THE WOMAN PROTECTING SOUTH SUDAN’S PARKS FROMWAR AND POACHING

Bibiana Martin can hardly remember a time when she didn’t live or work in the bush. The 32-year-old has been protecting South Sudan’s forests since she begged her grandfather to join the wildlife rangers at age 12, because her family could not afford to send her to school.“The officers said, ‘You’re too young; you can’t be a ranger’, but I refused to listen. I said if I’m not going to school I don’t want to just sit in the house,” says Martin, waving her hands animatedly as she speaks, laughing much of the way through the conversation.