01x04 - Kalahari

[bunniefuu]

We live on a crowded planet.

But there are still vast areas

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

..where nature has the upper hand.

It looks like another planet.

I'm heading to the last great

wildernesses.

I'll try to cross four of these rugged

landscapes

Oh, my God!

..on my toughest journeys yet.

I have to be honest - things are not

going brilliantly.

A bit of a medical situation.

Help is a long way away.

- Well done.

- I want to meet the people for whom

the wilderness is home

Testicles for breakfast, lunch and

dinner.

..to see how they live alongside

nature.

Whoa!

I can stay down there for a minute or

so.

He's still down there now walking

around.

And in this critical time for our

world

Huge carcasses of great trees.

..seek out the rare and majestic

creatures that still survive

My heart is racing.

THUNDERCLAP

..in some of the most hostile

environments.

Are you OK, Jonathan?

- Yeah, yeah.

- ..and the remotest regions

Bloody hell!

..of our wild planet.

Ssh!

- Coo-coo!

- Coo!

Big cats roaming free.

This surely is the absolute definition

of a real wilderness.

I'm travelling across the Kalahari

Desert,

a huge area of wilderness that

stretches across Southern Africa.

It's one of the wildest places on

Earth.

I'm heading into a very remote region.

For mile after mile here,

there's just scrub, shrub and dusty

dry land.

Everything here is growing in the

largest

basin of sand on planet Earth.

At points here, the sand sinks 1,000

metres deep.

But despite the harsh terrain,

the Kalahari is bursting with life.

- Simon, close, elephant.

- Elephants!

Wow!

LOW GROWL

Here in the Kalahari,

in this very dry part of the

continent,

there are still giant beasts walking

through the sandy desert.

A vast wilderness the size of Germany,

long eulogised

and romanticised, the Kalahari is a

semi-desert

where seasonal rains ensure there's

now food for wildlife to thrive.

But the Kalahari is just as famous for

its people.

I'm travelling with Darm Debai.

He's one of the San - the indigenous

people of the Kalahari.

There's a jackal.

- Cairee.

In our language we call it cairee.

Cairee. Say cairee.

- One more time.

- Cairee.

- Airee.

- Cairee.

- I can't do it, Darm, I can't!

HE LAUGHS

The San have been in the Kalahari for

tens of thousands of years

as trackers, hunters and gatherers,

famous for their extraordinary

survival skills.

Humans have always live here shaping

and protecting the Kalahari

as much as any wilderness on the

planet.

The Kalahari sits in the middle of

Southern Africa,

straddling six countries.

I'm travelling through its dry centre

heading for the spectacular wetlands

of the Okavango Delta.

I'm starting in the north-west, in

Namibia, on my way to

a traditional San village.

Then I'll journey east into Botswana,

travelling through

the vast emptiness of the Central

Kalahari Game Reserve.

I'm hoping to end my journey at one of

the greatest

concentrations of wildlife on this

continent.

I'm heading to a remote village that

is home to some of the last

great wildlife trackers and hunters

in any wilderness on the planet.

Denui is a small San village in

Namibia's Nyae Nyae Conservancy.

People here live mostly in traditional

San dwellings

made of wood and clay.

They have some livestock and crops,

but, far from any town, they also hunt

to survive.

Darm has brought me to meet an old

friend.

This is old Tui?

- Yeah!

- HE LAUGHS

DARM:

- But he's still young.

- He's still young.

You're not that old!

Tomorrow we'll head into the bush.

But now the sun's going down, it's

time to rest.

Oh, my goodness.

TRANSLATION:

I'm all right, thank you.

Oh, my God.

It's like being in the forest.

Look at this.

It's like a work of art.

Oh, right, I'll get my little mozzie

net up and sort my stuff

and have a little a little camping

faff,

while I organise my things.

- Yeah.

- BOWSTRING TWANGS MELODICALLY

Tui and the hunters have offered to

take me deep into the Kalahari.

It's still wild out there.

THEY CHEER AND APPLAUD

The San have been a crucial part of

this eco-system

for tens of thousands of years.

Old Tui and the other trackers have an

intimate understanding

of the wilderness and wildlife here,

learned over endless generations.

We head out.

First task - hunting for a beetle.

For the San, the Kalahari is a

pharmacy, pantry and armoury.

Tui is searching for the larvae of a

beetle that lives only under

a certain type of bush.

Do you want me to do more of this?

Yeah?

The larvae contains poison they need

for their hunting arrows.

