In recognition of the Traditional Authorities of Northern Botswana, we acknowledge the critical importance of incorporating traditional governance and knowledge into community-based land-use practices recognizing that Northern Botswana’s ecological viability and its communities’ well-being are inextricably linked.

Our vision is to provide for regional conservation and support for rural communities to develop sustainable land-use practices that promote conservation-based economic opportunities, facilitate landscape-scale wildlife movements, and provide for climate change resilience. Our purposes are to ensure that our lands remain a landscape where the needs of its resident people are satisfied in harmony with the continued long term viability of its native plants, fish, wildlife and natural ecosystems including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing:

(a)  to develop, fund, facilitate, promote and carry out activities and programs which will preserve the plants, fish, wildlife and natural communities that represent the diversity of life within Northern Botswana;

(b) to contribute to and improve the education, health and well-being of those living within these lands and to benefit the community as a whole by the prioritization, promotion and encouragement of the sustainable development, preservation, tourism, beneficial use and management of primarily:

(i) plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life by promoting effective management of the lands and waters they need to survive, and

(ii) areas of environmental, historical, cultural, scenic and compatible tourism value;

(c) to provide opportunities for natural resource research, management, training, employment and organizational development for its residence;

(d) to encourage cooperation in, support for and research into and education regarding all matters pertaining to the fulfillment of the purposes of Round River Botswana.

International Organization

Round River Botswana Trust is a non-profit registered in Botswana and a sister organization of Round River Conservation Studies an international non-profit registered in the USA as a 501(c)3 organization since 1991.

Round River recognizes that flourishing wildlife, wildness, and wild places are important in and of themselves and that for conservation to be sustainable, it must be tied to the communities most dependent upon these landscapes. Therefore, fundamental to our collective work is to establish partnerships with indigenous or local communities to advocate for conservation, exert political and legal leverage, and establish enduring institutional arrangements to secure conservation gains.

Round River’s current efforts in Canada are in the Taku River of northwestern British Columbia, and in the North Slope and the Southern Lakes regions of the Yukon Territory. In the US we have ongoing projects in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Arizona . In southern Africa our work continues in Botswana’s Okavango Delta and Makgadikgadi-Nxai Pans. While, in South and Central America, our efforts are in the Aysén Region of Patagonia Chile, the Belize Mayan Mountains, and the Pantanal of Brazil. In Asia we work in the Darhad Valley of Huvsgul Province, Mongolia.