What National Geographic experts want you to know

December 30, 2025 — 3:06pm

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There are people in this life that seem to live the dream. Beverly and Dereck Joubert are two of those. And according to Beverly, that’s by design.

The couple, founders of the African tourism company Great Plains Conservation, have released a new book, adding to their extraordinary creative legacy that works symbiotically with Great Plains.

Asked what she hopes readers will glean from the work Beverly says, “That life, no matter what industry or in the pursuit or any occupation, needs to start with a dream and passion. Just don’t do it if it sucks your passion for life from you, as opposed to feeding you.”

Conservationists and Great Plains Conservation founders Beverly and Dereck Joubert.

“For us, each day is both a challenge and a game, to squeeze as much enjoyment from. And for us, finding ways to solve a conservation problem or help a community is a part of that challenge. We’re satisfied most days, and those we aren’t are like primers for the next day, so we can do better. Too many people we meet are sleepwalking through life.”

The Jouberts, in this regard, are wide awake.

The couple have made more than 40 films for National Geographic.Beverly Joubert

Makers of more than 40 films over 40 years for National Geographic with multiple significant awards along the way, the conservationists established several wildlife initiatives under their Great Plains Foundation mantle.

The Jouberts have also had 14 books published, featuring Beverly’s acclaimed images.

Their latest coffee table book, Wild Eye: A Life in Photographs, is a retrospective of the husband-and-wife team’s explorations through Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Through words and images, it also portrays their clear-visioned love for and commitment to conservation and tourism on the African continent, a mission they love sharing.

Striped Confrontation … zebras jostling.Beverly Joubert

To that end, since the early 2000s they have been building a portfolio of 14 luxury safari camps and lodges in Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

However, Dereck Joubert warns that both African conservation and tourism are at a tipping point.

“The industry is under increasing pressure to pay for itself and the communities around the protected areas,” he says. “While doing fair business is important in any business, the burden of tourism to support ever-increasing human populations around these areas is eventually going to collapse conservation areas.”

A young leopard cub plays in a hammerkop nest in an Acacia tree.Beverly Joubert

Prices for safaris are already high, and margins for safari operators are getting lower and lower. Some areas and companies are barely making 10 per cent profit, according to Dereck, and when these companies fail, conservation fails and the communities around them see natural spaces as just an irritation that produce lions to kill their livestock and elephants to raid their crops.

“Most protected areas now are ringed by development and that increases the human wildlife conflict daily. We must find other sectors to carry some of this burden.”

Giraffe glide over the Amboseli landscape as if walking on glass against a heat haze.Beverly Joubert

Like most top operators in Africa, the Jouberts have structured their business to have support for community as a key pillar. Dereck says tourists can help by being discerning in their choices of operators.

Successful camps and lodges provide for communities, not just in revenues, but in jobs and skills transfers and food security.

“At the moment we hire about 1000 people – four or five local people per one guest – and that means we feed 10 times that number of family members and dependents. But via our secondary benefits through our Great Plains Foundation we are able to generate funding for additional community efforts, where, for example, we feed 15,000 to 18,000 children a day, and have given away over 6 million meals in the past few years.

Buffalo in the early morning light are alert and aware, as a lion pride circles around them.Beverly Joubert

Beverly Joubert says that also means putting animal welfare front and centre when choosing a safari.

“Finding remote areas without mass tourism is key and difficult,” she says. “Loads of vehicles disturb natural behaviour and great moments. Bad driver behaviour like in the Maasai Mara is off-putting and makes it unviable to even get a decent photograph today, so finding exclusive areas like those where we operate is really important. It is not just for photography, though; a safari is a journey of the soul and you just can’t get in touch with that among dozens of other vehicles.”