Is that one?

Oh, my gosh.

It looks like the size of a jelly

bean,

and it does look as though there's

something

..larvae or something inside.

- Yes, see this is the larva.

- Yeah, just there.

- Yeah.

- Wow!

Historically, the complex San

language,

with its dozens of click consonants

wasn't written down,

so knowledge and skills are passed

down through the generations

by word of mouth.

Tui is keen to teach the younger lads

the skills

and the secrets of making deadly

poison arrows.

So, Tui, how many of these could k*ll

a human being?

Wow!

You've got to stop to think how the

hell did people discover this

in the first place?

And then he's going to squeeze it out

like a pimple or something.

To avoid accidentally cutting and

poisoning themselves,

the hunters don't apply the toxin

directly to the sharp arrowhead.

It's coming out in droplets now.

So, that is now a very potent poison

arrow.

It's a gruelling trek across the

desert to reach the hunting grounds.

We're getting ready and we're heading

out.

All right?

We're off.

The Kalahari is full of wildlife,

everything from small birds to spindly

antelope

and burly wildebeest.

But animals here are wary.

They've spent thousands of years

dodging human predators

and they know to keep well away from

the San villages and San hunters.

So, we need to trek to reach the best

hunting grounds

in the burning heat.

Yeah, make no mistake, this is a very

harsh environment.

At last, there's signs of animals.

The tracks of a kudu - a large

antelope.

So, can we see the tracks?

- Yeah, it's this one.

- You can see, it's very distinct

here,

but they can see so much more than

just the track,

they can see the direction,

the weight and they can tell that it

came through here this morning.

With evidence of wildlife all around,

old Tui decides it's time to hunt.

They've decided they're going to put a

snare, a little trap, here,

to see if they can catch anything.

Traditional hunting methods used by

indigenous wilderness people

generally have a tiny impact on the

environment.

They're eating true free-range meat,

and only occasionally,

and they're often in competition

with other four-legged apex predators.

- Because it hasn't got nails here,

the cheetah is the one with only have

got nails while he's running.

Like it's faster at running.

- This was a running cheetah that came

through here?

- Yeah.

- So, a cheetah came through here

and now they want to know if it made a

k*ll just over here.

So, the guys think a cheetah came

through here and it had

spotted a kudu that was coming through

there.

Maybe it took it.

You can just imagine the scene playing

out here, can't you,

as they recreate it

using their skills and their

imagination.

- It's finish.

This is the end of the story.

And a piece of bone

- It's right here.

- ..is from a kudu.

- Where's the rest of the carcass?

- After the k*ll there is others who

also come

and it's why we cannot find the whole

body.

- The entire carcass of the animal,

bones and everything,

has been chomped and eaten

not just by the cheetahs, of course,

but other scavengers that have come in

and gnawed and nibbled

and destroyed the rest of the animal.

That's all they found of it.

All right.

We're going to go and find somewhere

to camp.

All right, let's do it.

- Simon.

- Yes.

Fire, OK.

Go on, see if I can.

Team work.

Ready?

It's going.

And that is quite a sunset.

Look at that through the flames.

I wonder if we should film that.

Just a suggestion.

What are you drinking?

- Coffee.

- How can you drink coffee at this

time?

You will be awake all night.

But this is sounding extremely

dangerous.

It's a wonder any of you are here.

I mean, everything out there it seems

to be

..to pose some sort of a threat.

We're up at first light.

The hunt is on.

So, the plan is that I'm going to

follow them while they hunt,

and I'll carry a little camera

and hopefully then we'll get a more

realistic picture of

what they have to do to put meat on

the table.

Let's go.

The hunters find a fresh trail.

They've seen something.

WHISPERS:

They're not using high-powered r*fles.

They've just got lightweight bows.

To increase their chances,

the hunters need to get as close as

possible.

Ssh!

They'll only know for sure if they've

hit the wildebeest

by checking for their arrows.

If they strike the target, the

poisoned head breaks off

leaving the shaft on the ground as

evidence of a direct hit.

So, this is where the wildebeest were.

They think they've shot arrows

successfully into

two or three wildebeest.

The poison they use doesn't work

instantly

so they now need to follow signs on

the ground and track

and hunt those wildebeest down.

For thousands of years in this cradle

of humanity,

this is often how we've tackled large,

powerful animals,

pursuing them from a distance until

they succumb.

It is strange even after just a short

time with them,

you do start to see the landscape in a

completely different way,

and obviously I'm like a toddler

reading a picture book,

as opposed to them taking in the whole

encyclopaedia.

