In the seventh season premiere on Monday, 20 April, Khanyile travels to the Seychelles to find out how the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) programme works. Started by the Zoological Society of London, EDGE is trying to conserve rare species on the island, like the Golden Rumped Elephant Shrew and the Purple Frog, while calculating the amount of unique evolutionary history that would be wiped out if these species were to become extinct.  

The first episode will also follow Juliana Schatz to the Public Lab in New Orleans, where a global electronic hobbyist movement is creating inexpensive tools to monitor and assess environmental hazards.

Each episode of earthrise features two or three ‘mini-adventures,’ where the presenters seek out heart-warming and uplifting stories about the pioneers finding solutions to our planet’s challenges. Another South African, Kath Hearn, is the series producer.

In March, Khanyile travelled to Mozambique to shoot her second segment, which looked at a rural community in northern Mozambique trying to halt the devastation of its rich hardwood trees, which are being felled for fuel. The Mezimbite Forest Centre is a beacon of sustainability, with a nursery division that grows and plants thousands of trees, while nurturing skills needed for agroforestry and education.

“Working on solution-orientated programming is great because it’s all about what can and is being done about various challenges, usually by ordinary people committed to change,” says Khanyile. “Preserving our natural resources is critical to our future, especially in Africa, where so many still make their livelihood from the land. We need to start thinking of maintaining healthy eco systems as a catalyst to employment and not a threat to jobs.”

Before joining Al Jazeera in 2014, Khanyile hosted eNCA’s premier technology show, Tech Report, from 2011 to 2013. She also starred in the award-winning SABC1 miniseries When We Were Black; films like Skeem and Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom; and alongside John Kani in the Sean Mathias play Antigone, among other roles.

Khanyile studied Theatre and Performance at the University of Cape Town, before receiving a Masters degree in Broadcast Journalism from Columbia University, which she attended as the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and the William and Ceil Africa Pulitzer Fellowship.

As a founding member of the poetry performance group, Rite 2 Speak, Khanyile has performed original music and poetry in London, Switzerland and Portugal. She’s also a columnist and editor-at-large for Essays of Africa, a new women’s magazine that launched in November 2014.

Catch the seventh season of earthrise, which premieres on Monday, 20 April at 23:30 on Al Jazeera, channel 406 on DStv.

For more information, visit www.aljazeera.com. Alternatively connect with them on Facebook and on Twitter.