Dereck and Beverly featured in GoPro virtual reality

Rhinos Without Borders in particular received a lot of recognition and acknowledgement this month through a successful partnership between Great Plains Conservation and GoPro.

GoPro released a completely interactive and immersive Virtual Reality Rhino Relocation clip on the 15th March. This video received 1,63 million views in the first week of it’s release…which shocked even the publishers at GoPro it seems!

You do not need any special glasses to move around and explore this world – just open the link on your phone, iPad or computer and enjoy this incredible experience. Please click here to view.

Hear me ROARRR!

“Game of Lions” photographs by Beverly Joubert

Los Angeles, CA — Dereck and Beverly Joubert, Co–Founders of Great Plains Conservation proudly announce their next feature film “Game of Lions” premiering Sunday, December 1, 2013 at 10 p.m. ET/7 PT on Nat Geo Wild as part of the network’s highest rated week, BIG CAT WEEK. Filmed in the heart of Africa’s great wildernesses of the Okavango Deltaand Selinda Reserve, on land conserved by Great Plains Conservation, the film answers one of the Joubert’s most pressing question after three decades of observing the great predators of Africa. “My whole life I’ve been fascinated by the question of what happens to young male lions when they get kicked out [of a pride] and become nomads, and what it takes to win the rights to emerge as a challenger to a pride male.” said filmmaker Dereck Joubert

As Joubert tells it, the film follows, “this extraordinary rite of passage, this boot camp for young male lions, and it touches on a subject that probably intrigues or bothers any young man, I suppose. Beverly and I had a lot of fun doing this because we were all over the place, following nomads, trying to understand what no one has so far covered because there are no basic rules to being a survivor, except to survive. Just one out of eight lions survive into adulthood and those that do enter into a game of kins, as each bloodline fights for its ultimate survival and the right to win a pride. Their fate has always been a mystery that has stumped conservationists and scientists for years.”

In Nat Geo WILD’s TV premiere of “Game of Lions,” narrated by Jeremy Irons for National Geographic Television andChannels, the Jouberts take an unflinching look at what happens to these lions in this spirited, moving and heartbreaking film set in the heart of the great plains of Africa.

“We were lucky to be able to do this project on land and in camps operated by Great Plains Conservation, areas which are truly wild places, with all the natural predators and prey in place and large enough for our needs on this film, because these young males really roam over huge distances and without working on reserves of this size, we’d have been stopping, applying for permissions on different land and losing our subjects every other day. As it was, we lost most of them!”

The Joubert estimates there are 20,000 lions left on Earth. Only 3,500 of those are males. Although they are born at a 50/50 ratio, by the time they reach maturity, very few remain — a fact attributable to both natural and unnatural causes.

About Great Plains Conservation:

Great Plains Conservation is a conservation company that uses tourism as a major component to help make conservation financially viable through what we call “Conservation Tourism.” Our projects and safari camps in Botswana and Kenya are rooted in this passion to make the environment whole again. They focus on providing a meaningful experience, something special for people but by doing so with a strong commitment to the lowest impact, high value, and safari experiences. Ensuring that areas in which we operate are environmentally sustainable and financially working enterprises for conservation and for communities is what we consider responsible tourism and business.

More than a television event, BIG CAT WEEK is an extension of the Big Cats Initiative, a long–term commitment by the National Geographic Society to stop poaching, save habitat and sound the call that big steps are needed to save big cats around the world. This global initiative actively supports on–the–ground conservation projects and education to help stem and eventually reverse the rapid disappearance of big cat populations. For more information on BIG CAT WEEK, visitwww.natgeowild.com/bigcatweek or follow us on twitter @NGC_PR. More information on the Big Cats Initiative and how you can get involved, visit www.causeanuproar.com.

Great Plains Conservation — www.Greatplainsconservation.com

Dereck and Beverly Joubert — www.Wildlifefilms.co

Caroline Graham, C4 Global Communications

caroline@c4global.com | +1 310.899.2727 | www.c4global.com

Beverly & Dereck Joubert Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

On friday night (4th April) Beverly and Dereck Joubert received a Lifetime Achievement award from the South African Films & Television Awards (SAFTAS) for their contribution and development of the countries film industry.   Previous recipients of this award include Anant Singh who recently produced ‘Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom’.

For three decades the Jouberts have produced films in Southern Africa, many of which have helped save vast tracts of wilderness and have raised awareness on the plight of Big Cats and other iconic species that are under threat.  One of their first films, ‘Eternal Enemies’, has been watched by over a billion people from around the world, and is one of their most popular and renowned films.  The Jouberts 2011 film, “The Last Lions,” was filmed in Botswana and has since become a powerful ambassador for wild lions. In less than a year it reached over 350 million people and it continues to reach more, while collecting an array of international awards in the process.

Legadema, the leopard that features in ‘Eye of the Leopard’ (2006), has become a global ambassador for leopards, while drawing attention to the fur industry, which is destimating their numbers.  As National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence, the Jouberts have also founded the Big Cats Initiative with National Geographic to further protect all of the big cats in Africa and globally, through on-the-ground projects, research, education and ongoing awareness campaigns.

Yet it is not just big cats that they are concerned about.  Through Great Plains Foundation they are also working to protect all wildlife including elephants and rhinos that are so vulnerable right now.

View full article HERE

Environment Trophy

The below pictures and article below relate to the Environment Trophy the Jouberts accepted on behalf of Zarafa Camp at the Relais & Châteaux 2013 Congress recently.

Read the Article relating HERE.

Most Life Enriching Experience | PURE Award

So not only did Great Plains win the PURE award for ‘Most Life Enriching Experience’ (see press release at bottom of email), they also dominate the front cover of this years PURE show catalog with a great picture of Dereck.

VIEW ONLINE ARTICLE ON THE PURE AWARD HERE.

“Wild Supreme” at 340 Madison Avenue, New York City

The “Wild Supreme” exhibit at 340 Madison Avenue, New York City is of 8 large photographs of African wildlife taken by Beverly Joubert. The permanent exhibit is arranged by RXR Realty, the sustainable conservationists who are presenting their collection of these stunning large-size photographs printed on canvas. Dereck and Beverly Joubert are award winning filmmakers and conservationists. The winners of six Emmys for their wildlife films.

The photographic exhibit opened on June 6th, 2012, in the limestone lobby of the RXR office building at 44th Street in Manhattan. The Jouberts travelled from Botswana for the event and spoke of their work saving the big cats of Africa to the assembled crowd. Explaining that the lions, leopard and cheetah that they have filmed and photographed on Duba Plains, Selinda and Zarafa on the Selinda Reserve in Botswana, and ol Donyo Lodge and Mara Plains in Kenya are now in danger of becoming extinct.

“The Big Cats Initiative founded by us with the National Geographic is a plea for your help to save the wild cats from extinction. Trophy hunters are killing over 600 male lions a year” the Jouberts explained to a shocked audience.  “The images shown here today are all made on select game reserves in Africa, owned and managed by Great Plains Conservation, a safari company established to increase and protect wild places. Great Plains Conservation is a Joubert and partners initiative that protects 1.5 million acres of land by working with communities and governments to establish corridors, save lions and other big cats and enrich biospheres in both Botswana and Kenya.”

The opening night, June 6th, was an exciting event, with a New York crowd attending the cocktail reception hosted by RXR. Eight large images by Beverly Joubert, each over 6 feet square on stretched canvas, were hung in the lobby. “Wild Supreme” a large photograph of a Duba lion, set the color tone for the orange and yellow images of wildlife in the permanent exhibit. The silent auction that night raised money for the Big Cats Initiative bigcatsinitiative.org

Africa was in the heart of Manhattan that night, where the Jouberts plea for help to save the big cats caused an uproar around the city. The Jouberts film “The Unlikely Leopard” will be shown on Nat Geo WILD TV on July 15th in the USA.