But you do start to get a sense that

there is this whole other dimension

to the landscape here.

They can see it, they can read it all.

One of the wildebeest has separated

from the herd.

For hour after hour, we track it.

They think it's close.

HE WHISTLES SOFTLY

They can see the wildebeest ahead.

WHISPERS: Is that it in the grass?

Man, this is intense.

For now, the wildebeest is still too

strong.

They're powerful and dangerous

animals.

The hunters have to be patient.

Well, that

..that was a herd of wildebeest

and to creep up on them like that,

that is one of the most primal

experiences

I feel like I've ever had.

I'm totally invested in these

..these guys, their community, their

hunt for food.

The hunters have been unlucky.

The wounded wildebeest has made it

back to the herd.

Well, that is really the end of the

hunt for the wildebeest

because the herd have completely

scattered the prints all around.

So, the guys have lost the track of

the injured wildebeest

they were trying to follow.

So, that is a wildebeest they have

lost that is probably going to

be taken by lions and hyenas.

So some of the wildlife out here will

benefit from it,

but not their community.

This is a bloody hard way to provide

for your family.

Dejected, Tui and the hunters

begin the long journey back to the

village.

They have one last chance to avoid

returning empty-handed.

A small game bird. What's it called?

- It's called francolin.

- A lot of effort for this little

bird.

They are not guaranteed success.

Even the best tracker and hunter

does not have an astonishing hit rate

because this is the wild

and life is unpredictable here.

Meat, protein, does not come easy,

and they eat far less of it than

people in higher income countries.

With the odds often against them,

perhaps it's not surprising there

aren't many traditional San hunters

left in the Kalahari, but Tui and the

trackers believe

hunting is about even more than

putting food on the table.

Should we be worried there are so few

master trackers left?

Across the wild Kalahari,

it's getting harder for the San to

live traditionally.

In some areas they've been banned from

hunting.

Many youngsters are being drawn and

driven away to towns and cities.

Old Tui could be one of the last great

master trackers

of the Kalahari.

Come on, mate.

It's been an honour.

I've loved every moment I've spent in

your company.

You've got an infectious joy.

- Yeah.

- Oh!

Thank you very much.

It's been an absolute joy.

I'm travelling on across the Kalahari,

from Namibia into Botswana

heading towards the Central Kalahari

Game Reserve,

one of the largest protected wildlife

reserves

in the whole of Africa.

A vast wilderness of more than 20,000

square miles.

- If you don't have the room then you

can come.

- I know, I'm going to be trapped in

here, in the luggage compartment!

- Yeah, we need you outside.

- This is Ali and Robson

- One last bag.

- ..and they're going to be taking me

a fair old distance

across the Kalahari.

- Yes.

Let's do this, Simon.

- Let's get running.

- So, this track takes us into the

very heart of the Kalahari.

We're heading into the CKGR - the

Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

The CKGR brims with wildlife.

This part of the Kalahari was turned

into a wilderness reserve

in the 1960s.

Originally it was set up to protect

the people here, not animals.

The idea was to provide a wild land

and sanctuary for the San

..but since the 1990s, that's changed.

This area of the Kalahari has been

home to the San

for tens of thousands of years.

But in the last few decades,

the San have been relocated or

transferred out of the reserve.

It's been hugely controversial in

Botswana, in Southern Africa

and around the world because one of

the oldest of human

civilisations has been moved from one

of its core historic areas.

The Botswanan government banned

hunting and blocked drinking wells.

Many of the San were moved here to a

purpose-built settlement

called New Kandwane.

It has roads and small concrete

dwellings

and is now home to more than 1,000

people.

Some officials said the San shouldn't

be

living in the wilderness without

access to schools and health care.

Good morning.

- Hey, good morning.

- Sorry.

Where are you off to?

- She's going home.

- Marsao Harasemi was just five years

old

when she and her mother Mantisho left

the Central Kalahari.

Can I sit here, Mum?

You don't remember the bush

- Yes.

- ..the way she does, of course.

- I grew up in New Kandwane and she

grew up in the Kalahari.

- What were you feelings and emotions

when you were required to leave the

Kalahari?

It sounds as if you find quite

difficult here?

Can the San people be San

without hunting and tracking in the

CKGR?

Does it feel to you as though the San

were seen as less important

than the wildlife in the Kalahari?

Moving out of the wilderness hasn't

been easy for the San.

Many adults here are unemployed,

living from subsistence farming and

state welfare benefits.

