Botswana Predator Conservation Trust is featured in the new issue of Global - the international briefing magazine! Please follow this link to read the article. 

This feed was drawn from the BPCT - Botswana Predator Conservation Trust website

 The 8th Annual C4C Camp was a huge success! This year, coaches, volunteers and contributors from around the world, including the US, Canada, the UK and South Africa, helped put on the weeklong camp. Find out more about our international volunteers in the Sunday Standard.

This feed was drawn from the BPCT - Botswana Predator Conservation Trust website

Africa Geographic's Emma Borg reports on the dynamic social and scientific relationship at BPCT. Follow the link and learn more about BPCT’S balanced approach to predator conservation in Botswana. (click here to access article).

This feed was drawn from the BPCT - Botswana Predator Conservation Trust website

Check out our new Coaching for Conservation newsletter, Conservation Conversation, for updates on our programs, activities and upcoming events. Enyoy!

This feed was drawn from the BPCT - Botswana Predator Conservation Trust website

 Journalist Charlie Norton reports on the groundbreaking research taking place at BPCT. Follow the link provided here and learn more about our Bio-Boundary project and the massive potential it carries.(click here to access article)

This feed was drawn from the BPCT - Botswana Predator Conservation Trust website

The Annual Coaching for Conservation primary school football camp was once again a huge success! Seven hundred children from 21 primary schools in Maun participated in this four-day event, from July 12th to 15th at the Sports Stadium. Over the first three days, children rotated through 15 football and conservation stations, learning new skills such as fast dribbling, heading and working as a team, and about the wildlife issues facing the Okavango Delta and Botswana. A mini football tournament was held on the final day of camp.

Since it first began in 2004, C4C has reached 3,000 primary school children in Maun and has helped reduce the gender gap in this community. For the first time since the annual camp was created, 50 percent of participating children were girls.

Preparations for the camp began months in advance and culminated with a week-long training session for football coaches and other volunteers in the bush of Botswana. This provided a venue for everyone to get to know each other, brush up on their C4C curriculum and see firsthand the wildlife that our work is based on.

Throughout the week, the C4C moto: "Respect Yourself, Respect each Other, and Respect your Environment" was integrated into all the drills and exercises. The skills and values learned by the children during camp week will help them become better football players, healthier individuals, better teammates and more responsible national and global citizens.
 

Many thanks to the generous support of our sponsor for the 2010 project, Investec Asset Management who made sure each child received a water bottle, a Coaching for Conservation t-shirt and a cap. Each school also received footballs.

This year marked a return to our roots as we received support from the Shorobe village football club. BPCT has sponsored this club for seven years, and this year, we engaged players from this club as coaches for our weeklong camp. The results were remarkable as the children immediately took to the coaches, and by the end of the week, these young men had become mentors to the children.

While many of the players from the Shorobe village football club had little to no coaching experience, they were mentored by a new member of the C4C team, Paul “Gibbo” Gibbons, who joined us from Florida. Gibbo is the director Coerver Coaching Southeast USA and has been coaching since 1990.

Another component of the camp week is the football coaching clinic, where all teachers are invited to learn new skills and coaching techniques that they can then bring back to their schools. The clinic was put on by Gibbo and the football coaches, on the evening of July 13th and was attended by almost all the schools.

Many new faces joined C4C this year, including numerous Batswana, who were involved in almost all aspects of the program. With the events over for 2010, we are now focusing all our energy in finishing the Conservation Education Centre and introducing our afterschool program to Maun schools to build a truly sustainable program for Botswana.
 

This feed was drawn from the BPCT - Botswana Predator Conservation Trust website

A video showing Prince William voicing his support for the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust and the Coaching For Conservation project.

This feed was drawn from the BPCT - Botswana Predator Conservation Trust website

His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales KG will participate in a day-long exhibition of the work of the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust (BPCT).
Prince William, together with former South African Football captain and English FA Ambassador, Lucas Radebe, and popular recording artist Joe Jonas, will be lending support for BPCT’s innovative sport and social development program, Coaching for Conservation (C4C), on June 16, the Day of the African Child.

