Botswana: Conservation, Community, and Conflict

The Tuli Block of Botswana is an area teeming with wildlife. Lions, leopards, elephants, wild dogs, and more call this bushveld ecosystem home. Unfortunately, many of these amazing wild animals are endangered by habitat destruction, urbanization, and poaching. The Setswana people of the Tuli Block understand how important it is to live in harmony with nature and are working hard to do this. As a Klemm Fellow, I lived in Motswiri Camp in the Wild at Tuli Reserve for three weeks in the Southern African Bushveld working with the local community on conservation efforts. The goal of the reserve is to gain designated conservation status from the government and ultimately create a trans-national conservation area between Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa which will afford the wild animals further legal protection. The reserve is in a unique location, only 5 km from a village, and right next to agricultural areas. During my time, I observed how interconnected conservation and community are and the ways in which they conflict. In my presentation, I will discuss the conservation efforts, the progress being made, and the challenges to protecting the animals and the preserve.