Many claim they've lost their way of

life without being given

new purpose and meaning through enough

jobs or training.

It's clear the wilderness still holds

a powerful allure.

But I am quite struck coming here

by how many of the homesteads

have still got a traditional hut,

effectively, built outside them.

- That shows that we are still a

cultural people,

and we are still into our culture.

Even if you put a bushman or a San in

this house,

he or she is not going to change

anyhow

- Yeah.

- The change, it's that structure,

but the heart of a bushman is not easy

to just change.

- Marsao doesn't remember life out in

the bush.

She's had a formal education

and became one of relatively few San

to go to university.

- I got the inspiration right here in

New Kandwane

because that's where we met different

people here.

We met the teachers, we met the

police, the nurses.

That's where we got the inspiration.

- Mmm.

Marsao believes there have been

advantages to life in New Kandwane.

She's keen for more of the San to have

the same access to schools,

jobs and modern health care that the

rest of Botswana enjoys.

So, this is the clinic?

- Yes.

- Yeah, that's a much more modern

facility, isn't it?

- Yes.

As you can see, that side is there,

the maternity ward, and here's the

consultancy area.

I believe, even as San, there is a

time that we also have to

adapt to the life of today.

- The Botswanan government has been

accused of human rights abuses

for evicting the San,

some campaigners say

because they thought there were

diamonds in the Kalahari.

The government denies this

and insists the San were moved to

provide them with modern facilities

they can't get out in the bush.

But at times they have also claimed

the growing San population

was destroying wildlife in the Central

Kalahari

and that conservation should come

first.

Whatever the reason or reasons why the

San were moved out of the CKGR,

it did spark a wider debate about what

are wild places for.

Is a wilderness only a wilderness if

there are no humans living there?

Often, indigenous people are

absolutely central to a wilderness.

Often, they're the ones who help to

shape it, create it,

tend it and protect it.

But here, I think there was a feeling

that to have a proper conservation

area, that required the human beings

who'd lived there for thousands of

years to be moved out.

However, on my wilderness journeys

I've been realising that

humans are actually an integral part

of many remote areas.

I'll see that more as I travel further

across the Kalahari

towards a giant oasis in this great

desert - the Okavango Delta.

Robson grew up in the Kalahari,

absorbing everything there is to know

about the landscape

and wildlife around him.

He's like a walking guidebook.

- Aardwolf, you see it? It's here.

Oh, my God!

- It's a hyena.

- No, aardwolf.

- Aardwolf?

It's an aardwolf, very rare.

- OK, the head is up there.

You can see two.

So, this is a pair.

You don't often see two.

- The aardwolf is a species of hyena

which eats mainly insects.

Its favourite snack is the termite.

A single aardwolf can gobble down

300,000 in a day.

Have you seen these before?

- Well, I only have seen them twice.

But that is after 18 years of guiding.

This is very rare.

So, I'm so impressed that you get to

see two.

And these are often more active at

night.

Oh, look, wow!

I am a touch impressed.

- Hey!

- It's hard to believe.

Very nice.

- So, this case should be safe out

here.

Hyenas are not going to get into that,

but I need to take my shoes inside,

cos apparently they like

stealing them from outside tents and

having a chew.

I'm sure I can hear lions.

LOW GROWLS

There are lions going past my tent.

ENGINE STARTS

- We are going to the water hole.

Thank you.

- Lions.

They're hereat the water hole.

There he is.

The king of the Kalahari.

HE ROARS

You feel it so deep within you,

that primal, terrifying,

awe-inspiring roar.

HE ROARS

Kalahari lions are magnificent

creatures.

The sheer volume of all wildlife here

is truly awe-inspiring.

- That's a young jackal.

- Species that face near extinction in

other parts of Africa

are still common here in this area of

Botswana.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

- There are elephants, elephants on

the left

and at ten o'clock or 11, there's a

herd of elephants.

- There's a herd of elephants!

- It's so unique.

The grassland is amazing.

- There were once 25 million elephants

in Africa.

Now that's down to just 400,000

because of habitat loss and ivory

poaching.

Across the continent, the population

is still shrinking

but Botswana has almost a third of all

the African elephants

left on the planet.

Botswana is home to the world's

largest population of elephants

and that is such an achievement when

you think how poachers have

targeted this animal in recent

decades.

But conservation here has come at a

cost.

The treatment of the San - truly the

people of the wilderness -

is hugely controversial.

