about us

Early in his career, Tony Ribbink taught at the University of Cape Town and later Rhodes University. From the mid-1970s he led major international projects from the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology (now the South African Institute of Aquatic Biodiversity—SAIAB), beginning with seven years on Lake Malawi, where he pioneered community involvement in parks and helped establish Lake Malawi National Park. His underwater research produced many scientific discoveries and influential publications in zoogeography, evolution, ecology and systematics all of which contributed to conservation and management regulations, some of which are still in use today.

In 1985 he became Deputy Director of the JLB Smith Institute. In 1995 he was Acting Director, before directing the World Bank/GEF Lake Malawi/Nyasa Biodiversity Conservation Programme, where he coordinated teams from Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Canada, USA, and Europe. From 2000 to 2005 he managed two international WWF freshwater projects. In 2002 he also developed and led the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP), which became a NEPAD flagship project serving eight Western Indian Ocean countries.

In 2007 Tony founded Sustainable Seas Trust (SST) at the request of ACEP partner nations. Initially based in Kenton, SST expanded rapidly and later moved to Nelson Mandela Bay, ultimately engaging with 47 countries. Tony retired from SST to care for Anthea his wife of 53 years when she became terminally ill. His focus now is on building the AET so that it can effectively foster understanding and care among residents and visitors of the remarkable Kenton and Boesmans environments.

I’m Anthea’s youngest son who lives in Seattle with my wife and two sons.  My mom was always encouraging me to notice the natural world.  While I would want to charge ahead and complete our walk so I could get on to the next thing, she would always tell me to “come see this” when she spotted something interesting or unusual that we passed.  These were often precise details like the interaction between an insect and a plant, or an unusual shape or a beautiful flower that had found just the right nook to thrive in an otherwise harsh environment.  In everything there was a curiosity, an explanation to be found, a principle to be affirmed, something to be discovered and learned.  While I forged on to work in tech, I chose to do it in a place surrounded by spectacular natural beauty due to the love of nature that my mother nurtured in me.  I see this trust as a way to continue leading people to find wonder and love in the natural world, inspiring curiosity, learning and growth to enrich all our lives.     

Jonathan, a nephew of Anthea’s, is an attorney with 28 years’ experience in commercial law and commercial litigation. He is a Director at C & A Friedlander Inc. in Cape Town.  Jonathan is married and has two adult boys.  He is passionate about his family, travel, mountain biking and the bush.

Vanessa Rouhani, a close friend of Antheea’s, has always had an interest in the environment, which developed into a focus on the aquatic environment after her appointment as Dr Tony Ribbink’s Research Assistant more than 40 years ago. Her working career has been in the South African Institute of Aquatic Biodiversity where she was a researcher. She then played a leading role in education and outreach and has been employed in science communication, and as happens to all researchers, she has fulfilled administrative roles too. For most of her career her focus has been on the Eastern Cape, though she also worked with Tony and Anthea Ribbink on Lake Malawi and on research trips to the remarkable sinkholes and their unique fishes in Namibia. Her Masters degree, under Tony Ribbink’s supervision, focussed on the fishes of sinkholes and springs of South Africa and Namibia.