Know Before You Go

Anti-Poaching and Fisheries Management
Tubu Camp

Through our visitation to the Jao Concession, funding has been secured for the University of Botswana to launch a committee to reduce wildlife conflict between the community and the Jao Concession, specifically with regard to curbing poaching and over-fishing.

Maun Animal Welfare Society
Maun, Botswana

Maun Animal Welfare Society (MAWS) is a non-profit organization formed in 2003 by a small group of residents in Maun in response to the alarming increase in unwanted, free-roaming domestic dogs in the village. MAWS’ mission has broadened to include promoting the health and welfare of all animals in Maun and the surrounding communities through the prevention of disease, sterilization and vaccination of free-roaming and unwanted domestic animals and promotion of animal health through community-based education and training in animal care and humane treatment.

MAWS has developed to become a formally registered charity with considerable credibility. It is a volunteer organization comprised of Maun business and community members. Through Nat Hab's support of Chitabe Camp, both logistical and financial support goes to MAWS.

Reducing Our Footprint
Linyanti Tented Camp

Linyanti Tented Camp is powered by a hybrid system, combining a generator that charges a bank of batteries that, in turn, supplies the camp with electricity through an inverter. Solar geysers are in place to provide hot water to the camp, and wastewater is treated in an above-ground sewage plant, ensuring that the water is clean before being allowed to re-enter the natural environment.

Elephant-Human Conflict Research
Duma Tau Camp

Perhaps the most topical issue for Botswana is its very large elephant population and the possible impact elephants exert on vegetation and other animal species. As a result, Nat Hab's local partners have facilitated and partially funded two Master of Science research projects that focus specifically on these issues. These projects aim to primarily assess the changes in the vegetation of the Linyanti riverfront to better understand the role that both elephants and climate change may be playing in ecological succession. The projects focus on several core areas: long-term woodland dynamics of the Linyanti ecosystem, the spatial-temporal dynamics of elephant disturbance on canopy trees, the causes and effects of shrub encroachment in the woodland, the regeneration of the woodland, and the overall consequences of compositional and structural change for the biodiversity of the woodland. Results from these studies will have dramatically wide impacts, allowing researchers to extrapolate findings across all of Southern Africa, where elephant populations are undergoing significant conservation pressure.

Botswana Predator Conservation Trust
Chitabe Camp

This is the longest-running large predator conservation research program in Botswana. Started by Dr. J.W. McNutt in 1989 as a research project focused on Africa’s most endangered large carnivore, the African wild dog, the project now has a record of thousands of wild dogs' life histories, spanning more than ten generations. The project expanded to become the Trust, which now serves as an umbrella organization for all large predator conservation research (lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena and wild dog). Through Chitabe Camp, Nat Hab supports the program financially and the researchers logistically. Our guides also help in data collection.