The CCB education department organized and conducted a bush camp for Kabakae Primary School Environmental Education Club from the 18th to 20th October 2013. The bush camp was held at CCB Ghanzi camp at the Tiisano Education Centre. The objectives of the bush camp were to motivate and inspire students and teachers to develop positive attitudes towards the environment and conservation issues. The lessons were based on wildlife conservation, waste management, water conservation, livestock management practices and the importance of birds in the ecosystem. The Department of Wildlife and National Parks Education Officer also gave a thrilling presentation on Socio-Economic Development. We had a bird walk, campfire activity where students shared jokes, songs and games and the students enjoyed spending time in the pool. The students and teachers appreciated the activities and all participated towards a great success!

The Botswana Civil Society Climate Change Coalition was formed in November 2012 with a committee and representation from the academia, NGO’s, Botswana Council of Churches, Indigenous People and Tribal Authorities. Botswana Council of Non- Governmental Organisations (BOCONGO) serves as the Secretariat of the Coalition so as to ensure a wider participation of other NGO’s especially its Environment and Agriculture Sector of which CCB is a member of. The Food Security workshop was held on the 17th and 18th of October 2013 in Gaborone. The objectives were to address climate change and farming issues, to help communities identify their vulnerabilities and develop coping mechanisms or resilience strategies and to encourage all stakeholders to observe and advocate for issues of food security. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together delegates from the faith based organisations, indigenous people, Botswana government, traditional leaders, small scale farmers, community based organisations, civil society and the media to work towards achieving the workshop objectives. The outcomes were to understand the link between the food security and climate change and to empower communities to appreciate the value of nutritious food in a changing climate environment and drought. The workshop was quite successful and we hope to become a part of such initiatives so as to contribute in developing Botswana’s agricultural sector.

The main aim of this study is to look at the carnivore population densities on farmlands, relative differences between various species, and sympatric associations. This study began in April 2012 and uses the efficiency and success of the San Bushmen to locate the cheetah scats in the wild. CCB uses these trackers for the quarterly spoor survey in Ghanzi, on both cattle and game farms. These trackers survey for carnivore spoor and also track detected spoor to locate cheetah marking trees, scats and kill sites. The tracking takes five full days in each farm from sunrise until sunset at intervals of three months. It is a long day of exploring the bush! This quarter the CCB research team was joined by two volunteers, Valerie How and Marie-Solelil LeHouillier, who were very adventurous and assisted in conducting the spoor survey.