​Cheetah Conservation Botswana (CCB) put an everlasting smile upon the young faces of 60 students from three junior secondary schools from the Ghanzi District, between the 14th of December 2017 and 29th of January 2018. This time of the year the Kalahari comes alive, and our Tiisano education centre becomes surrounded with luxuriantly green acacia trees and blossoming bushes all scattered over bright limestone that seems to roll on endlessly. For children visiting our bush camp at this time of year, bush trails and nature walks take on a richness and diversity that is seldom seen at other times of year.
 
This journey started back on the 30th November 2017 when we hosted an inter-school sports competition in Ghanzi to celebrate International Cheetah Day. Through the searing heat, the youngsters pushed and puffed relentlessly to emerge as cheetah champions and to qualify for the prize of these fun-filled bush camps. The winning teams from Ghanzi Senior School, Rethuseng and Itekeng Junior Schools who were all treated to a special bush camp at our education facility. The students enjoyed an array of outdoor games such as the cheetah/livestock coexistence game, an obstacle course, the cheetah survival game, and the food web game. On the second day, the students were taken on a game drive at Tautona lodge in Ghanzi where they marvelled at different animals such as the lions, impalas, springboks, giraffes, ostriches, gemsbok, elands and warthogs. Students also had an opportunity to visit the vulture restaurant at Thakadu, run by Kalahari Research and Conservation where they were given a talk about vulture conservation before being taken on a guided tour to view different species of vultures. It was a fun-filled experience and the students thoroughly enjoyed themselves and headed home ready to share the conservation message with their friends and family back home. We hope that by inspiring these youths that they can go on and become ambassadors for environmental conservation, helping to secure our beautiful Botswana for many years to come. 

​The Rangewide Cheetah and Wild Dog Conservation Program initiated a coming together of professionals from the field of human wildlife conflict (HWC) in an attempt to forge a new Africa-wide working group to promote sustainable human wildlife coexistence. The initial meeting took place in Nairobi, Kenya on the 16th - 17th January 2018 and was attended by 16 of the most influential conservationists and pioneers in the field of human wildlife coexistence. This event acted as a brainstorming session that would be the basis behind building the working group into a useful platform for consolidating techniques, sharing ideas and coming together to make sustainable change in the field. The first actions of the group involved creating the framework for the scientific paper that would highlight the complexities of conflict and the important roles that governments and policy-makers make in the conflict process. Also the group brainstormed for the development of an app that will be used to mitigate HWC in the field. Sharing ideas is a very useful tool in the world of HWC and gatherings like this are incredibly valuable to learn about new techniques, as well as being a great opportunity to forge meaningful partnerships. We are excited to be part of this new collaboration and we will continue to pave the way forward with new frontiers for conservation and coexistence.

​The Pathways Conference is held twice a year to discuss research developments in the environmental and conservation fields. This January’s conference was held under the theme “Living with Wildlife” and prioritised issues of human wildlife conflict as people and wildlife find themselves battling with challenges of sustainable coexistence. The conference was held in Windhoek, Namibia on the 9th - 12th January and was co-hosted by Colorado State University and the Cheetah Conservation Fund from Namibia. Over 200 participants attended the conference from all over the world, including conservationists, wildlife managers, policy makers and students. CCB had the opportunity to present findings from our livestock guarding dog (LGD) research and our research findings from our camera trap surveys in the Ghanzi wildlife management areas. In addition, CCB’s community team members Morulaganyi Kokole and Christopher Mbisana took part in capacity-building workshops held in the lead up to the conference itself. Participants were very excited to hear about our work with LGDs and how they are proving to be an effective first line of defence against predation. People were really impressed about the simplicity of the LGD program, and we also had a lot of positive feedback about CCB programs in general. Overall, it was an exciting platform to share and discuss ideas with key role players in the fields of wildlife from around the world and a great energiser to kick start 2018 with. We are now home, geared up and full of new ideas to tackle the issues of human wildlife conflict at the local level.