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Singita 4X4 (*’s)

September 14, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Singita Lebombo

Is it possible for a travel destination to be luxurious, hot (as in magazine-worthy), and sustainable? If anyone proves it, Singita does.

This African-based company has properties that go a long way to show that their hearts and minds are in the right place – they care about where they are and what they are doing. Travel is their business, but a business that has to last and in a country that has to last. Singita Grumeti, in Tanzania, has virtually turned what used to be a virtual wasteland (after years of illegal hunting and poaching) into an Eden. Bordering on the Serengeti, the 350,000 acres now have as good as you’ll get animal-wise (and probably even better than) in the iconic park next-door.

Sabora Tented Camp, Grumeti

Working with the community surrounding Grumeti is as much a part of the day-to-day as it is in Pamushana,  in Zimbabwe. For years now the property, which lies adjacent to the stunning and barely visited Gonarezhou park, has served thousands of meals daily to local children. Singita’s community work dates back to 1998 already. Whether it is buying products locally, supporting a cooking academy for staff (watch the video), or contributing to local schools, the company is doing it.

At the ever-popular Lebombo and Sweni lodges in Kruger Park, South Africa, Singita has tried to emphasize low-impact design, creating stunning rooms made of glass, steel, and reeds, perched singly on a ridge. An ongoing program of monitoring the wildlife and land around Singita’s first lodges, Ebony and Boulders lodges, in Sabi Sand, South Africa, endeavors to keep the much-used park seemingly untouched.

Children at Pamushana

At each of these properties, the work with low-impact design, the community, and the wildlife goes on daily and never ends. And that Singita doesn’t forget.

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Filed Under: Africa, Anti-Poaching, Carbon Footprint, Community, Conservation, Education, Environment, Features, Health, N-S, News, South Africa, T-Z, Women Tagged With: cooking school, feeding program, grumeti, pamushana, singita

A Country With Heart. Zambia?

September 7, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Our mission and hope at A World Different is quite simple. To showcase any person or business in the travel industry – hotel, lodge, airline, you name it – that makes a difference to their little piece of the world. You might not even notice it while lying next to their pool, going on their safari drive, or enjoying their cocktail at sunset, but your good time is doing something ‘good’ for the world.

Kafue River

Certain countries and hotels are repeatedly brought to our attention for the way they train locals, pay for schools, invest in local artists, buy medicine, fund anti-poaching – if it’s not Costa Rica, it’s any number of lodges in Kenya or a resort in Indonesia. But one rather unusual candidate has started popping up in recent months – Zambia.

The Bushcamp Company's Chindeni Camp, South Luangwa

Until a decade ago, Zambia was relatively unknown to travelers looking at Africa as a first-time destination. Its economy small, it didn’t have the resources to fund the kind of international tourism campaigns of South Africa or Tanzania. So it has always come across as an also-ran, second or third choice. Its best national parks, South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi, have also never had the cachet of the Serengeti or the Masai Mara.

Sausage Tree Camp, Lower Zambezi

In a way, though, this off-the-radarness might have contributed to Zambia’s charm today. There are 19 national parks, none of them nearly as crammed with lodges as Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa, with the competition good and yet friendly. The philosophy among operators seems to be less about being cut-throat than about working together towards a common goal. And the goal is to take care of the country without and within.

The SLCS on Patrol

First in a notable series of initiatives is Zambian Horizons, a group of lodges that, despite being competitors, pool their resources to publicize the country. At this year’s Indaba, the huge annual African travel-trade powwow in Durban, South Africa, these camps walked away with most Best Of awards. Working together has worked for them individually.

Inside the country the South Luangwa Conservation Society (SLCS) keeps tabs on conservation at every level. More than a dozen camps and lodges participate, including Flatdogs, Robin Pope Safaris, and Norman Carr Safaris. (See more). Each camp often does its own work too, generating small offshoot projects, and offering trips to local communities or craftspeople. Robin Pope Safaris is a case in point.

The Victoria Falls, Zambia

As in any country with parkland and a burgeoning population nearby clamoring for land, there is a knock-on effect. Animals get poached for commercial reasons, for sustenance, or for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some get shot for damaging farmers’ crops.

