We are so happy to announce that CCB has just hosted our first educational bush camp in over two years! During a very long lockdown of our bush camps due to COVID-19, we took the opportunity to revamp our environmental education curriculum to include an even more diverse array of lessons, with a strong focus on indigenous knowledge. The new curriculum meant that classroom lessons and biological concepts were constantly reinforced with fun games and activities out in the bush, in a bid to drive home our conservation messages and to include even more fun! All we needed was a school to test out our new curriculum. The perfect school came to us from one of our target villages – Kacgae. The Primary School wanted to bring their Standard 7 students to our camp for a combined programme of our bush camp, plus extra study time for the students to revise for their upcoming exams. We were happy to oblige, tailoring the programme to add an extra few hours each day for their independent study. 
 
The students from Kacgae Primary School joined us at our Tiisano Education Centre from the 28th August to the 1st September for a week of fun learning, great games and an exciting bush experience. The children were treated to lectures and games highlighting Botswana’s wildlife, the critical role that cheetahs and other wildlife play in the ecosystem and how we as people can help conserve nature. One major goal of the new curriculum was to infuse our conservation lessons with the local indigenous knowledge. To help us do that, our teaching staff were joined by Master Tracker Nijoxlau from Kacgae and veld food and traditional medicine expert, Ritha. The pair shared with the students their knowledge and experience about wildlife, veld food, traditional herbs, medicines and bush craft with the students. The children even got their very own wildlife tracking training out on our farm, discovering the tracks of steenbok, warthog, aardvark, jackals and brown hyenas within walking distance of our education centre! This integration of traditional culture into our curriculum aims to reinforce the importance of indigenous knowledge and how it synergizes with conservation efforts. The San culture represents one of the world’s oldest continuous cultures and one that has lived in harmony with nature for time immemorial. We hope that this shift will help build up cultural pride in the children that attend our bush camps.
 
The new curriculum was a huge hit with the teachers and students alike. The main highlight of the camp was the range of new games and activities that we have incorporated into the curriculum. This included a cheetah survival game, where students pretended to be cheetahs, and had to navigate an obstacle course of threats like snares, lions, traps, (fake) bush fires and farmers with guns to find food and water. Modelled off a similar game created by our friends at Ewaso Lions, this game demonstrates the many challenges, both natural and man-made, that cheetahs must face in their daily struggle for survival. With games like this, we hope to build empathy for wildlife, in a bid to improve attitudes towards carnivores that live in these student’s backyards. 
 
We are absolutely ecstatic to have our education centre open again for students to visit and we cannot wait for the next group to arrive in November to enjoy the fun of learning about the environment!  

We use camera traps for a range of activities at CCB, from researching our beloved cheetahs, to more obscure species like aardvarks, using them as ways to count animals, expand known ranges of species, or using old flash cameras as light deterrents for brown hyenas. In the last decade, CCB’s camera inventory has grown to a considerable 168 cameras. At present, the largest portion of these cameras are involved in monitoring wildlife populations in the wildlife management areas in the south of the Ghanzi District as part of our pilot Conservation Performance Payment Scheme. This programme requires ongoing monitoring of wildlife populations so that wildlife sightings can be converted into tangible benefits for the communities that safeguard these wildlife management areas. As part of his Masters research, CCB staff member Chris Mbisana is assessing the occurrence of large carnivores in relation to cattle posts, using 120 cameras placed at and around cattle posts. So far, several different carnivore species have been detected – cheetah, leopard, lion, African wild dog, spotted hyena, brown hyena and black-footed cat, among others. We are very excited therefore to develop our approach further. 
 
The cameras have been out since May of this year, all throughout the Botswana dry season (May – October). This has several benefits, such as limited vegetation which increases wildlife detectability and leads to better imagery. There is, however, also a downside. Sadly, in early September we lost three cameras due to veld fires that burned down a large portion of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the neighbouring wildlife management areas. 
 
Not only did these fires destroy our cameras, but they disrupted our lion collaring efforts too. Our research team, together with PhD candidate, Kaileigh Smith, and veterinarian, Erik Verreynne, had finished an arduous 17-hour day of tracking lions to return to their campsite for some well-deserved rest, only to find the veld fire dangerously close to their campsite – forcing them to break camp at 3 am. Research has shown that the Ghanzi District burns more than any other district in Botswana. Between 2006 – 2017, fires burned 25 million square kilometres (9.7 million square miles) in the Ghanzi District alone. Although largely a natural phenomenon, the veld fires that occur here are made worse by the drought conditions, which are worsening with climate change. The impacts that these more severe and frequent fires are having on wildlife are not well understood. To help us investigate the impacts of these veld fires, Tarleton State University student, Sebastian Rogers, has come on board under the watchful supervision of CCB’s own, Otshabile Bahetoleng and Chris Mbisana, to study this. We can’t wait to see what he uncovers! 

​The Research department at CCB, together with Ecoexist, Leopard Ecology and Conservation (LEC), and other international wildlife conservation organisations were invited by Kalahari Research and Conservation (KRC), to take part in a comprehensive survey of lion populations in the Kgalagadi district. The study took place in early August and aimed to assess the distribution and abundance, of lions in the region. 
 
To ensure the success of this ambitious eight-day undertaking, each participating organization was assigned an expert local tracker, who’s expertise included in-depth knowledge of the region, and intricate knowledge of lion movement patterns and behaviour. Each of the several teams took a different route each day, surveying roads for wildlife tracks (spoors) to ensure the greatest possible coverage of the large geographical area. The combination of resources, expertise, and fieldwork efforts of our organisations effectively maximized the project’s impact while increasing the likelihood of capturing accurate and representative data for the whole region.
 
