"Conservation Through Education"

This is the motto of OGS and we firmly believe that if we do not educate the people in the countries where the last great wildernesses exist we too will squander these areas as so many other countries before us. The people of Botswana are know as the Batswana and by educating the Batswana we can move towards a scenario where the local people can take charge of the tourism in Botswana rather than working for a foreign owned company. It is a gradual process but we believe that it will start and end with education. We also believe that unless the people who live adjacent to wilderness areas derive direct benefit and have some sense of ownership of these areas, the conservation of these areas will always be an up-hill battle.

Botswana and beyond

OGS has been instrumental in setting up the BOTA system and as such we have been able to bring much of the trial and error experience of FGASA across. We feel that this cross-pollination of guide training ideas and training and assessment methods is vitally important for a growing industry. This will facilitate an increase in the quality of guiding not only in Botswana but throughout Africa.