Projects We Support

Selected Project:  

Featured: CARACAL Biodiversity and Environmental Education Center and Field Laboratory. Dr. Kathleen Alexander DVM, Virginia Tech Association Professor of Zoology Chobe National Park, Botswana

 
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Developing local communities and securing natural resources

"If communities do not value and see wildlife as part of their future,

Chobe’s vast wildlife assets will slowly be eroded in favor of more

lucrative land uses. We must engage communities and develop

ownership over benefits and management challenges if we are to

secure a future for wildlife." Dr. Kathy Alexander, CARACAL


Photo Gallery for CARACAL Biodiversity Center

CARACAL is a field based educational center that focuses on strengthening rural livelihoods, developing community approaches to mitigation of human-wildlife conflict and securing the health of the ecosystems on which we all depend. CARACAL is the only indigenous conservation and rural development NGO in the Chobe Linyanti Kwando Wetlands within the Zambezi Basin.

Development of the first regional Widllife Health Laboratory with molecular genetics and bacteriological capablities, WildiZe has been an important partner for CARACAL and Virginia Tech (CARACALS technical partner through Dr. K. Alexander) providing funding for first class field laboratory sites outside of Chobe National Park that holds a large education center and field laboratory. The laboratory will support research into the health of the ecosystem and wildlife in the area.

Prior to the grant from WildiZe, samples were frozen and sent to lab several days away. Today, samples can be read and analyzed on site. The result is real-time data and verifiable and publishable research on ecosystem health.

"Virginia Tech professor discovers new TB pathogen"

Press Releases

Tuberculosis field research - Discovery of a novel tuberculosis pathogen, M. mungi

With help from WildiZe Foundation, Alexander and collegues have identified a novel pathogen in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex infecting mongoose that live in close association with humans. They do not know the source of infection but this organism is threatening the survival of small banded mongoose troops.

Project web site: www.caracal.info, See also www.fishwild.vt.edu/faculty/alexander.htm

"The health of our ecosystems are dependent on local communities and local communities are dependent on the health of the ecosystem. People who are hungry and poor have more immediate concerns than saving wildlife." K. Alexander

Developing local investment and owership in wildlife is the key to securing a future for this resource and the ecosystems on which we all depend. However, it is becoming apparent that access to capital investment is not the primary barrier impeding localization in the tourism industry and other economic wildlife based opportunities. The key difficuty preventing Batswana from effectively out competing foreign operators is the lack of opportunity to develop passion for the resource and comprehensive knowledge and skill base to develop confidence and knowledge of how to advance in the sector.


Caracal has developed zoological garden, tourism and natural resource management training center to be located in Kasane Botswana. The site if over 20 hectares in size, located adjacent to the famous Chobe National Park and overlooks the river as it winds through the Botswana and Namibian flood plains. This facility will be able to provide for the long-term training and extension support required to bring Batswana into the natural resource sector and utilize this key resource to advance livelihoods of rural Batswana.

CARACAL has developed a zoological garden, tourism and natural resource management training center to be located in Kasane Botswana. The site if over 20 hectares in size, located adjacent to the famous Chobe National Park and overlooks the river as it winds through the Botswana and Namibian flood plains.

This facility will be able to provide for the long-term training and extension support required to bring Batswana into the natural resource sector and utilize this key resource to advance livelihoods of rural Batswana.



 

FAST FACTS:

Increasingly, wildlife managers are recognizing the devastating impact that disease can have on wildlife populations.

Disease transmission from wild animals to domestic relatives has been well documented in Africa, especially in cases where wild animals serve as reservoir hosts for economically important diseases affecting livestock.

Rapidly growing human populations and dwindling land resources cause increased contact between wildlife and humans and their domestic animals.

The disease threat domestic animal population’s pose to wildlife resources is little understood.

Although reserves and national parks have been established to conserve African wildlife, domestic animal populations now surround many such protected areas.