JOHN VAN THUYNE - CO FOUNDER

I first came to Botswana in 1993. I was suppose to fly from London to Lusaka with Zambian Airways, but the plane never left Heathrow due  to fuel costs unpaid, so I flew to Johannesburg and went to visit my great aunt. My grand father was in fact the Swiss general consul in Cape town from 1936 to 1950. I visited my great aunt who was one of these English ladies who had been married three times, she was first a lawyer, then a consultant and then made fortune in the car lockers business. She had been twice to Tibet and once to Antarctica. She told me to visit the Okavango Delta which I had never heard about, I of course followed her advice as the Delta was on the way to Zambia, where I originally wanted to go.

In the plane bringing me to Maun, gateway to the Delta, I was seated next to a handsome Swiss photographer working for Reuters and his stylish girl friend. They asked me what I was planning to do and where I was going, I answered that I was going in the delta; they said well great we are going to, and how are you planning to go in, they asked ? I replied that I expected to go on foot ! When I saw their faces, I knew something I said was wrong. They told me that this was impossible, I would be eaten up after one day or one night. So we decided to go together…and that was the beginning of a great journey of a few months and a great friendship which still lasts today. Since then I went back many times in the nineties and in 1996 I founded Okavango People Wildlife Trust with a local citizen I had met during my visits. This trust was operational during 6 years, where we did some lobbying towards the government, promoting photo tourism rather than hunting or cattle farming. We worked closely with local communities trying to show them the benefit of allocating the land use of their community land towards eco tourism or game farming in order to increase land allocated to wild life rather then increase cattle farming and its pressure on the environment. We had the chance to have on board as our patron, the Lieutenant General Ian Khama who became president of Botswana a few years later. We also had as a non permanent staff, the Chief Kgosi Tawana Moremi 11, one of the 9 kings of Botswana represented in the house of chief in the Botswana Parliament. After these exciting years, we handed over our activities to the well known  and respected NGO Conservation International, based in Washingthon USA, founded by the co-founder of Intel, Mr Gordon Moore. This cutting edge Ngo added our work to their already important influence in Botswana, having been there for over twenty years.

Along with my colleague and long time friend Rita Ridge, who were shared a lot of ideas in common, we came up with the conception and actualization of a Scientific Research Centre in Chobe, that has been operational since June 2014

RITA RIDGE - CO FOUNDER

I was born and bred in Maun, Botswana, Africa. I  have three beautiful daughters; Stephanie, Summer and Namanda and a little boy called Miguel. I completed my primary and secondary education in Maun where I then enrolled in different Tourism related courses. 

 Over the last 22 years, I have been actively involved with various tourism and conservations related activities in Northern Botswana and joined People and Nature Trust as an co Tourism consultant offering training and capacity building programmes to people in rural areas such as getting them involved in community driven tourism enterprises and holistic range management programmes.

 I met John Vanthuyne , co founder of our Scientific Research Centre, Chobe Enclave in the early nineties when he first came to Botswana, with the intention on of walking on foot into the Okavango Delta! . With my great passion for the flora and fauna of Botswana, the need to empower my community and to find ways of helping to care for sick and wounded Wildlife of The Chobe Enclave, meeting John Van Thuyne  and finding out that his passion was earth Sciences, we realised we had a lot of ideas and dreams in common and vowed that one day, given the opportunity, we would form a partnership and turn our wishes into reality. That was 18 years ago and it would take several more years before the opportunity finally presented itself! After a lot of hard work , trials, hiccups and dedication, we eventually completed and opened the Vanthuyne Ridge Research Centre for in 2014.

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