Community Kids Smiling for a picture in Zambia

- 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.

Rachel McRobb

Advisor — CEO, Conservation South Luangwa

Co-founder of ZWCF. Leads the foundation's board and its direct community work in the Mwanya Chiefdom. Owner of The Bushcamp Company.

Ed Sayer

Advisor — Country Director, Frankfurt Zoological Society

Co-founder of ZWCF. Leads the foundation's board and its direct community work in the Mwanya Chiefdom. Owner of The Bushcamp Company.

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

Gid Carr

Advisor — Founder, Makolekole Foundation

Community development and conservation expertise across Zambia's protected area network.

Development Committe

Corbin J Robertson Jr

Chairman, Cullen Trust for Higher Education

Representing a multi-generational family tradition of conservation philanthropy that ZWCF carries forward in Zambia.

Scott Holstead

JP Morgan Securities

Financial advisory expertise supporting ZWCF's capital campaign strategy and endowment development.