Riaan Manser

Riaan Manser has spent two decades doing things that had never been done: around Africa by bicycle, around Madagascar and Iceland by kayak, across the Atlantic by rowing boat. Each expedition was less about the record than about proving what ordinary determination can achieve.

My career in the outdoors has shown me the worst of it firsthand: centuries old forests cut down across Africa and Madagascar, plastic pollution stretching thousands of kilometres across the Pacific, reefs plundered for profit. It turned an "it's not my problem" attitude into an active search for solutions.

I've learned two things since: keep your own backyard litter free before you try to convert the village, and we need a real environmental economy one where young people build well paid careers while respecting the planet, not just protesting for it.

That conviction is what Students in Antarctica grew out of. Riaan founded the programme to put young Africans into the one environment that makes the stakes impossible to ignore, and he travels with every cohort from Cape Town to Antarctica.