Beverly and Dereck Joubert

When asked, Dereck and Beverly Joubert may say they are global conservationists who make films. Winners of five Emmys, two Chris awards, the Grand Teton award, and a George Foster Pea body award, Dereck and Beverly Joubert have dedicated their lives to using documentary films and books to enhance conservation of African wildlife. They have specialized in the big cats of Africa, believing that the large predators are the best indicators to the health of many ecosystems.

Their films include Eternal Enemies: Lions and Hyenas, Ultimate Enemies: Elephants and Lions, Reflections on Elephants, Lions of Darkness, Patterns in the Grass and Wildlife Warriors. Recent projects include Relentless Enemies: Lions and Buffalo, a documentary shot over two years as the Jouberts lived among a pride of lions and a large buffalo herd in the Duba region of Botswana's Okavango Delta. The film includes dramatic first ever footage of lions hunting in water. Their latest film, Eye of the Leopard, which won an Emmy, the Jules Verne and Japanese festivals, documents a young leopard's survival in wild Africa over a period of three years, beginning just eight days after her birth.

Using the connections and influence that their reputation brings, they have argued successfully to ban the hunting of lions in Botswana. They talk to presidents and members of government throughout Africa, as well as communities and villages, using their film work as a foundation for discussion. In addition, the Jouberts' opposition to execution-style culling of elephant herds has so far helped to prevent Botswana from emulating the policies of Zimbabwe and South Africa, where herds are thinned to reduce elephant-human conflicts.

Dereck and Beverly Joubert are Explorers-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and their goal in life is to use their talents to enhance African wildlife conservation. They are board members of various trusts and conservation bodies and two years ago formed the Great Plains Trust, an entity that is involved in what they call, Conservation Tourism where areas of conservation under threat that could do with an injection of funding, to support community involvement can be turned around with minimal tourism rather than see collapse or more harsh unsustainable uses.