Wilderness with Simon Reeve (2024) s01e04 Episode Script

1
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 kill
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
kill 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 kill 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 rifles.
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 shoot 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 bomb.
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 killing 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 kill 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
killing 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.