The School Gets New Chairs

By the early ’90’s, the Zambian Wildlife Authority was struggling to tackle the problem of increased poaching. Local tour operators and lodges offered to help ZAWA by providing scouts, whose salaries needed to be paid and who required uniforms, vehicles, and training. For this they carried out fundraising drives. And so was born the Rapid Action Team – better known as Ratz.

Planting New Trees

Planting New Trees

Over time the lodge operators and the Ratz team realized there was a lot more they could do, especially in terms of the conflict between humans and wildlife, education, and wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. Ratz became the SLCS, and its programs have expanded and flourished. In 2009, it even started a mini-marathon, which drew scouts, police, farmers, schoolchildren, teachers, and members of the Zambian Air Force. At the last event there were more than 300 runners. This year, it launched an Eco Awards program that is focused solely on local works.

Project Luangwa, meanwhile, is a charitable organization supported by five safari operators in South Luangwa – besides Flatdogs and Robin Pope, there is Kafunta River Lodge, Shenton Safaris, and Crocodile Valley Camp. It aims to help local communities improve their long-term economic prospects while also avoiding a negative impact on the environment and wildlife. By developing and improving schools, creating a vocational training center, and supporting the micro-financing of small businesses, it tries to give families the chance of a lasting and sustainable income.

Working with Chilies

Among Project Luangwa’s innovative projects is one to keep elephants and other wildlife away from crops by using chilies. Yes, chilies. The peppers are used to make fences and are also added to bricks made of elephant dung that are burned at nighttime to keep animals away. Locals are offered chili seedlings to grow themselves. Project Luangwa also builds schools (check out its website to get an idea of its range of activities).

On the Zambezi River

In the Lower Zambezi national park, SLCS’s equivalent is Conservation Lower Zambezi. Members include Sausage Tree Camp and Chiawa. For the past 8 years it has been funded largely by the Danish Embassy, which has allowed it to buy a plane and establish a base camp outside the park boundaries. From its environmental education center, it runs a mobile education unit, media promotion, and safari guide training.

That many travelers to Zambia don’t know about these projects says a lot about the lodges and operators that fund and run them. They could shout their achievements from the rooftops, but they rather focus on giving their guests a great safari, a great time, and a great lodge. Doing good things for the locals they do behind the scenes. For them it’s all in a day’s work.

- Caren Banks

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Filed Under: Africa, Anti-Poaching, Carbon Footprint, Community, Conservation, Education, Environment, Features, T-Z, Zambia Tagged With: chili, conservation lower zambezi, danish, microfinance, project luangwa, slcs

Flatdogs Camp

March 21, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Who They Are

Flatdogs is, in this day of high-end safari lodges, a good and affordable alternative. Owner managed, the camp overlooks the Luangwa River in the South Luangwa National Park.

The Treehouse Master Bedroom

With its choice of chalets, safari tents, and the exclusive Jackal-berry Treehouse, Flatdogs is ideal for many a traveler, from honeymooner to family (it is one of the few children-friendly camps) to diehard return visitor. Guests can drive themselves to the camp or fly into Mfuwe airport and start their safari from there. Many safari camps and lodges have a set menu (albeit with one or two choices per course), but Flatdogs has an a la carte menu that allows guests to choose their meals daily.

The Treehouse

The quality of the safari guiding is well known in the region. The guides, eight of them at present, who all come from the area, are a fund of information not only on indigenous culture but also on the history of the area and local conservation practices.

What They Are Doing

Chiyembekezo is a school that was set up entirely by local people for orphaned and vulnerable children. Kelvin, the founder, was concerned about the number of children he found walking the streets, fishing with their fathers, and generally not attending school. With their own money, he and a couple of other local businessmen hired a teacher (a fantastically committed woman named Dailes, who they paid when they could) and started a school in a small house. From there it has grown, and when it was providing education to fifty children five mornings a week Kelvin asked Flatdogs advice about raising funds.

