As the festive season is underway, our team at Elephants Without Borders would like to take this opportunity to briefly reflect on 2017 and provide our gratitude for your support throughout the year.
This year, as we continue with our elephant and wildlife monitoring research programme, following the herds, monitoring elephants throughout Botswana from Chobe to the west of the Okavango Delta, south to the CKGR to Selebi Phikwe and Khutse and along Botswana’s borders.
We welcomed new team members and proud to have initiated a new research project focusing on the ecology of hippos and we began a field operation programme to rehabilitate the Chobe bushbuck population, which are considered locally extinct in the park. 
We have expanded our community projects & educational campaigns, participating in the Walk for Eco-literacy, supporting Chobe’s Regional Environmental Education Fair
and organizing another successful “We are Proud of our Wildlife Heritage” parade. This year’s turnout was the best thus far! Meanwhile, highlight human-wildlife co-existence education, the importance and monitoring of wildlife corridors, while concentrating on our project on elephant mitigation conflict in the Chobe enclave.
Hope for Elephants
The increasing incidents of elephant calf abandonment are indicative of the crisis elephants face, the calves being orphaned due to poaching and conflict. It is a reality of the threats facing all of Africa’s wildlife and wild places.
Together, in partnership with the Department of Wildlife and National Parks we have had to intervene and now have three orphaned elephant calves under our care, all coming from different incidences of different areas in the country. Considering the dramatic events and struggles these calves have experienced, we are proud to say Molelo, Tuli and Panda are doing well, thus far. We have completed building their elephant nursery, so they now have a temporary home. (Molelo and Tuli are in photo)
This upcoming year, we are very excited to focus on developing what will be known as the International Elephant Institute (IEI) in Botswana. It’s a bold plan, representing a partnership between Elephants Without Borders and the Botswana Government, to take a stand on behalf of African Elephants and create the country’s first Elephant Sanctuary, African Elephant Memorial, and Institute of Science and Conservation.
The IEI is being established as a symbol of hope for Africa’s elephants: providing protection; honoring the animals that have died; and educating local populations and tourists alike on the immense value of the species to the world and to Batswana alike, and how they can participate in guaranteeing the future safety of the species.
We are excited to share this news and will be looking forward to keeping everyone updated as this novel initiative develops!
All the progress we have made, and all the projects that we have launched, are made possible by your donations. Your unwavering support helps Elephants Without Borders continue to make a difference in positive and productive conservation.
We Thank You and wish you and your’s a warm & wonderful Holiday season and Hope for the New Year!