The event is organized to demonstrate the unique and innovative football-based “Learning from Animals” curriculum. The mission of C4C is to conserve natural resources by using sport to engender self respect, teach lessons about wildlife and inspire a generation of kids who care.
In his capacity as Royal Patron of the UK based African conservation charity, Tusk Trust, Prince William will also visit other BPCT projects including The Paul G Allen Family Foundation Laboratory for Wildlife Chemistry - The BioBoundary Project, BPCT’s pioneering work in the analysis of chemical scent marking in order to create biologically relevant barriers for free ranging large carnivores.

The C4C exhibition is being hosted by the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust and Tusk Trust in Maun, Botswana. The 2010 C4C initiative is being generously sponsored by Investec Asset Management.

C4C is an innovative conservation program using football to trigger social change and address the important challenge of wildlife conservation in Africa. Prince William, who is also the President of England’s Football Association, will see first-hand one of Tusk’s flagship conservation projects in Botswana.

Lesley Boggs, Director of C4C said: “It is a huge honour for the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust to be highlighted on the global stage and have the opportunity to introduce Prince William to our program. I have seen the incredible effect of mentoring over the years, and having Prince William and Lucas Radebe on the field here will be a life changing experience for these children”.

Since 2004, C4C has hosted over 2,000 children to build self esteem, engage in constructive afterschool activities, embrace hope for their futures and develop a relationship with the environment they live, play, and will grow up in.

Lucas Radebe, former English premier league player with Leeds United and an Ambassador for the FA’s 2018 World Cup bid, will add to the event by sharing his skills with 250 children aged 10-12 from eight of Maun’s primary schools. Radebe will help introduce C4C’s new Learning from Animals curriculum. He will be joined on the field by professional soccer coaches from the Botswana Football Association and C4C’s Professional Environmental Educators.

International recording artist, Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, is also in Maun supporting the work of Love Botswana’s “Reaching for Life The choice is yours” and O Icheki campaign. Jonas will also be at the stadium to perform in support of the work of Coaching for Conservation.
With more than 400 invited guests and as many as 3,000 senior primary school children expected in the stadium, the June 16 program will focus on the conservation messages of endangered species, predator-prey relationships and healthy habitats while highlighting the African Wild Dog, Cheetah and Impala as the animal coaches.

The curriculum not only teaches students to become better football players and learn about wildlife,but also encourages them to live happier, healthier lives.
All children on the day will receive a t-shirt, water bottle, cap and prizes proudly sponsored by Investec Asset Management.
 

This feed was drawn from the BPCT - Botswana Predator Conservation Trust website

Is it possible to cross the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans in 24 hours? A group of runners is set to tackle the 120 km trek to raise money for Botswana Predator Conservation Trust and the Lady Khama Charitable Trust.

On Saturday, September 11, 2010, five runners, including 2 of the President’s nephews, will begin their journey close to Mosu village ending 24 hours later on the Nata - Maun road. They will cross one of the largest salt flats in the world, an isolated and fairly undisturbed area, bringing attention to the conservation issues in the area. Predator versus farmer issues are a familiar area of friction in Botswana as human pressure on Botswana’s national parks and conservation areas continues. Funds raised will assist in the search for solutions to decrease human/predator friction points, ultimately helping conserve Botswana’s famous predators.
 

This feed was drawn from the BPCT - Botswana Predator Conservation Trust website

The February 2010 newsletter is now available to download. In it we cover the following issues:

• Bioboundary Continued...
• Environmental Education
• Human-Wildlife Conflict Study
• Lions and Fences
• Leopard Feeding Ecology
• Cheetah Adoption

Download link: 1.8MB PDF Document

This feed was drawn from the BPCT - Botswana Predator Conservation Trust website