Flying with a helicopter is thrilling. And it is special when you fly over our communal herd in the Okavango Delta. This year, we have renewed our collaboration with Helicopter Horizons, the only Safari tour operator in Botswana that brings tourists up in the sky to explore the magnificent landscapes and wildlife from above via helicopter. Our mutual goal of the new partnership: To bring Safari tourists close to practical conservation work in remote places and raise awareness for challenges of coexistence in landscapes inhabited by humans and wildlife. After conceptualizing the new partnership and the development of a promotional video clip, it was now time for the first tourists to visit our communal herd just outside of Eretsha village.
Early in the morning of September 19, the sound of the helicopter predominated the cattle and herders’ sounds. All heads up. Then it landed just in front of our boma. Silence. Tourists stepped out and our eco ranger and new cattle foremen Lenteste Phuti (“LT”) warmly welcomed the guests at our new communal herd site (we opened the second one this summer) to introduce them to our Communal Herding Program: How the boma helps us to prevent predator attacks on cattle, herding management practices, information on the herd size, number of farmers in the program, facts about medical treatments on sick animals, supplementary feeding, and last but not least how the program helps to “heal the land” in terms of cattle movement and the mobile boma concept. The guests had the opportunity to ask questions and much appreciated this exciting experience. For our herders, it is an opportunity to feel pride in knowing that people from around the world see the value in their important work.
How the partnership evolved: In 2020, we have started to work with Helicopter Horizons to support our lion darting expeditions in the flooding season when roads are inaccessible (for GPS-collaring), using helicopters to locate lions in the open bush savanna of our study area – an expensive investment. This year, we started a new collaboration with HH that secures donations for our operations and also brings our work closer to tourists in Botswana: The concept of Conservation and coexistence cultural experience. It includes a visit to one of our two communal herding sites where tourists are guided by our herding team leaders to not only learn about our work, but also physically experience conservation approaches. In return for the tourists’ investments, we are now able to charter experienced helicopter pilots to assist with lion darting missions in the future.
Flyer Helicopter Horizons – Coexistence and Cultural Experience
See more about Helicopter Horizons here.
