The 2015 People and Protected Landscapes honours class completed an internship with the Swartkops Conservancy this week. The internship aims to get students stuck into the realities of conserving biodiversity outside of protected areas, and on a human dominated planet. This year, the class got involved in thinking about these issues in an urban context. They assisted the Conservancy with an education day for local school kids, running a lesson on bird migrations and showing children how the estuary is connected other parts of the world. They also conducted a public opinion survey that will form the basis for an awareness raising program surrounding a critically threatened wetland in the estuary system. Throughout, the class was tasked with cross checking and probing the extent to which the theory they have learned in class assists them to come to grips with real life situations.