A win for Communities and Conservation in Botswana
Conservation Goals has been a long-standing Great Plains Foundation project in Botswana. Few activities break down barriers and encourage collaboration like sports. Conservation Goals involves sporting competitions and training clinics throughout our partner communities in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, blending impact-driven conservation with effective community engagement. In the past the tournaments only included football and this year was a breakthrough with a girls netball tournament running alongside.
Conservation Goals has a clear goal in mind: generating dialogue and action around conservation issues in Botswana. A clear commitment is made by teams and players to take conservation messaging into the community. Working alongside Great Plains community liaisons, teams identify a conservation “problem” and “solution” to address as part of their participation in Conservation Goals. Two awards are given as part of the program – one to the team that has the conservation project with the best outcomes and one to the teams with the most wins. Both athletic and conservation achievements are celebrated.
This tournament included a football team and netball team from each of the 5 communities: Gudigwa, Beetsha, Eretsha, Gunotsoga and Seronga. The 2022 winning football team were Gudigwa village with the Netball winners being Eretsha Village!
“The Chief was really happy that we brought the games to his villages and this will help his people also to appreciate the works that Great plains is doing for communities and wildlife protection in the area. And that some local entrepreneurs will benefit as they will be able to sell at the tournaments to mass number of people coming for the games.”
