Botswana’s Elephant-Friendly Okavango Craft Brewery Delivers Conservation Solutions in the Heart of Africa
May 5, 2025
Beer Connoisseur - The sun was setting over the Okavango Delta, painting the sky in shades of amber and gold, when a family of elephants emerged from the tall grass at the edge of our small island camp. I froze, a drink suspended halfway to my lips, as the matriarch led her clan toward the water. A baby elephant, no higher than my waist and sheltered between two adults, swung its tiny trunk in perfect mimicry of its elders.
“Don’t move,” whispered our guide Shoos. “They know we’re here. They’re just passing through.”
There’s something humbling about sharing space with the largest land mammals on earth, creatures whose ancestors have traversed these flood plains for millennia. Botswana boasts one of Africa’s highest elephant populations. Approximately 130,000 of these giants roam the country’s northern regions. Yet despite their numbers, they face an uncertain future as human settlements expand and traditional migration routes become agricultural fields.
As the elephant family waded into the cool waters of the Delta, I couldn’t help but wonder about the farmers whose millet fields might lie in their path tomorrow. For these farmers, the elephants I was photographing represent a potential catastrophe. They are six tons of hunger that could destroy a year’s harvest in a single night.
Conflicts between elephants and humans are common as both compete for dwindling resources and land in the Okavango Delta, one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. But beer might be making a difference in that plight.
In Botswana, a unique experiment is fermenting – one that combines conservation, community development and craft beer. The Okavango Craft Brewery, born from the conservation work of the NGO Ecoexist, is proving that solutions to human and wildlife conflict can come in unexpected forms. In this case, it’s at the bottom of a pint glass.
Brewing Solutions
The NGO Ecoexist’s mission addresses the growing conflicts between elephants and farmers while promoting coexistence in the communities surrounding the Okavango Delta by encouraging millet farmers to use non-lethal elephant deterrents like beehive fences and chili powder bags.
“We often say, if you really want to help protect elephants or conserve elephants, one great way to do that is to support the people who live with them and share the landscape with them,” said Dr. Graham McCulloch, who co-founded Okavango Craft Brewery as an offshoot of the conservation NGO Ecoexist he founded with his wife, Dr. Anna Songhurst.
“We all love elephants, but living with an elephant in your backyard is quite a thing. They’re quite destructive.”
However, implementing these methods requires significant effort from farmers. Ecoexist realized that for their approach to be sustainable, they needed to provide tangible benefits to the farmers adopting these “elephant-aware” practices.
This realization led to a groundbreaking idea of creating a market-linked incentive by transforming the region’s staple crop, millet, into a value-added product.
After considering various options, the team settled on an unexpected solution – craft beer.
The idea was a perfect fit. Craft beer offered a “sexy” product that could serve as a flagship for a brand built around conservation and community support. It also had the potential to sell well in the local tourism industry, adding value to visitors’ experiences while supporting a crucial cause.
After two years of research and development, the Okavango Craft Brewery was born. However, its launch in February 2020 coincided with the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, forcing a temporary halt to operations. Despite this setback, the brewery’s investors remained committed to the concept, allowing for a restart in late 2021 and a grand opening in 2023.
From an initial group of about 50 farmers, the program has grown to include nearly 100 elephant-aware farmers, with hundreds more eager to join. This success, however, has highlighted new challenges, particularly in developing the necessary supply chain infrastructure in Eastern Panhandle region of Botswana. Previously, the area had no large-scale commercial farming infrastructure, no storage facilities, no processing equipment and no established transportation networks.
“We’re not just building a brewery,” said McCulloch. “We’re building an entire agricultural supply chain in a region where none existed.”
Building a Brewery
Established in 2019 as Maun’s first licensed microbrewery, Okavango Craft Brewery occupies the old Sports Bar in Sennonori Ward along Sir Seretse Khama road. The enterprise offers a 100% gluten-free millet beer and various millet adjunct beers, all made using mineral water from the Okavango Delta’s pristine aquifer.
