The pandemic has caused numerous challenges for all of our teams but none more than our Education team. When the Government schools reopened in June 2020 after a two-month closure over lockdown, they split classes in half and implemented a morning and afternoon session roster in order to meet social distancing requirements in their classrooms. This meant that teachers and students did not have time left in the day to allow us to visit and engage students on conservation. Thankfully, many of the private schools did not have this concern, with smaller class sizes meaning that they could continue with their regular class times. Thanks to the strict COVID protocols adhered to by these schools, we were able to safely visit Pioneer Academy and Matshwane International Schools in March this year to share our posters with them and to talk to the children about conservation. Under normal circumstances, we would engage with a large group of students all at once, but with assemblies cancelled and large groups disallowed, our Education staff went class to class for more intimate chats about wildlife in Botswana and why it’s all of our responsibility to protect the environment. Although the focus of these talks was to show students how leopards differ from cheetahs, the amazing questions from the students and stories about their interactions with wildlife allowed the sessions to adapt based on the children’s interests and needs.
Speaking with children from Pioneer Academy in Ghanzi is always a particularly illuminating experience — as their farming community suffers greatly from human-wildlife conflict and these children have often been directly exposed to confrontations between large carnivores and farmers. On this particular visit, we heard many stories of farmers trapping cheetahs and leopards in cages before moving them off the farms in what we refer to as “translocation”. This allowed our team to discuss the pros and cons of this approach with students and help them to understand the value of protecting livestock from carnivores so that livestock are protected from all carnivores. We discussed livestock guarding dogs and corralling animals at night to prevent attacks, so that livestock and carnivores can share the same spaces without problems. Students who gave particularly inspired answers to questions received CCB stickers to take home with them — a particular favourite of all the students.
We’ve noted that engaging with children from farming communities has the ability to incite positive change in a few ways. Not only are we helping students to understand the incredible wildlife that Botswana has, but we’re helping cultivate a passion and a love for that wildlife. We are also helping to nurture the next generation of farmers, business owners and policy makers that have great respect and empathy for wildlife. More importantly, the lessons that they receive at school get taken home with them and get shared with their families. These are families that are living directly with large carnivores and whose actions are instrumental to the survival of these threatened species. Our hope is that the messages these students take home to their families help encourage farmers to take proactive measures to protect their livestock from predation rather than simply reacting to attacks once they’ve occurred. It is through these preventative measures, such as using livestock guarding dogs, that farmers in these areas are starting to experience real, long-term, positive change in the carnivore-livestock dynamics on their farms.
Speaking with children from Pioneer Academy in Ghanzi is always a particularly illuminating experience — as their farming community suffers greatly from human-wildlife conflict and these children have often been directly exposed to confrontations between large carnivores and farmers. On this particular visit, we heard many stories of farmers trapping cheetahs and leopards in cages before moving them off the farms in what we refer to as “translocation”. This allowed our team to discuss the pros and cons of this approach with students and help them to understand the value of protecting livestock from carnivores so that livestock are protected from all carnivores. We discussed livestock guarding dogs and corralling animals at night to prevent attacks, so that livestock and carnivores can share the same spaces without problems. Students who gave particularly inspired answers to questions received CCB stickers to take home with them — a particular favourite of all the students.
We’ve noted that engaging with children from farming communities has the ability to incite positive change in a few ways. Not only are we helping students to understand the incredible wildlife that Botswana has, but we’re helping cultivate a passion and a love for that wildlife. We are also helping to nurture the next generation of farmers, business owners and policy makers that have great respect and empathy for wildlife. More importantly, the lessons that they receive at school get taken home with them and get shared with their families. These are families that are living directly with large carnivores and whose actions are instrumental to the survival of these threatened species. Our hope is that the messages these students take home to their families help encourage farmers to take proactive measures to protect their livestock from predation rather than simply reacting to attacks once they’ve occurred. It is through these preventative measures, such as using livestock guarding dogs, that farmers in these areas are starting to experience real, long-term, positive change in the carnivore-livestock dynamics on their farms.
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