Graham Child, O. L. M. B.Sc. (Hons), Ph.D. was born in 1936 in Rhodesia (later known as Zimbabwe) where he went to school. He attended the University of Cape Town; his thesis dealt with the behavior of large mammals trapped on islands during the formation of Lake Kariba, when the Zambezi River was dammed. He worked as a wildlife ecologist in the late 1950s, and at the National Museum Service of Zimbabwe. He served as the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization's Wildlife Ecologist in Botswana for six years beginning in 1965. This led to his appointment in 1971 as Director of National Parks and Wild Life Management in Zimbabwe, a position he held until his retirement in the 1980s. Dr. Graham Child is the author of numerous articles, papers and books.
Brian Child was born in Rhodesia in 1962 and moved to Botswana with his father in 1965. He returned to Rhodesia in 1970 and attended school at Plumtree, graduating in 1980. He attended the University of Zimbabwe, graduating with a B.Sc. in 1983. He earned a Rhodes Scholarship for Oxford, graduating with his Ph.D. in 1988. Dr. Brian Child was Senior Ecologist in the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management in the Branch of Terrestrial Ecology. Trained as a resource economist, Child's primary assignment until 1990 was to analyze the economics of wildlife in mixed grazing regimes of cattle and wildlife on commercial ranches. This interest in the economics of wildlife utilization led to his involvement in the Community Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE). This work was supplemental to his research on wildlife and cattle on commercial ranches. He began giving technical assistance to district councils with wildlife in southern Zimbabwe where these projects were often developed in cooperation with local commercial ranchers who also utilized both cattle and wildlife. In 1991, he was appointed by National Parks and Wildlife Management as its national coordinator for the CAMPFIRE program. He currently is a professor of geography at the University of Florida, specializing in the management of protected areas and conservation of natural resources.
From the guide to the Graham and Brian Child African Wildlife and Range Management Collection, 1909-2004, 1960-2004, (Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida)
