Botswana encompasses Sub-Saharan Africa's largest and least human-impacted wilderness areas:

There are essentially two relatively unfenced wilderness areas allowing the free movement of wildlife:

The combined size of these wildife dispersal areas - amongst Earth's last few remaining examples -
is larger than the country of Malaysia or the US state of New Mexico.  

Aerial view of gemsbok herd on pan in Wildlife Management Area NG5.

The Kalahari is rich in drought-tolerant wild food plants vital to the food security of resident communities, with well over 100 species used as food and medicine: livestock development can rapidly degrade such life-sustaining resources.

Yet only 42 % of these wildlife dispersal areas are under formal protection and reasonably safe from
unsustainable land use and development:

Livestock development and fencing is the primary cause of habitat loss in the wildlife dispersal areas:

Whilst some fences can be helpful in limiting livestock incursions into wildlife areas, many do not serve their intended "disease control" purpose, and they bisect remote cattle-free habitats where they inflict untold stress, injuries and mortalities on free-ranging wildlife populations.

Preventing further habitat loss, mitigation of fencing impacts, and the creation of new corridors, is essential to reversing current wildife declines and rehabilitating populations towards their ecological and economic potential:

Map of Northwest Botswana showing selected wildife dispersal patterns.