Impressed with his commitment and initiative, the camp happily offered to help. Through combined fund=raising efforts, the teacher’s salary is paid, uniforms for the children are bought, and educational resources provided. The school uses St Agnes’ Anglican Church for classes, and Flatdogs recently helped install electricity and repainted the interior of the building. Future plans include the construction of a small secure storeroom, the upgrading of the playground, and sending Dailes for further training.

Flatdogs has also assisted Mfuwe Secondary School by building two classroom blocks, and it is raising funds for items such as new desks. At present Flatdogs repairs all broken desks from schools in the area.

Fresh from the Garden

Produce at Flatdogs is locally grown, and the camp has helped finance the installation of a water pump to help a local named Rodgers with his irrigation. In its own garden, the camp grows herbs and vegetables and will be helping Mfuwe Secondary School do the same to encourage kids to learn about conservation-savvy farming practices and about the variety of fruit and vegetables suitable for the local soil.

Wake Up!

Flatdogs makes a careful point of not buying only locally. “Buy too much of a scarce commodity,” it says, “and prices rise beyond the reach of local people. So we try to balance our needs, the demands of the business, and the prosperity of local people.” When Flatdogs requires lots of a product in short supply, it encourages Rodgers to grow plenty of it. So every tomato in camp will be local, but none of the fish will be, because it is a valuable protein source for locals and, says Flatdogs, “we want to keep prices down.”

At Chiyembekezo School

Flatdogs is involved in various women’s projects promoting women’s rights and independence by encouraging continued education and careers. It works with Project Luangwa through Eunice Nakachinda, who runs small projects in local villages, particularly with the aim of getting girls into school. Most girls are keen to learn, but they are often required to stay at home to help the family, so her project is one of educating the villagers on the value of education for all children.

Rodgers at Work

The camp also takes about 100 local children on safari each year to teach them the benefits of animals and to show them how peaceful they are in their own environments, to dispel the fear they have of animals who wander into villages at night. Each of Flatdog’s eight guides takes a vehicle full of kids out in the low season. The children are usually in their last two years of school, and most of them belong to the conservation clubs at their school. “We target these children because a couple of other local tourism operators offer something similar but for younger age groups.”

Besides solar heating for water, Flatdogs has some innovative recycling programs. Paper and cardboard go to schools to turn into bricks for cooking. Cans go to Mango Tree Crafts (based at Tribal Textiles), who use them to make a variety of quirky products. Glass and plastic go to Lusaka.

Click here for a Tribal Textiles video

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Filed Under: Carbon Footprint, Community, Conservation, Education, Environment, Features, Flatdogs Camp, T-Z, Uncategorized, Women, Zambia Tagged With: children, garden, luangwa, women

Causing an Uproar

February 21, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

The subject of Dereck and Beverly Joubert’s full-length documentary, The Last Lions, is simply – and sadly – just that. It’s about the last lions of Africa. Which is exactly what they will be unless people take action. Fifty years ago there were 450,000 lions; now there are an estimated 20,000 left. All that in a mere half century. This has been caused by the encroachment of civilization, poaching, and sport hunting.

Watch the Trailer and $10 Goes to Save Lions

It’s a fact learned by few people who go on safari. They don’t realize that the animals they are watching, enjoying, enthralled by, might not be there for their own children to one day see. And that’s what the Jouberts, who have been filming predators in southern Africa for twenty years, mostly for National Geographic, are trying to do with The Last Lions. They want to make people aware of the beauty and irreplaceable richness that will die when the predator cats do.

The Jouberts follow one lioness, who, with her three cubs, flees a pride of females and settles on Duba island in Botswana. The rest of the movie is about her battle to keep her family alive, to feed them, and to fend off attacks by other cats and a massive herd of buffalo. It’s a story of Africa’s wildlife, heartbreaking at times, but it reminds you what’s at stake. Lions in all their glory.

Financed by National Geographic, which has launched Cause an Uproar in order to spread information about the plight of lions.  Also, The Big Cat Initiative, which was started by the Jouberts and National Geographic, is working in Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, and other countries, to try and halt the decrease in the number of cats. As Dereck Joubert says, “We are fighting for one cat at a time.”

But the Jouberts also do their own share.

