales, Spain.

Aishah's childhood experiences in nature conservation were penned in the book Acting For Nature: What Young People Around the World Have Done to Protect the Environment (Sneed B. Collard III, 2000, chapter: “Healing the Desert”.) She herself has authored works that advocate protecting traditional himas as community conserved areas and conserving the Arabian and Nubian Dragon Trees (Dracaena serrulata and Dracaena ombet), IUCN red-listed as endangered.

These unstinting efforts make her an ‘inspiring person’ for this month’s Protecting the Planet newsletter, earning her a richly deserved IUCN CEC award. Aishah is no stranger to awards, having received a ground-breaking Ford Conservation Grant in 2013, to prepare the first ecologically based wilderness leadership curriculum for the Arabian Peninsula.

Some other facts to know about September’s inspiring person’s life:

• 2016 – 2017, Initiated a Biodiversity Club and Promoting Ecological Awareness in Children program in schools and conducted Exploring Deserts and Wetlands activity on weekends for children in the Riyadh region.
• 2009 – 2017, Conducted Leave No Trace workshops and exhibits on behalf of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) and with Arriyadh Development Authority, for King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, Al-Yamamah University, Imam Muhammad Islamic University, and the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu.
• 2008 – 2015, Conducted field trips, wildland ethics, biophilia, and educational programs for the Girl Scouts USA (Overseas) and for schools in the Riyadh Region.
• 2004, Prepared Arabic Draft Leave No Trace Master Educator and Trainer Curriculum for Saudi Arabia (with Dr. S. Zaghloul and O. Llewellyn) and helped plan and design Saudi Arabia’s first national Leave No Trace training program.
• 2003, Managed horse trekking on a field survey of existing and potential protected areas in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) with her husband, for the IUCN WESCANA Protected Areas Thematic Center.
• 2001, Visited local communities as well as conservation, development, and Islamic educational institutions in Chad and Cameroon, led discussions with women’s groups, and explored opportunities for sustainable community development.