And on the edges of the Kalahari,

wildlife is coming into direct

conflict with people.

As human populations grow, and areas

that were once wild in the Kalahari

become farmland, the frontiers of the

wilderness area can become

something of a battleground.

I've left the Central Kalahari

and arrived in one of the frontier

areas where human/wildlife conflict

is having dramatic, even tragic

consequences.

- How are you?

- Very nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you, Simon.

- Ooh, let's go.

- All right.

- This is Tata Monsentwa,

a conservationist who's tried to help

keep the peace.

- And this is where the river passes

when we get floods.

It's the river that separates the

community with the wildlife.

- So, the community here is right on

the edge of the wild?

- Yeah, true.

- The wilderness?

- Yeah, true.

It's a village called Kumaka Village.

- Are you from this community?

- Yeah, I'm from this community.

- You grew up here?

- I grew up here.

- Hey!

- And we have cows and we have goats.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, and also we do crops too.

It's more like a family, a family

thing.

- COWS MOO

Cows.

There's cows wandering around.

So, Tata's taking me to see a farmer

whose lost some of her crops to

elephants.

Are we here?

- Yeah.

- We're here.

Oh, bloody hell!

It's a bit barren, isn't it?

- Yeah.

- Ancoletsan Bablalefee is typical of

many farmers here.

She grows crops to feed her family

and sells what she has left over for

just a few pounds a day.

Oh, my goodness.

How do you feel about elephants now?

To protect their crops, farmers have

been known to sh**t elephants.

But Tata works for the charity

Elephants for Africa,

and he tries to stop conflicts from

escalating.

He helps farmers like Ancoletsan keep

elephants out of their fields

using some pretty unorthodox methods.

He's cooking up a chilli b*mb.

That is a lot of chilli.

So, that is now in operation, working?

- Yeah.

- And, look, you can see the smoke

spreading out across the field.

- Yeah.

- How effective is this at clearing a

field of elephants?

- Imagine how you can feel it.

Elephants do feel it ten times more

than you do.

So, that's why it is very effective

against elephants.

- Local farmers are being encouraged

to grow chillies

which produce the same chemical you

find in pepper spray.

We're a good 20 metres away and I

HE COUGHS

..can definitely feel the effects.

And imagine if they've got

HE COUGHS

..several of them set up around the

HE COUGHS AND SPLUTTERS

..set up around the field.

HE COUGHS

If I'm an elephant, I'm getting out of

here.

The population of Africa is growing

rapidly.

It's predicted to almost double by

2050 to around 2.5 billion people.

Providing food for everyone while

conserving wildlife

and wilderness will be a huge

challenge.

For Tata, it's an issue that's deeply

personal.

An amazing scene here

with the elephants moving off as the

sun sets.

- Yeah, it's a beautiful view.

- So, we've got within our sight at

the moment

two, four, five, six, seven, eight,

nine, ten, 11, I think, elephants.

- Yeah.

- So, they are watching us quite

warily, aren't they?

- Yeah, and you have to think of them

as wild animals

because they are k*lling people.

- So it's not just elephants raiding

crops,

it's taking lives?

- Yeah.

- How many elephant fatalities have

you had in your community?

- I would say around

..maybe around four or five.

- Wow!

Elephants can be highly protective of

their young,

fighting off predators.

When they're startled, they can see

people as a threat,

and they can really lash out.

- My cousin was, er

He went to see his friends and he

unfortunately met an elephant

which It was unfortunate that he

saw it from a short distance.

He tried to run away from it

but because elephant is big,

it was able to see him running away

even behind the bushes.

So, it kept chasing him until, you

know,

it was able to hit him.

- I'm so sorry.

Tata's cousin died from his injuries.

In Botswana, elephants now k*ll more

people than lions.

I think some people, perhaps many

people,

would turn against elephants as a

result.

- Yeah, they will.

- But you don't?

- Er, I don't because it's a wildlife

area.

You don't want to see elephants

k*lling people,

but, you know, we can't push them

away,

so it's more of finding a way to

co-exist with them.

- I've travelled for weeks through

this dry, parched wilderness

and I've hardly seen a drop of water.

But I hope that's about to change.

I'm leaving the arid areas of the

Kalahari behind now

and heading towards the end of this

part of my journey.

We're on our way towards the Okavango

Delta.

The Okavango Delta is the largest

freshwater wetland

in Southern Africa.

It's home to one of the most

spectacular concentrations of

wildlife on Earth.