As stakeholders in the Great Plains Conservation, which owns properties in Botswana, Tanzania, and Kenya – such as Duba Plains, where the movie was filmed, and Ol Donyo Lodge – the company puts money back into conservation and cat programs and anti-poaching. To support their company and its properties is to support wildlife.

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Filed Under: A-F, Africa, Anti-Poaching, Botswana, Conservation, Environment, Features, Kenya, Lukula, Ol Donyo Wuas, Tanzania Tagged With: big cat initiative, great plains conservation, jouberts, lions, movie, predators

Singita Pamushana, Zimbabwe

July 20, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Amongst the Mopane Trees

Who They Are

Singita Pamushana is situated in one of the last remaining pristine game reserves in the southeast corner of Zimbabwe, the Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve. The reserve boasts some of the greatest varieties of mammal and bird species on the African continent, due to the 38 different habitat and ecological zones found on the property.

Overlooking Malilangwe Dam

Nestling beneath the trees, the lodge incorporates the natural environment, and the forest-like architecture

View from the Main Suite

enhances views of the pool, the lush gardens, and the lake below. Pamushana Lodge comprises six luxury suites and one villa, each offering incredible views of the Malilangwe Dam. The lodge design is elegant, contemporary, and bold to match the sheer majestic scale of the landscape. Lodge facilities include indoor and open-air dining rooms, three lounges, and an impressively stocked wine cellar, as well as a bush spa and two communal heated swimming pools with a Jacuzzi. Activities at Malilangwe are tailored to suit clients interests, and include game drives, exciting spotlit night game drives, walking trips, visiting Bushman caves and paintings, canoeing and fishing in the well-stocked lake. There is also a tennis court.

The Painted Dogs of Pamushana

What They Are Doing

Singita Pamushana is the tourism arm of the Malilangwe Trust, a not-for-profit organization that was established to manage an extraordinary wilderness area abutting the Gonarezhou National Park in south eastern Zimbabwe.

Singita manages the lodge on behalf of the trust and all proceeds are used for conservation and community outreach and development programs. Since its inception, the trust has been committed to environmental conservation, with a special focus on rhino, hartebeest, sable, wild dog and the habitat. The conservation team is, as in other Singita properties, involved in the ongoing monitoring, protection, and development of the biological diversity of the reserve. A captive breeding program is currently being designed to ensure the safe breeding of disease-tolerant, endangered species for reintroduction into the reserve and other conservation areas. To date, it has reintroduced diverse wildlife, including the black and white rhino.

A Cornucopia of Africa, Singita's Trandemark

The trust is also involved in supporting projects allied to its conservation efforts. Such support includes introducing donor funding for the Frankfurt Zoological Society’s partnership with Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Management to rehabilitate  neighboring Gonarezhou National Park; facilitating rhino anti-poaching initiatives; and the injection of funding to enable the widespread provision of rabies vaccines to the government veterinary department. Another extraordinary responsibility of Malilangwe is the protection and preservation of over 100 San historical rock art painting sites which are found on the reserve.

The Lodge

Singita Pamushana operates – the same as its sister property in Tanzania, Singita Grumeti – on a very unique basis. The lodge was established for the sole purpose of generating income to assist in funding the conservation and community outreach programs coordinated by the Malilangwe Trust. The Neighbor Outreach Program is the vehicle through which Singita Pamushana and the trust focus on community development.

A cornerstone project to respond to a critical situation facing local schools is the provision of a fortified meal of a corn-soy blend, in porridge form, to some 20,000 children per school day, most of whom are under the age of five.

Children in Line for Breakfast

The NOP is also focused on food security, a critical issue at this time in Zimbabwe’s history, and facilitates the establishment of irrigation projects to enable vulnerable communities to grow their own food and supply drinking water. In addition, the NOP is actively involved in the provision of community infrastructure, including the building and equipping of clinics and school blocks.

