It is five in the morning, nearly pitch black outside, and I am huddled under a blue blanket with my husband and son, shivering in the desert at Chobe National Park. For nearly two-hours, our safari guide drives us up and over bumpy, dusty roads surrounded by dried brush, brown trees, and a smattering of guinea fowl. Then, just when we begin to lose hope, our jeep rounds a corner and we spot two lions up ahead. We pause to watch them and soon realize that there is actually an entire pride of lions in front of us with at least six cubs of all different ages.
For more than half an hour, we sit and watch the cubs tumble and play in the dusty grass, until eventually some foolish people on the far side of the savanna get out of their truck. In a moment, the mother lions turn to look and then gather up their cubs and walk directly past our extremely open air jeep before disappearing into the brush. They pass by so closely that we could have reached out and touched them if we weren’t afraid of dismemberment and death.
As we embark on the 100-year anniversary of Black History Month this February, I’ve been thinking about the many examples of Black-led conservation that we can see happening around the world. From Botswana, to Haiti, and even here in Minnesota, these stories provide opportunities for connection and learning and dispel the notion that conservation is mostly a “white person thing.”
Within Africa, Botswana is recognized as a shining example of environmental conservation. After existing under British colonial rule from 1885 to 1966, the Botswanan government made it a point to establish Chobe National Park in 1967, almost immediately after gaining independence. Since then, the country has set aside 40% of its land for permanent habitat protection, through National Parks and Wildlife Management Areas. Botswana boasts the largest population of elephants in Africa and has blended sustainable tourism and diamond mining to create a vibrant middle-class economy.
Most recently, in 2011, Botswana entered into a treaty partnership with Angola, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to form the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), a 200,000 square mile region dedicated to sustainable development, habitat protection, and wildlife conservation. Within this zone there are 1068 species of plants, 480 species of birds, and 130 species of mammals, including lions, leopards, African buffalos, elephants, and rhinoceros.
In contrast with Botswana, Haiti is a tiny country that occupies less than half of an island in the Caribbean Sea. It became the world’s first independent Black republic in 1804, after the enslaved people on the island staged a 13-year long revolt against the French colonial government. (It is worth noting that France itself did not become a stable democracy until 1870.) Though Haiti has since endured many years of political instability, including 19 years of occupation by the United States and 30 years of oppression under the Duvalier dictatorships, it nonetheless holds a unique place in history as the only nation formed from a successful slave revolt.
Similar to Botswana, Haiti collaborates with ten nearby nations to implement conservation through a Caribbean Challenge Initiative. The country has protected 260,000 acres of marine and coastal areas (23% of its marine environment) and is working to restore mangroves, establish coral nurseries, plant trees in upland freshwater regions, and manage sustainable fisheries. The Haiti National Trust, established in 2017, helped to establish three new national parks – Grand Bois, Deux Mamelles and Grande Colline – and the Haiti Biodiversity Fund, established in 2018 – provides an ongoing source of funding to manage protected areas.
Closer to home, we can also find examples of Black-led conservation in the Twin Cities region. Founded by Repa Mekha, Chanda Smith Baker, and Lulete Mola in 2020, the Minnesota Black Collective Foundation distributed $1 million in grants to 25 Black-led organizations in 2025, with several grants going to conservation and environmental organizations. One grant recipient – Community Members for Environmental Justice – has developed an environmental justice checklist to help communities, governments, and institutions assess the impacts of development and policy decisions. They lead walking tours in North Minneapolis that draw local, national, and international visitors, and are advocating to transform the now-closed Northern Metal Recycling into a hub for environmental justice, affordable housing, green jobs, and community-led development.
Just B Solar is another environmental organization to receive funding from the Minnesota Black Collective Foundation. Founder Keith Dent played a key role in installing North Minneapolis’s first community solar garden and is passionate about making solar energy more accessible for Black and Brown neighborhoods. Just B Solar also runs creative and engaging programs for youth, including a summer camp where kids get to drive solar-powered go-karts and build solar-powered cardboard homes.
Black History Month began as Negro History Week in 1926, at the suggestion of historian Carter G. Woodson. In 1970, Black educators and students at Kent State University proposed an expansion of the celebration from one week to one month. Eventually, in 1976, Black History Month gained official recognition from President Gerald Ford during the United States’ celebration of its bicentennial.
Learn more about Black History Month at www.blackhistorymonth.gov.
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