Meno A Kwena Tented Camp has initiated the Water for Life Trust to coordinate our sustainable tourism developments, community involvement & wildlife conservation projects.

We have identified the need to encourage governments that the necessary path towards wildlife preservation is to recreate ancient migratory routes.

Our projects include bringing maximised benefits and education to the rural communities within these potential wildlife corridors.  This awareness and exposure will make it possible for us to get the necessary support from the citizens of Botswana to responsibly advise the government of their acceptance to create a more sustainable wildlife resource.

We are also directly involved in supplying desperately needed water to wildlife in the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, thus reducing the steady decline of Southern Africa’s last remaining zebra and wildebeest migration.

We believe it is imperative that the tourism industry takes responsibility for our natural resources through maximized benefits to the people of these developing countries, they are after all, the custodians of its future. This is our wildlife conservation mission.

It is from our own experience of this under developed region that we have developed a working relationship involving tourism and wildlife that benefits the rural people living in close proximity to the camp. The results have secured a future for deteriorating populations of wild species under pressure from human encroachment and conflict. The spin-off is proving positive for people who had neither the interest nor any consideration for wildlife, until now. They are realizing the value of their wildlife resources for the first time in decades now they are being employed, and benefiting from the tourism industry.

It is a fact of life in Botswana that fences constructed during its early development years have resulted in the demise of massive ancient migrations. These fences were constructed to benefit the country’s lucrative beef exports to Europe. The Makgadikgadi zebra and wildebeest migration is the last remaining population left in the Kalahari, and so it is crucial we do everything possible to stop the steady decline before it is gone forever. It is these fences that have cut across wildlife paths between preferred grazing and water.

Water for Life Wildlife Conservation Projects

We have been supplying water to the migration since the camp started operating in early 2003. The government has been under resourced, under equipped and under staffed and so it was necessary for us in the tourism sector to get involved and assist the best we can. It is no small task maintaining a supply of 100 000 litres of water to wildlife daily during the dry season.

This unexpected and sudden demand on us was a drain on our resources, considering we were starting out with a new safari camp in a new and unknown region. It soon became clear we could not do it on our own and so offers to help by guests visiting the area was received with great appreciation.

The steady growth of visitor numbers to the Boteti has helped improved conditions for wildlife in the area as we have developed new waterholes, and secured more reliable water supplies, and elephant-proofing to stop elephant vandalism damaging pumps that disrupts water supplies.

It is an ongoing exercise to maintain water supplies to wildlife. We are looking into the future of creating additional water supplies in other locations along the Boteti Riverbed, thus improving grazing conditions along the length of the western Makgadikgadi Pans National Park – the dry season range of Southern Africa’s largest remaining zebra and wildebeest migration. These new locations will provide ideal locations for additional safari tourist camps and lodges that will increase employment opportunities to the rural people of Boteti, and potentially increase the zebra and wildebeest population from its present 20 000, to 100 000 in ten years!

Water for Life - Rural Community Involvement Projects

Most people in Botswana are supported by their subsistence livestock farming and arable agricultural practices. With this in mind, despite the developed world educated guesses, wildlife and the natural environment have other values to that of the educated guessing world.

This is why we educated guessing people in tourism must do more for the uneducated. The simple fact that a better income from wildlife and safari tourism rather than from livestock is the only way we can secure a future for wildlife. This is why we are doing as much for wildlife as we are for the people that need our assistance too.

It is our aim to increase and maximize wildlife potential for tourism that will create increased opportunities for employment and other benefits to the rural people of Botswana. We are doing this with responsible training and secure employment, a percentage of our income goes to the local Village Development Committee that discusses with the village what the money should be spent on. We also maximize local traditional skilled craftspeople to build and maintain the camp, and our waterhole projects. We also source building and maintenance materials locally to involve the local communities who are benefiting and being rewarded through wildlife generated tourism.

Education is as important for the youth as employment is for the adults, and so we are nurturing our relationship with the local village schools. We are involving the children in tourism and wildlife for purely educational purposes, and also through their traditional dance group that entertains our guests in camp for financial rewards that go into improving their performances – traditional attire, musical instruments and transport to inter-school competitions.We encourage guests to send us school materials that the government is under resourced to supply, and we are securing DVD documentaries for the schools to broadcast to their students.

The teachers are also learning about their wildlife resources and an industry alien to their culture, perhaps more than perceived by their pupils.

Water for Life - Volunteer Project

Our volunteer project started with two well-known young royal gap year students who spent part of their time between school and higher education in Botswana. The concept has grown into a viable and very popular scheme that benefits the country and the volunteers in many ways.

The volunteers raise the funding for their projects themselves to cover the costs of accommodating and feeding them while with us in camp. We send the necessary material to assist them get sponsorship for up to three months helping us with our wildlife conservation and community involvement projects in Botswana.

The volunteers get involved in every aspect of our safari operations and Water For Life Projects with a view to learning about our world and at the same time doing a lot to improve conditions for wildlife and the development of rural communities in need of employment and upliftment in a fast developing young African country. The environment is almost perfect for this valuable project.

Please click here to request further information about the volunteer project.