You're Never too Young to Make a Difference

When a pre-teen pulls out all the stops to make a significant difference to the environment and nature, one has to wonder how the world could be changed if all generations united behind him.

Romario Valentine (12), a Grade 6 learner at Reddam House and resident of Umhlanga Rocks, is an inspiring eco-warrior, despite his tender age.

When he was just six years old, he took the part of an orca in a school play.

This sparked his interest in marine life and soon he was peppering those around him with questions. What he learnt left him perturbed. "I discovered the damage pollutants are causing to killer whales and other marine life, such as turtles and seabirds. So, I decided to do something about it by cleaning the beach weekly."

To date, he's already achieved over 350 beach clean-ups.

This is just one of the ways he is caring for and protecting the Earth and its inhabitants.

Last September, he published a book, Protect our Planet - Take Action with Romario, via Struik Nature, Cape Town, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

The colourful book, available in bookstores nationwide, addresses climate change and other environmental challenges that align with the national school curriculum.

"It has topics on the ocean; bird and other wildlife conservation; plastic pollution solutions; e-waste; and a guide on how to become an eco-warrior; along with fun scientific activities," Romario says.

He was inspired to publish his book as he couldn't find one that had simple information to help people understand the importance of protecting our planet in a fun, educational and scientific way.

"I decided to create my own to help children to become Earth guardians. It took me almost two years to complete," says Romario.

"I hope it can inspire people of all ages to realise we need to act now and protect our beautiful Earth. We can only make a huge impact if we work together and leave an optimistic legacy for future generations to come," he adds.

Choose to Recycle
Romario recently teamed up with Tetra Pak SA for its Choose to Recycle Eastern Cape schools campaign that commenced in July

The campaign involves 22 schools in KZN that aim to collect over 150 000 milk cartons to be recycled by Gayatri Mills.

Joining Forces with BirdLife SA
Another milestone is his involvement in BirdLife South Africa's Mouse-free Marion project, for which he has managed to sponsor 20ha of land via a BackABuddy campaign.

This is an ongoing project that will get rid of invasive rodents affecting seabirds and biodiversity on Marion Island, just off the Western Cape province, says Romario.

Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island's resilience to a warming climate.

"Donors may still contribute to my campaign on BackABuddy if they wish to do so, as more support is needed. Donors can also contact BirdLife South Africa directly and see how best they can support the initiative," he adds.

He was inspired to get involved in the project last year when he won the 2022 BirdLife SA Owlet award due to his prior avian conservation campaigns.

These include helping 900 endangered birds at the Umgeni River Bird Park in Durban during the Covid-19 lockdown and helping with the completion of a 30x30m aviary for abandoned African grey parrots at Birds of Eden in Plettenberg Bay in the Western Cape.

"It is the world's largest free flight aviary and a haven for the many feathered friends," says Romario.

He explains that he read Birdlife SA's website for information on endangered bird species, which is when he came across the Mouse-free Marion project.

"I was saddened to see that the invasive mice were eradicating the biodiversity on Marion Island, including eating seabirds alive, such as petrels and albatrosses. I felt compelled to do something about it."

Ending Lion Exploitation
In another incredible initiative, Romario collaborated with Treeshake in Cape Town, World Animal Protection and Blood Lions to use art as a form of activism to highlight their Pride not Cruelty campaign.

The campaign led to 1 300 lion art submissions and a global reach.

"Lions are a keystone species and their numbers are dwindling. In South Africa, there are about 3 500 free-roaming lions and just over 2 000 in reserves. There are three times more captive lions than there are in the wild," Romario explains.

He strongly believes that lions should not be bred in captivity for cub petting and trophy hunting.

Never too Young to Make an Impact
Romario encourages the youth to get involved in impactful projects and programmes.

"You are never too young to make a positive impact. Start with small achievable goals. Recycle, reuse and only buy the things that you need. Plant more trees and restore biodiversity because we rely on the living natural world for our survival. When we take care of nature, we take care of ourselves," he says.

"There is a lot of information about this in my book," he says.

Being an eco-warrior has taught Romario that people need to be extremely resilient and consistent, especially when it comes to managing their time between school, sports and, of course, play and art.

"Luckily, my parents help me balance everything and I have enough time for rest too," he says.

"You also need to be valiant when you speak up about environmental or wildlife dilemmas because sometimes it's not easy to address 'the elephant in the room'.

He explains that on International Literacy Day, on September 8, he became a literacy influencer for Wordsworth Books.

"I also featured as a subject study on wildlife conservation and environmental activism in Shine Bright, a French public school book for 13- to 14-year-olds that was released this year," he says.