The Pangolin Warrior

Lisa Hywood wastes no time with small talk. She’s on a mission. The conservationist and director of the Tikki Hywood Foundation based in Harare, Zimbabwe shoulders worriment for Africa’s endangered wildlife, but carries in her heart the plight of the pangolin.

I meet Lisa at her Harare office on a sunny, late-summer day to discuss the obscure, endangered animal that has become the most trafficked creature on Earth. We sit at a long table of polished ornate wood surrounded by beautiful, poster-sized photographs of her beloved pangolins.

“What do you want to know?” Lisa asks abruptly. An enigmatic figure, she’s fierce and openly passionate about underdog wildlife species, but is personally guarded. She shuns questions about herself but effuses when asked about the foundation and the efforts to save pangolins.

Lisa established the foundation in 1994 in memory