- ABOUT ZWCF
Who We Are
ZWCF brings together conservation scientists, legal and financial professionals, and on-the-ground operators with decades of experience in Zambia's wildlife areas — united not by institutional obligation but by genuine, already-demonstrated commitment to this landscape and the communities within it.
The foundation was built around founders who were already doing the work. The board and advisors were assembled because they are the best people in their respective fields — not because they needed to be convinced of the mission, but because they had already demonstrated their commitment to it in practice.
ZWCF exists for those who want to contribute to work that is already happening — with personal oversight, established community relationships, and a governance structure that takes the responsibility of stewardship seriously.
- THE FOUNDERS
Brooke and Corby Robertson
A Texas-based family with a multi-generational tradition of community and conservation work. Since 2023, they have built one of the most active private conservation and community commitments in the Luangwa Valley — personal, operational, and direct.
Brooke Robertson
Chair, Board of Directors · Co-Founder, ZWCF
Brooke leads ZWCF's board and is the foundation's most consistent presence on the ground in Zambia. She is actively involved across all three of ZWCF's focus regions — in the communities surrounding Mfuwe, throughout the Mwanya Chiefdom in close partnership with Chieftainess Mwanya, and in the communities around each of The Bushcamp Company's eight camps. In the field she organizes food deliveries, runs puppet shows for children, sources school supplies, and is there in person for ribbon cuttings at completed infrastructure. Not a donor at a distance — a presence.
Combined Personal Founding Commitment
$1,000,000
Corby Robertson III
Advisor · Co-Founder, ZWCF
Corby Robertson is a Houston-based private equity investor and entrepreneur with more than thirty years of experience across energy, natural resources, and principal investing. He serves as Trustee of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation and as a board member of Natural Resource Partners LP (NYSE: NRP). His connection to the Luangwa Valley began in 1984. The operational investments he has made there — safari operations, Chibembe Wildlife Reserve, the road grader, the bore hole drilling rig, the DAF trucks, Land Cruisers, and construction teams — form the operational backbone through which ZWCF's programs are delivered at scale.
Combined Personal Founding Commitment
$1,000,000
- ALREADY DOING THE WORK
The proof of concept is already in the valley.
ZWCF was not created to begin the work of community and conservation investment in Zambia. It was created because that work was already well underway — through two operations Brooke and Corby own and run directly. The numbers below are not projections. They are twenty-five years of delivered results.
- Brooke & Corby Robertson
The Bushcamp Company
South Luangwa National Park · Operating since 1999
$7M+
Raised for community programs since 1999
~300
Boreholes drilled across the valley
200
Capacity per borehole per day — ~300 boreholes across the valley
350+
Students on active scholarships
4,000+
Children fed daily — Meal-a-Day program
34
Classrooms built in the valley
The Bushcamp Company is the largest safari operator inside South Luangwa National Park — eight camps across a 140,000-acre exclusive use area, operating 25+ years. Its community program is one of the longest-running and most substantive in the Luangwa Valley.
Brooke and Corby acquired BCC in 2023 from the estate of Paul Allen to carry on a 25-year legacy of community investment alongside BCC’s world-class safari operations. The same guides, the same camps, the same guest experiences, the same commitment — with new energy and committed resources behind it.
- Brooke & Corby Robertson
Chibembe Wildlife Reserve
South Luangwa · Acquired 2023 · 3,500 acres
3,500
Acres — titled property + Kalovia Island lease
1932
First operated as a camp — one of Africa's oldest
1950s
Norman Carr established walking safaris here
12 full time/200 casual
jobs
2025
GCF GPS collaring of Thornicroft's giraffe on property
Daily
Anti-Poaching Patrols
Chibembe is where the walking safari was born. Norman Carr pioneered the concept on this land in the 1950s — and the property has remained at the heart of Luangwa Valley conservation ever since. Brooke and Corby acquired it in 2023 and have invested directly in its conservation infrastructure: anti-poaching patrols, a game scout house in the Mwanya community, and a CSL radio tower — extending anti-poaching network reach across the area.
The 2,500-acre Kalovia Island lease was granted by Chieftainess Mwanya in 2025 — after two years of earned trust. That relationship, built through demonstrated commitment rather than institutional promise, is the foundation on which ZWCF's Mwanya Chiefdom work stands.
"You cannot preserve wildlife by fencing it off from the people who live with it. You must make the wildlife mean something to the community — give it a value they can see, feel, and benefit from. Only then will they want it to prosper."
Norman Carr — Pioneer of the Walking Safari, Luangwa Valley, Zambia, 1950s
Norman Carr pioneered the walking safari in the Luangwa Valley in the 1950s — and with it, a philosophy of conservation that placed community benefit at its centre. His ideas are now the foundation of Zambia's conservation framework and of every durable conservation model in Africa. ZWCF carries his philosophy forward in the same valley where it was first proven to work.
- GOVERNANCE
Board of Directors
BR
Brooke Robertson
Chair, Board of Directors
Co-founder of ZWCF. Leads the foundation's board and its direct community work in the Mwanya Chiefdom. Owner of The Bushcamp Company.
CM
Cullen Muse, PhD
Vice Chair
Vice Chair, Rainforest Trust; Director, Bat Conservation International. Deep international conservation governance expertise.
JJ
John Jeffers
Director — General Counsel
General Counsel, Robertson Family Office. Legal oversight, governance counsel, and structural expertise for the foundation.
Advisors
Corby Robertson III
Advisor — Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation
Co-founder of ZWCF. The operational and financial architect behind the foundation's on-the-ground capacity in Zambia.
Katrina Garnett
Advisor — Program Manager, Musekese Conservation
Conservation management in Greater Kafue and the Mumbwa GMA.
Nick Riddin
Advisor — Manager, Remote Africa Safaris
Extensive operational experience in North Luangwa and the Chifunda GMA
.
Development Committe
Scott Holstead
JP Morgan Securities
Financial advisory expertise supporting ZWCF's capital campaign strategy and endowment development.