In Their Own Words

“With a vision to securing and preserving an increasing number of pristine locations, Singita has a firm commitment to maintaining the sustainability of each property by continuing to build upon our three pillars of wildlife conservation, eco-friendly tourism, and community support. Singita is the Shangaan word for ‘a place of miracles.’ and it is intended that this applies to all who are in contact with it – whether guest, staff, local communities, or the wildlife and natural habitat of the Singita reserves and their lodges.”

http://www.artinfo.com/
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Filed Under: Africa, Community, Conservation, Education, Environment, Features, Health, Singita Pamushana, Zimbabwe Tagged With: frankfurt zoological society, gonarezhou, malilangwe, pamushana, singita

Five Rhinos Donated

May 24, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Setting Free the Rhino

Called the most significant wildlife relocation in East Africa in 50 years, the first five of 32 critically endangered Eastern Black Rhino have been shipped from South Africa to the Serengeti in Tanzania. And one of the main reasons it has happened is Singita Grumeti.

The rhino population in Serengeti has fallen from 1000 to less than 70 in the past four decades. A half dozen of these rhino that were taken from Tanzania to South Africa in the early 1960s have thrived, and it is from that herd that the translocated animals originated.

The world’s population of black rhino, once 65,000, fell to an all-time low of 2,410 in 1995, mostly due to poaching. The figure now stands at 4.230, although Tanzania only has three percent of them, a mere 123.

Waiting for the Rhinos to be Offloaded, Seronera Airport

Singita Grumeti, which has done an unprecedented job of resuscitating an area almost the size of Kenya’s Maasai Mara with game that had virtually disappeared from there, turning it into an Eden, keeps on working to replenish the land with game. This latest effort, which will cost some $7 million over two years, has been done in collaboration with the Frankfurt Zoological Society and Tanzanian National Parks.

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Filed Under: Africa, Conservation, Environment, News, Tanzania Tagged With: frankfurt zoological society, rhino, serengeti

Conservation 101

April 8, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment
Future Conservationists in Class

Future Conservationists in Class

Teaching the inhabitants of a wilderness area, especially the youth, about the nature around them seems to be so obvious, it’s a wonder more lodges haven’t done it in before now. Make the people aware of the riches they have – and that can benefit them – and the lodge will benefit as well. It’s a win-win equation.

To this end, in 2009, Singita Grumeti Reserves established an environmental education center in the Sasakwa foothills 3 km from Makundusi village, in Tanzania. Its goal was to offer an education to the youth from 58 secondary schools, as well as the community leaders of neighboring villages.

The one-week course is aimed at equipping them with relevant information on wildlife conservation, the lifeline of the area’s activities, thus enabling the communities to become increasingly aware of their responsibilities towards wildlife and the environment. The first group consisted of 12 students, and since then the center has conducted 8 training sessions attended by a total of 96 secondary school students (both girls and boys) as well as 16 of their teachers  from the two targeted districts of Serengeti and Bunda.

Students cover basic environmental conservation – the functioning of the ecosystem, threats to its sustainability within the local arena – and they are encouraged and equipped to pursue their livelihoods in a more sustainable way and to devise effective solutions. On returning to their schools, students have established and revived Environmental Conservation Clubs. Currently 8 clubs are active and have, in turn, successfully trained 875 new members. This ensures that a total of 971 youths have benefited from receiving a basic environmental training.

Cycling at Sabora Tented Camp, Tanzania

If Singita Grumeti Reserves blows its own trumpet during the training, it can be forgiven. The luxury property has done incredible conservation work in the Grumeti reserve, turning back an environmental clock that was quickly running out of time. The habitat and wildlife have been richly regenerated over the past few years. This includes at least 40 species of herbivores, 25 species of large carnivores and 400 species of birds. If students have to learn from someone, they couldn’t have better teachers.

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Filed Under: Africa, Community, Education, Environment, Tanzania Tagged With: education, grumeti, singita

Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge, Uganda

January 12, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Breakfast 2 Kilometers Up

Who They Are

Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge is situated in Nkuringo, bordering the southwestern corner of the Bwindi National Park.  At 2,100 meters, Clouds enjoys a panoramic view of the Virunga Mountains and the Great Rift Valley.  Up to 20 guests are accommodated in 6 single/double stone cottages and 2 family suites, each featuring en-suite bathrooms, private gardens, and double-sided fireplaces.

After a Cold, Wet Day in the Forests...

The lodge is part of the International Gorilla Conservation Program’s tri-nation project to protect the highly endangered mountain gorilla.  Nine of Uganda’s top artists’ works are featured at the lodge, with their art focusing on people, conservation, and community.

In addition to gorilla tracking – there are about 21 gorillas at Nkuringo -  guests can enjoy interactive visits to Bakiga and Batwa communities, as well as walks through the Baniga forest, where, if you’re lucky, you might get a glimpse of wild chimpanzees.

What They Are Doing

Clouds is a unique partnership between the Nkuringo community (Nkuringo Community Development Foundation), the African Wildlife Foundation, and Uganda Safari Company, who also own Semliki Safari Lodge.

At Play

As part of this agreement, almost all staff members are from the local community and have been trained in the hospitality industry.  A percentage of the lodge’s income goes to the NCDF, which funds are split between health care, education,  business development and agriculture.

A pig project is run by 13 members of the Nteko community, who manage and breed the animals. In 2009 income was made from the sale of piglets.  The project receives food scraps from the lodge.

A vegetable garden started by the lodge for its own use has now been supplemented with gardens at two primary schools. Besides teaching locals more modern farming methods, it is hoped to encourage them to eat vegetables and address the problem of malnutrition in the community.  Pupils are encouraged to take seedlings to start gardens at home.

The Weavers

The most successful project has been the Nkuringo weavers. There are now about 400 participants, who the foundation are helping with their business and to manage their product lines.  The weavers are also taught about family planning and financial management.  Their business generates about $2500 a month and is growing.

Some of the Nkuringo Orphans Perform

The foundation has recently started working with a group of 58 orphans, the Nkuringo Orphans Group, who sometimes put on a performance for guests.  While the project is still new, five children are already in private boarding schools.

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Filed Under: Africa, Anti-Poaching, Clouds Gorilla Mountain Lodge, Community, Conservation, Education, Environment, Health, Uganda Tagged With: art, awf, bwindi, gorillas, nkuringo, orphans, virunga

Semliki Safari Lodge, Uganda

December 10, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

In Toro-Semliki Park

Who They Are

Semliki Safari Lodge, a member of the Wild Places group in Uganda, lies in the heart of the Albertine Rift Valley in the Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve.  Toro-Semliki, 550 square kilometers of pristine habitat, is home to several West African species as well as the unique forest elephants and dry habitat chimpanzees. It is also a hotspot for bird watchers, with over 450 species.  Lake Albert, on the northern boundary of the reserve, provides excellent opportunities for shoebill sightings.

Tent Interior, Part 1

Tent Interior, Part Two

Accommodation at Semliki Safari Lodge is in 8 luxury tents with thatched roofs, mahogany floors, stone bathrooms and private verandahs with sweeping views of the Wassa forest or the Kijura escarpment.

What They Are Doing

As part of the original concession agreement, Semliki Safari Lodge has always played a large role in the conservation of the reserve.  Assistance with ranger patrols, controlled burning and wildlife monitoring over the years has led to the creation of the Wild Places Conservation Trust.  The trust, established in 2008, combines elements of park management and conservation with community development in order to preserve the ecological environment in and around the reserve and improve the quality of life for neighboring communities.

Conservation

The trust, in cooperation with the Uganda Wildlife Authority, has stepped up

A Shoebill Stork on Lake Albert

anti-poaching efforts through increased mobile patrols and the creation of ranger outposts. Together they have made great strides in reducing timber and wildlife poaching and in stemming cattle encroachment.  The recent purchasing of GPS equipment has assisted greatly in anti-poaching efforts and wildlife monitoring.

Education

The trust has also pioneered a conservation education program in the local primary schools with the aim of creating a new generation of conservation-minded citizens along the reserve boundary.  The trust has targeted 13 neighboring schools, which each receive regular classroom instruction and have “environmental days.” Teacher training and the establishment of a community nature center are part of future trust plans.

Community

The trust has been active in the local health centers in an effort to improve public health services available to expectant mothers.  In addition to providing training and supplies to local traditional birth attendants, it also conducts regular maternal health education programs in the local health centers.

