Introducing
Beverly Joubert
"I’m delighted to be a matriarch for elephants in Africa, my personal guides and mentors throughout life. They tell their own stories so eloquently if we listen, they embody all the characteristics we most admire in ourselves, and none we are ashamed of as humans. So my role here is as translator, interpreter perhaps, not just for those who don’t yet understand the lessons they freely give us, but for the tuition all of Nature provides for us. The lions, leopards, forests and elephants only require one thing in return, protection."
Beverly Joubert is a world famous, award-winning filmmaker, photographer, conservationists and a National Geographic Explorer-at-Large. Together with her husband Dereck they co-founded Great Plains Conservation and Great Plains Foundation. They presently manage over 1.5 million acres of wild lands in Africa, and that holds an estimated 2-3% of Africa’s elephants, lions, giraffe and other wildlife.
Beverly & Dereck co-founded the Big Cats Initiative with National Geographic, as an emergency initiative to slow the rapid decline of big cats around the world, with over 150 Grants in 28 Countries. This program has now transitioned to the Great Plains Big Cats Initiative, under the Joubert’s leadership and Great Plains Foundation management. As a child of Africa, she strives to create images that open a window in the souls of the subjects so that the viewer will feel a connection with these individual animals and will want to fight for their survival.
Her unique style of photographic activism is geared to touch the heart of viewers, stirring a long-lasting passion, rather than sending a sharp shock to the heart as a means to motivate action. With her husband Dereck Joubert, Beverly has co-produced many award-winning wildlife documentaries as part of their company Wildlife Films.
In March 2017, the Joubert’s survived a near-fatal Cape buffalo attack at their camp in Botswana's Okavango Delta. This brought into sharp perspective the impermanence of time and the race we are all in to make a difference. Setting their sights on sweeping change, Dereck and Beverly created Rhinos Without Borders, a revolutionary initiative that moved 87 rhinos from high poaching areas to safety. Their current wildlife conservation projects include everything from building teams of Female Rangers to relocating elephants, giraffes and other species to restore and rewild depleted habitats.
“Truthfully, a planet without the rasping sound at midnight of a leopard call in the forest or the cough of a male lion's first syllable in a roar at dawn will be an incredibly lonely one. A world where the wild has been tamed out and made safe and dull would be meaningless to many of us."
- Beverly Joubert
