Gap year travel in Southern Africa
| country: | Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique |
| departures: | Please contact us for departure details |
| price: | From £3390 + £850 project donation (12 weeks) excluding flights. Price includes all activities, 5 day Game Ranger training course, food, accommodation and in-country transport. We can help arrange flights from the UK |
the amazing things you'll be doing
Work alongside local rangers to manage and develop Swaziland's stunning Game Reserves.
Combining conservation and community development in Swaziland's spectacular game reserves. You will be involved in the creation of wildlife corridors and the development of environmental education plans to allow for a viable game park system in the region. You will be working in the African Bush carrying out valuable conservation work which will affect the long term development of wildlife in Swaziland.
The conservation project is followed by our Southern Africa expedition. The expedition includes trekking in the mountains of Swaziland, a week of diving on the pristine coast of Mozambique, river tubing, canyoning, bridge swinging and caving in South Africa, a dug out canoe safari in the Okavango Delta, Big Five spotting in the world famous national parks of Botswana and finishing off with a bungee jump or micro-light over the immense Victoria Falls in Zambia. A unique chance to experience ‘the real’ Africa close up.
The aim of the project is to help develop the game reserves in the Lubombo Conservancy, with the long term aim to take down fences between all 5 reserves to create one big wildlife corridor.
Work includes trail building, environmental education, infrastructure projects and biodiversity surveys. If you're looking for variety then this is the project for you. You'll be changing base every couple of weeks within the reserves and will get the chance to work on community projects, as well as spending time out in the African Bush.
Combining conservation and community development in Swaziland's spectacular game reserves. You will be involved in the creation of wildlife corridors and the development of environmental education plans to allow for a viable game park system in the region. You will be working in the African Bush carrying out valuable conservation work which will affect the long term development of wildlife in Swaziland.
The conservation project is followed by our Southern Africa expedition. The expedition includes trekking in the mountains of Swaziland, a week of diving on the pristine coast of Mozambique, river tubing, canyoning, bridge swinging and caving in South Africa, a dug out canoe safari in the Okavango Delta, Big Five spotting in the world famous national parks of Botswana and finishing off with a bungee jump or micro-light over the immense Victoria Falls in Zambia. A unique chance to experience ‘the real’ Africa close up.
the project
The Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) was born out of the peace parks vision to establish a network of transfrontier conservation areas in Africa. The area offers a unique combination of big-game country, extensive wetlands and a great diversity of lanscape. The aim of the Lubombo TFCA is to link the Maputo Elephant Reserve in Mozambique through the Futi Corridor and the Lubombo Conservancy in Swaziland to the Tembe Elephant Park in South Africa, creating the first major elephant stronghold along Africa's eastern coastline.The aim of the project is to help develop the game reserves in the Lubombo Conservancy, with the long term aim to take down fences between all 5 reserves to create one big wildlife corridor.
a day in the life of a volunteer
Working with the Lubombo conservancy in Swaziland, combining conservation and community development, working alongside rangers and wildlife in the spectacular Swaziland game reserves. You will be involved in the creation of wildlife corridors and development of environmental education plans to allow for a viable park system in the region. Work includes trail building, environmental education, infrastructure projects and biodiversity surveys. If you're looking for variety then this is the project for you. You'll be changing base every couple of weeks within the reserves and will get the chance to work on community projects, as well as spending time out in the African Bush.
Highly Commended
This tourism business was Highly Commended in our 2007 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards - the largest awards of their kind in the world, and organised by responsibletravel.com in association with The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical Magazine, of the Royal Geographical Society.Since 2004, the Awards has recognised individuals, companies and organisations in travel making a big commitment to the culture and economies of local communities and helping to conserve biodiversity.
how this holiday makes a difference
|
All of our conservation projects have been carefully selected to provide the maximum positive impact on the communities and environments where we work. Nowhere are the communities more intrinsically linked to conservation than in Swaziland. Long term partnerships with the Shewula community, Big Game Parks charity, the Swaziland government and international organisation Peace Parks Foundation have been established to help create short, medium and long term objectives for this project. These carefully managed objectives guarantee that every team makes a lasting difference to conservation in Southern Africa.
 Paid project managers in close consultation with the Chief of Shewula and other landowners, manage the team members donations, using the money for projects such as building schools and environmental education centres. Food, materials and labour are sourced locally whilst following strict environmental and ethical policies. Together we are able to guarantee that we will make a very positive difference. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |