Our partner: Knyphausen Foundation

The Knyphausen Foundation is dedicated to promoting sustainability, conservation, and education, focusing on environmental projects for children and youth in Botswana. They aim to foster a deep connection with nature, support sustainable practices, and raise environmental awareness.

Through various initiatives, the foundation provides educational programs, supports community-driven conservation efforts, and encourages the younger generation to engage with and protect their natural surroundings. Their work encompasses hands-on environmental education, community involvement, and sustainable development, aiming to create lasting positive impacts on both the local environment and the communities they serve.

What is special about the Knyphausen Foundation?

The Knyphausen Foundation uniquely blends sustainability, conservation, and education to create impactful environmental projects in Botswana. Their on-site initiatives in Maun aim to improve education standards, establish new professions in environmental protection, and strengthen local partnerships.

Environmental Education:

The foundation emphasizes educating the future generation to raise awareness about the importance of nature and encourage responsibility for its preservation.

Scholarship Awards:

Young adults from Botswana are given opportunities to train as professional safari guides or become leaders in the Junior Ranger Programme, fostering a commitment to conservation and environmental stewardship.

What does the Knyphausen Foundation do?

The Knyphausen Foundation for Sustainability, Nature Conservation and Education, based in Lütetsburg, East Frisia, was established by Theda Gräfin Knyphausen at the end of 2015. The foundation's work focuses on Maun/Botswana, where it carries out specially developed educational and environmental projects with children and young people.

The aim is to support the young generation in appreciating and preserving the environment and nature that surrounds them. The focus is primarily on education and training to bring about sustainable changes in thinking and also behaviour.

In cooperation with local schools in Maun, the Knyphausen Foundation conducts regular training courses on waste management and supports children in acquiring more self-responsibility and environmental responsibility within the framework of the so-called Junior Ranger Programme. In addition, it awards annual educational scholarships to young adults from Botswana, enabling them to train as professional safari guides or leaders of the Junior Rangers.

What programmes does the Knyphausen Foundation offer?

#1 Junior Ranger Programme

The Junior Ranger Programme was developed by the Knyphausen Foundation in cooperation with the Future Explorers Youth Society, a local association from Maun. Within the framework of the programme, children and young people are taught about specific environmental protection topics in regular educational sessions at local schools - directly in nature.

In this way, the children and young adults are taught the necessary factual, social, and creative skills in the areas of environmental protection and sustainability, which will enable them to participate in shaping the future.

Many of the “Junior Rangers” experience the local flora and fauna for the first time in the framework of the programme and deal intensively with nature conservation. Participation in the programme is basically free of charge.

The long-term goal is to transfer the contents of the programme to other regions of Botswana and neighbouring countries and thus create sustainable structures for environmental education in the southern part of Africa. 

#2 Educational scholarships

Safari tourism is one of Botswana's most important sources of economic income. Compared to other African countries, the government of Botswana has particularly high-quality standards in this field and the profession of safari guide is highly regarded.

Every year, the Knyphausen Foundation awards educational scholarships to young adults from Botswana, enabling them to train as professional safari guides or, alternatively, as multipliers of the Junior Ranger Programme.

Awarded annually are:

- one scholarship for the one-year training to become a Professional Field Guide

- a scholarship for the 33-day “intense”" course to become a safari guide

- one scholarship for the 14-day “Train the Trainer” course to become a Junior Ranger multiplier

#3 Waste Management

In cooperation with various schools in the region, the Knyphausen Foundation regularly organises workshops on waste separation, recycling and waste avoidance.

In small "environmental workshops", 30 to 40 children of all ages are taught about waste management.

In the meantime, the project, which was initiated with the help of the local education officer Joyce Malema and the Cologne environmental technology expert Klaus Schätte, has become an integral part of the Junior Ranger programme and is taken up again and again in the educational units.