Dereck Joubert
Filmmaker and Conservationist
Dereck Joubert and his wife, Beverly, are world- famous filmmakers, conservationists, and explorers from Botswana. As National Geographic Explorers at Large, they founded the Big Cats Initiative, which now has over 150 projects across twenty-nine countries focused on protecting large cats. Their mission for over forty years has been the conservation and understanding of these large predators in particular, as well as other key wildlife species that determine the course of African conservation. The Jouberts have produced over thirty-five films for National Geographic, published fourteen books, and authored many articles for National Geographic magazine. They have won eight Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, a Grand Teton Award, Golden Panda Awards, a World Ecology Award, and the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award, but it is their Presidential Order of Meritorious Service given to them by Botswana’s president for their conservation work that stands out for them. They have established the Great Plains Foundation and Great Plains Conservation to secure and protect large African landscapes and provide sustainable conservation tourism. They manage over 1.5 million acres of wild- lands in Africa, which holds an estimated 2 to 3 percent of Africa’s elephants, lions, giraffes, and other wildlife. The Jouberts’ efforts all have one aim: to save the wild places of Africa and to protect the creatures that depend on them.