At the Lodge

In Their Own Words

“The Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve is a very unique reserve, both in terms of habitat and wildlife diversity.  It is with great pride and passion that we created the Wild Places Conservation Trust to work towards the protection and preservation of the reserve in cooperation with the local communities.  The trust aims to combine eco-tourism, sound park management, and community development to create a healthy environment in which the reserve and its wildlife thrive with a direct benefit to the neighboring communities.  We believe the Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve is a truly special place and we are pleased to be involved in its preservation and to share its magic with both its residents and its visitors.”

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Filed Under: Africa, Community, Conservation, Education, Environment, Health, Semliki Safari Lodge, Uganda Tagged With: chimpanzees, forest elephant, lake albert, toro-semliki, uganda wildlife authority

Nomad Tanzania

November 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Greystoke Mahale

Who They Are

Nomad Tanzania is a small owner-run safari company, based just outside Arusha. It has an eclectic mix of luxury camps spread across the country. Greystoke Mahale, at the foot of the Mahale Mountains and on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, is a fantastic base from which to view chimpanzees and enjoy the clear blue waters of the lake.  Chada Katavi is miles from anywhere in wildest Tanzania.  Nduara Loliondo is a mobile camp that moves its African-style yurts across the Loliondo area of the Serengeti Eco-system to wherever the best game viewing can be found.  The Serengeti Safari Camp moves around another part of the Serengeti.

Ndura Loliondo Under the Stars

Sand Rivers Selous

Accommodation at Sand Rivers Selous is in spacious open-fronted cottages made of stone and thatch, raised up on the banks of the Rufiji with amazing views out across the river. The new Kiba Point camp, four cottages  above the river, is for exclusive use. Nomad also manages Vamizi Island in Mozambique.

In Mahale National Park

What They Are Doing

When Nomad Tanzania was created in 2003, bringing the above camps under one umbrella, it committed to support three trusts that had already been established by the founders of the companies that made up the new Nomad Tanzania. These trusts related to the areas in which the individual companies were operating and were all born organically as a result of continual contact with the issues in the different areas. The Nomad Trust now provides administrative and fund raising-support for the following affiliated trusts, and is a totally non-profit making organization. Nomad Tanzania contributes $3 per camp bednight to the trust. Any funds given to the individual projects are entirely committed to them.

Conservation

The Selous Rhino Trust works to secure the safety of the handful of endangered rhino left in this area (down from 3,000  in the 1970s).  A team of 12 rangers and a rhino specialist are based here working together with the Wildlife Division of the Tanzanian government.

Community

Nomad Tanzania also works closely with communities in the Loliondo area, specifically Ololosokwan and Piyaya, two villages it has had close ties with for a number of years. Through donations and company contributions, it has targeted education as one of the prime areas where a difference can be made. In addition, in partnership with Piyaya village, it has contributed fifty percent of the Women’s Home Industry Fund, which loans money to women to help them start up a self-sufficient home industry of their choice. It helps the MIMAMPI honey-gathering project, which has helped reduce hunting in the Katavi and Rukwa areas. In Ololosokwan, it has purchased over $1,000 worth of school books and kept the school Landcruiser rolling with mechanical input and spares. Along with other stakeholders who operate in the area, the camping fees that guests at Nomad’s safari camps pay go to the fund, which so far has helped to send over 70 children to secondary school.

Black Rhino, Endangered Especially in the Selous

The Tongwe Trust, founded officially in 2006, supports community-based projects throughout Tongwe land, from Village Forest Reserves of extraordinary biodiversity in western Tanzania, to boat building and eco-tourism, to schools, dispensaries and village microenterprise. The trust is also collecting an invaluable archive of Tongwe folklore, herbal medicine, and music.

In 2008, Nomad became the first company in the country to have a complete carbon footprint audit done on all its camps and offices.

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Filed Under: Africa, Carbon Footprint, Community, Conservation, Environment, Nomad Safaris, Tanzania Tagged With: katavi, mahale, mobile, rhino, serengeti, tongwe, vamizi
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