About
Tingala Environmental Training consolidates a guiding career that has been mostly word-of-mouth into a brand and a digital academy. The credentials of the man behind it are public and citable; the brand is new.
The man
Richard runs the FGASA Eastern Cape satellite office out of Mill Park, Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). He sits on the FGASA Eastern Cape Executive Committee, holds an FGASA Ambassador designation, and is one of the Assessors authorised to formally evaluate guides across the qualification ladder.
His personal FGASA qualifications cluster at the top of the framework: Professional Field Guide, Professional SKS (DG) — the dangerous-game walking-guide designation — SKS Birding, and the Assessor qualification itself.
Mentors he has trained or assessed include Christiaan Swanepoel (Tracker → NQF2 Apprentice Field Guide, formally welcomed in the FGASA Eastern Cape 2022 AGM citations) and Ashley Meintjes of Lalibela Game Reserve, named a finalist for FGASA Safari Guide of the Year 2024. FGASA itself described Richard and his colleague Andrew Kearney in that article as “two exceptional guides and Assessors.”
Tingala's roots are in the Eastern Cape — malaria-free Big-5 country — and that geography matters: the curriculum is written by someone who works the reserves he writes about, every season.
FGASA recognition
Awarded for extraordinary, ongoing contribution to FGASA and guiding status. Citation criteria: 10+ years in the industry, 1,000+ days active guiding in the Eastern Cape, Register score of 12,500+ points.
FGASA citationRecognising service as Standards Ambassador for the Eastern Cape; developing and assisting reserves and lodges in achieving guiding development goals; identifying and developing Trails Mentors and Assessors.
FGASA citationThe brand
Most of Richard's mentorship — the trainees, the assessments, the FGASA committee work — has been done under his own name and through the FGASA Eastern Cape office. Tingala Environmental Training is the new umbrella for that work: a formal trading identity, a curriculum, an academy. It's not a re-invention; it's a consolidation.
We're being deliberate about not overstating the brand's age. The man behind it has been doing this for more than a decade with the receipts to prove it; the brand itself is new and we want it to earn its own track record in the open. As Adam Mather (our founder-investor) puts it: we don't want a Mickey-Mouse academy — but we also don't want to dress up the brand in clothes it hasn't earned yet.
If you've worked with Richard before — as a student, a colleague, a lodge, a reserve — and you'd like to be quoted on the site, please get in touch. We're collecting voices, not inventing them.
Accreditation
The South African accreditation chain runs SAQA → CATHSSETA → IGT → FGASA-endorsed delivery partners. Richard's personal FGASA Assessor accreditation is current and verifiable. Tingala Environmental Training is in the process of formal endorsement as a delivery partner; until that lands, every Tingala assessment that goes onto a student's FGASA Register is logged by Richard personally as the named Assessor.
What this means for you, as a student: your FGASA record is held by FGASA, not by us. Tingala curricular material is written to align with the published FGASA syllabus, version + section cited per module. We won't pretend to badges we don't yet hold; what we offer instead is one of FGASA's own Ambassadors marking your work.
Where our claims come from
Every statement on this page about Richard's standing, awards or quoted FGASA language is traceable to an FGASA-published document or page. The links below open in a new tab.
Richard's role, satellite office, FGASA Ambassador designation, four FGASA qualifications.
Addo Award + Honoris Aloe Gold citations and criteria.
Richard presenting the 2024 Addo Award + Karoha Award.
FGASA's “two exceptional guides and Assessors” quote in the Ashley Meintjes profile.
The current FGASA qualification framework that the Tingala curriculum tracks.
FGASA Eastern Cape satellite office address and direct line.
Photography on this site is currently placeholder material licensed under the Unsplash License; full credits at /photography/CREDITS.md. A commissioned library replaces it as the academy moves to general access.
Contact
The fastest route in is email; Richard splits his time between the office in Gqeberha and the reserves he assesses at, so phone is best for time-sensitive things.
Phone (FGASA Eastern Cape office)
Office
4 Pagden Road, Mill Park
Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha), Eastern Cape