CyberTracker’s international evaluator community gathered from 24–31 August, for the first time in the organisation’s 30-plus year history – hosted outside Hoedspruit.

This was all made possible thanks to the organisers, Kersey Lawrence and Lee Gutteridge.

Evaluators, indigenous knowledge holders, professional guides, citizen scientists, researchers and educators have travelled in from Africa, North America and Europe for the meeting. Between them they represent the current shape of CyberTracker Tracker Certification, and the conversations at this gathering are expected to help guide where the system goes next.

Organisers describe the group as overwhelmingly committed and frequently under-resourced – people for whom tracking is less a career than a calling. The meeting’s stated aim is not to resolve every question facing the certification system, but to strengthen the community, share regional perspectives, and begin working through the harder questions together.

The programme is built around three equally weighted strands. “Inside” covers structured discussion on the CyberTracker Protocol, how it operates differently across regions, and unresolved questions about who the certification system serves and how. “Outside” is field time – tracking together, watching animal behaviour on foot and from vehicle, and experiencing firsthand the skill the whole system exists to honour. “Voices” is dedicated space for indigenous and underrepresented participants to help shape the conversation’s direction, rather than simply take part in it.

Days combine early-morning tracking activities with group discussion back at camp – on topics ranging from South Africa’s new Guidelines for Spoor Ratings to the future of the Protocol – alongside further wildlife viewing and social time around the campfire in the evenings.

Organisers describe their approach as “intentions, not plans”: a loosely structured programme built to bend around whatever the landscape offers. It’s a fitting rhythm for a gathering built around reading a landscape that rarely follows a schedule of its own.