The use of technology is a great asset to modern methodologies in research and conservation. The teams had at their disposal high-resolution cameras allowing them to capture detailed facial imagery of the individuals they encountered. This additional data collection component aims to support individual identification through unique whisker spots to facilitate population estimation using capture/recapture methodologies; helping to contribute to the broader understanding of lion demographics and dynamics in the region. 
 
The findings of the survey are expected to contribute to evidence-based conservation strategies in Botswana, and possibly beyond our borders. The work done also emphasizes the importance of collaborative efforts in harnessing opportunities to address wildlife conservation challenges.

We are both sad and happy for one of our CCB staff, who after 15 years with the organisation, will be leaving us to explore a new and exciting opportunity in the Tuli Block in Eastern Botswana. Morulaganyi Kokole, our Farming for Conservation Coordinator, caught up to have a chat and reflect on his time at CCB. 

When did you first hear about CCB?
I didn’t know much about CCB, because at a time, CCB was technically new. I was driving from Lobatse, and an old Prado vehicle with a CCB logo on the side overtook me, and I decided to take the phone number down. At that stage, I was still a fresh graduate looking for a place where I could gain experience. When I later called the number, I asked to meet with them. It was only after we met them that I realised the person I had been communicating with was Rebecca (Klein, co-founder and director of CCB). After our meeting, Rebecca offered me an opportunity to be a volunteer, which I did for a couple of months before I went back to study for my B-tech at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, at Western Cape. Upon completion of my studies in 2007, I got in touch with Rebecca again and enquired about available opportunities. She responded and said that there was an opportunity, and encouraged me to put in an application. I was offered the Community Outreach post in February 2008.

What were your first impressions when you started working for CCB?
At the time when I was a Volunteer there wasn’t much at CCB, there were not so much activities, and even moneywise, it was still a new Organisation and they were still trying to put everything together. 
When I came back as a Community Outreach Officer a year and a half later, CCB had become very busy and there were even three brand new Hilux 4x4 vehicles. I was impressed and believed this organisation was going to grow tremendously. It had already grown within a short period of time and one could clearly see there was potential for it to expand even further. I really loved the work — it was my first job experience in a formal conservation setting. It was quite impressive. It was very clear that the organisation had focus and a vision.

What was CCB like back then?
Back then things were not easy, especially because there was a shortage of cars.  I remember there was an old Landcruiser we called ‘Beast’. We used it often to travel from our base in Jwana Game Park to buy food in the nearby town of Jwaneng. But like I said the management were doing all they could to make sure the organisation prospered. The cost of things has changed dramatically since then. When I started, our subsistence wage was P20 per day (US$1.4), compared to the current P154 per day (US$11). 

What has been your favourite activity to be involved in at CCB?
I will say that my favourite activity has been sharing conservation messages with audiences in workshops, conferences and other platforms and events where I was representing CCB. I really enjoy talking about our work, especially things that farmers can do in order to reduce the impacts of wildlife on their livelihoods. That is one field where I have enjoyed learning new things and my knowledge and understanding of these issues has grown immensely.  Where I am now, I have no fear of stepping up to any audience to talk about my work and the work that CCB is doing. I have gained immense public speaking skills through the work and opportunities that CCB has exposed me to. I would say I really enjoyed talking to people about conservation. I also love research — I really enjoy it. My Masters dissertation introduced me to research and made me love it. 

What do you think is your greatest achievement since being at CCB?
I don’t think as an individual I have achieved anything, everything that I have achieved I believe we have achieved as a team. Many will agree with me that, those who came before us did their part, but for us the use of livestock guarding dogs (LGDs), particularly the Tswana dog breeds, under our department I believe it’s something that can be highlighted as a great achievement, especially after reviewing our strategy and starting to focus on the Ghanzi district. A lot of people got to know about CCB through the LGD programme. People loved it because the programme has tangible results.  When someone has lost livestock and they are given an LGD, they immediately start to see the results. That’s something we can really be proud of without being shy. I believe the use of LGDs, even though people were using dogs before, when we adopted it, it became something we practiced daily. I am somebody who believes so much in teamwork, I don’t like to be praised alone because I never do anything on my own — I always work with my team. I plan with my team, I execute with my team, and so I would say anything that we have achieved, we achieved it together.

What is your favourite memory from working at CCB?
I think my favourite memory is having attended the Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN) Expo in 2014. I was very thankful for the opportunity as it was my first time to fly abroad, and has been my only flight oversees so far. Just to attend the expo and to interact with the other conservation experts, was my greatest memory. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had the chance to go and see other parts of the world. 

What do you think is the most important way CCB has grown since you started?
Like I have mentioned, when I first joined CCB, things were not easy and the number of cars and staff has grown significantly. Even the impact that CCB has made on the farmers livelihoods has increased. More people now know about CCB and make use of the services we offer, for example, the LGD programme. 

What will you miss the most about working for CCB?
I will miss the flexible working environment. You are not expected to be seated in the office from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm without breathing, all that is important is to ensure that you deliver, you are given the opportunity to plan your activities and execute them. It is what is important so that we can report to our donors the successes that come with the deliveries we make. At CCB, its flexible but you are expected to deliver according to the expectations of management and CCB as an organisation. That is one thing I will miss most. 
 
 
We are very grateful for Kokole’s immerse contribution and the sacrifices he has made for the growth of CCB, and the entire conservation platform in Botswana and beyond. He has been instrumental in how CCB has grown over the last 15 years and will be greatly missed by CCB staff, our farming communities and stakeholders alike. We truly wish him the best in his future endeavours.