CLAWS Launches a New Strategic Plan!

We are thrilled to announce the release of our new Strategic Plain! During a year-long engagement of our team- from board to field staff- we have collated all of the thoughts, plans and dreams for the next five years. We have rewritten our Mission, Vision, Values and set benchmarks for success moving forward. The plan shares our greatest successes and challenges with sober realism and inspired optimism for next steps.

We are so proud of how far we’ve come and even more excited about what lays ahead. Please have a look and share with your friends and colleagues who would like to learn more!

Thank you Impact by Design for assisting with our road map that was the foundation for this plan and Maliasili for helping us finalize and create this beautiful document!

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President Masisi donates a bull to our Communal Herding Program

President masisi (center) donates a breeding bull and shares his thoughts on our program at our eretsha boma.

On Saturday January 21st, we received a visit from President Masisi of Botswana to donate a breeding bull to our Communal Herding Program. During the ceremony, President Masisi, his Vice President, Minister of Agriculture, Permanent Secretary and Director of Veterinary Services, greeted the crowd, explained the importance of livestock husbandry, conflict mitigation and developing the mobile quarantine for greater market access for livestock owners.

the red brahman bull that president Masisi donated to the claws program

The bull was a gesture of support for livestock owners who need greater genetic stock for their cattle. The community was excited to receive the bull and saw the potential for improving the value of their cattle in the market for years to come.

Claws ecorangers looking sharp at the donation ceremony

During the visit President Masisi spent time viewing our mobile, predator-proof livestock enclosure, asking the ecorangers about their herding practices and discussing the benefits of the recent cattle sales through the mobile quarantine. He expressed support for our initiative and made suggestions to help with implementation. Considering the challenges regional cattle face lately with dermatophilis and other diseases, the Minister of Agriculture and Director of Veterinary Services were surprised and excited to see how well our cattle were doing and the effectiveness of our treatment regimen.

The Claws staff were all smiles with President masisi

Overall, it was a wonderful day where CLAWS had the opportunity to showcase our work to some of the most influential politicians in the country. Our staff were excited to meet the president and our Eretsha partners received a well-deserved spotlight. At the end of the day President Masisi asked, “Can we get a photo with the CLAWS staff?” The team came together with their cleanest uniforms and smiled. This was validation and recognition beyond their expectations! We look forward to hosting again in the future!

Lion Naming Ceremonies

Last week we held community meetings (kgotlas) in our partner villages to name our newly collared lions. The purpose of these naming ceremonies is to engage community members in sharing information about individual lions and hopefully create a connection.

In Beetsha Village, the meeting was contentious since lions have been killing lots of unattended cattle over the last several weeks. The names they provided reflect their displeasure with one lion being named Twashwena, meaning “Disagree” and Mwakuhukopa, meaning “Don’t Return”.

The votes are coming in!

In Gunotsoga, the tone was very different. Many of the villagers were excited about tourism opportunities with lions and named a new male Mariri, meaning “Big Mane”

Mariri, meaning “Big Mane”

We thank Beetsha and Gunotsoga for being a partner in our work. We hope that these lions don’t cause trouble for the livestock farmers and live a long prosperous life.