That draws in visitors to upmarket

safari lodges,

creating a whole tourism industry in

this area of the Kalahari

that I'm keen to understand.

Well, we've arrived

Oh! ..somewhere very fancy.

My goodness.

All right, well, I'm knackered.

I'm going to get a good night's sleep

tonight and I'll have a wash.

I will see you in the morning.

Ah, flipping heck.

So, this is the Okavango Delta.

It's known as the Jewel of the

Kalahari.

Each year when the Kalahari is at its

driest,

rain in the north flows downriver and

empties into a huge

inland delta, transforming this part

of the Kalahari Desert

into a lush, waterlogged oasis packed

with wildlife.

It's been described as the closest

thing to Eden left on the planet.

It's like a vast shallow bathtub

into which a river flows, and then

wildlife comes

from across Southern Africa to drink

and eat here,

which means it is a destination for

seriously high-end tourism.

Some lodges in the Delta charge more

than £1,000 a night

for a room. Ooh!

The tourism industry can be hugely

damaging, but here,

like in so many other wild areas I've

visited,

it provides thousands of jobs.

Rather than clearing land for farming

or poaching,

tourism can give locals an economic

incentive to look after landscapes

and wildlife.

Unless we're all going to start

donating billions to provide jobs

and preserve wildernesses,

perhaps responsible tourism has a

crucial role.

Is it stable?

- Got it.

- Stable enough.

The tourism industry has helped make

Botswana one of the richer countries

in Africa and helps preserve the

wildlife of the Kalahari.

Koki Makodi is a Botswanan campaigner

and conservationist.

- This is called a macuro.

It's actually a dugout canoe

which, traditionally, the people of

the Okavango Delta have relied on

as a mode of transport to get from

island to island.

- This is exceptional.

Here we are quietly, without an

engine,

gently sliding towards two giant

elephants close to us

and another three down there.

We've got more in the bushes here.

- I think we're very, very blessed,

Simon, to be able to witness this

in our lifetimes.

- One of Koki's concerns is that

tourism here hasn't done enough

for ordinary people

and that the indigenous people of the

Kalahari have often been

marginalised in favour of the wildlife

and the tourists.

How can we protect wild places,

wildernesses,

whilst still providing jobs,

opportunities

for the people who live there

and are a fundamental part of those

places?

- I think tourism could do a better

job.

When you have profit to make,

you don't want that profit to be

challenged

and it served certain operators to

enter this business at a time

when the people surrounding the old

indigenous peoples of that area

were not highly educated.

So, it benefitted them in that they

could pay cheaper wages.

- So, understanding that indigenous

people

who have lived in a place, for

sometimes thousands,

tens of thousands of years, they know

stuff.

- Yes, and they need to be appreciated

for knowing that stuff.

I mean, we've gone long enough without

recognising

the importance of the people

who have kept the balance in these

spaces,

and we need to listen to them.

- Don Joseph comes from a village

where many people make

a living punting travellers around the

Okavango Delta.

They've tried to build their business

by working independently

from big tour operators.

- I'm part of the Poler's Association.

- So, I've been doing it, like, three

years now.

Are you on social media, Don?

- Yes.

- And so you get direct bookings that

way?

- Yes. You just book to the community.

They will pay those people with them

callers.

- So, you're earning the money

directly?

It's not going through a tour operator

in Europe or somewhere?

- No, it's just going to the

community.

- That sounds pretty vital, that local

people can have local companies

and earn direct from tourism or any

other

- Absolutely.

- business.

- Absolutely.

It's proving to be possible, but we

need to band together to

kind of support one another to make

sure that it is long lasting.

- What Koki is campaigning for is a

system that could really help

to preserve wilderness areas around

the world.

Wildernesses aren't empty.

They are full of life and often very

full of people as well.

I think what I've learnt on this

journey is that if we are going

to protect this wilderness - the

Kalahari -

we're all going to have to get better

at protecting

and looking after, educating and

engaging with the people

who live here and know it best.

Our remaining great wilderness areas

face many threats.

On my journeys I've seen how climate

change is disrupting

these eco-systems on which we all

depend.

Remote areas are also being targeted

by ranchers, loggers and miners.

Our increasing human population is

encroaching on the wilderness.

Surely, these wild areas are worth

protecting.

They're home to our most spectacular

and important wildlife

..and we need them.

We're not separate from nature

Whoa!

..we're part of it.

We need to know wilderness exists

and we need it in our lives

..because living on an extraordinary,

wild planet

..is part of what makes us truly

human.

It's been an honour.