“We’re probably the only brewery in the world where our production schedule depends on elephants,” says Anita, a guide at the Okavango Craft Brewery, as she hands me a sample of their signature Delta Bohemian Style Lager. The beer pours a deep gold with a resilient head that clings stubbornly to the glass, not unlike the farmers who’ve persisted here for generations despite elephant incursions.
Beyond mapping elephant migration corridors, Ecoexist promotes a comprehensive set of “elephant-aware” farming practices. Farmers are taught to implement multi-layered defense systems: solar-powered electric fences provide a primary barrier, while chili-infused cloths hung at elephant-height irritate sensitive trunks and eyes. Perhaps most ingeniously, strategically placed beehives exploit elephants’ natural fear of bees. When disturbed, the bees will sting elephants in sensitive areas like eyes and inside trunks, creating a natural deterrent that benefits both species.
Farmers also learn conservation agriculture techniques that improve soil quality and yields, reducing the need to expand into elephant habitat. This holistic approach ensures farmers can protect their livelihoods while allowing elephants to follow their ancient migration patterns, creating a sustainable model for coexistence that the brewery has leveraged into economic opportunity. Farmers using Ecoexists’ practices are paid well above the market rate for the millet that is used at the brewery.
However, working with millet presents unique brewing challenges. Under the expertise of head brewer Murray Stephenson, the crew has created an impressive range that includes Kolsch, IPA, and Stout varieties, all crafted with locally sourced ingredients when possible. The Delta Bohemian Pilsner features up to 58% locally sourced millet.
“Every point of percentage we can push upward means more farmers in our program, more protected corridors and fewer confrontations,” McCulloch said. “Most craft breweries talk about terroir. We talk about territory, elephant territory specifically.”
The brewery currently works with 85 farmers, paying double the standard market rate for their millet. 300 more farmers are still waiting to join the program. Their most recent milestone came when Ecoexist’s “elephant aware farming” model was certified by the Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network, a U.S.-based organization that supports businesses contributing to conservation and sustainable value chains.
Expanding the Mission
The brewery produces approximately 3,700 liters of beer monthly, a volume that sells out almost immediately, but the challenges remain substantial. The Eastern Panhandle region of Botswana has no commercial farming infrastructure, no storage facilities, no processing equipment and no established transportation networks.
“We’re not just building a brewery,” said McCulloch. “We’re building an entire agricultural supply chain in a region where none existed.”
Yet their vision extends beyond Botswana. They’re discussing partnerships with breweries in South Africa, the United States, and the United Kingdom for contract brewing, which would spread their conservation message globally.
The brewery also plays a role in Maun’s tourism sector. As co-owner Francine Sheldon puts it, “Building a sustainable development project that produces top quality Botswana products and that can be showcased to many tourists from around the world, who visit the Okavango, is something I, as a citizen of Botswana, am very proud to be a part of.”
As evening falls, the tasting room fills with a diverse crowd. I sample the Old Bull Irish Stout, rich with coffee notes and a silky mouthfeel.
“This one’s for the matriarchs,” Anita said. “The elder elephants who lead the herds and remember the ancient pathways.”
Conservation metrics are prominently displayed alongside tasting notes on each beer’s description. The Delta Bohemian supports 48 farmers. The Kingfisher Session IPA has helped protect two major elephant corridors. The Old Bull has funded 15 beehive fences.
Outside, as twilight deepens, the distant rumble of elephants provides a fitting soundtrack. As I grab a six-pack on my way out, the staff laughs and reminds me that in Africa, solutions to complex problems sometimes arrive in unexpected packages, like a well-crafted beer can.
“In Botswana, we say that elephants never forget,” Anita said, “but neither do farmers who get paid double for their crops.”
The Okavango Craft Brewery has managed something that countless NGOs, governments, and conservation agencies have struggled with for decades: they’ve made peaceful coexistence profitable. For a company measuring success in both pints and pachyderms, that’s worth raising a glass to and perhaps investing in another round.
