Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
The European Union funded this project through the Ministry of Environment and Tourism's Development Programme with a donation of N$4.5 million to develop the 12-room Lodge. At the same time, the private sector has been called in to supply the training and management skills until the community becomes self-sustainable. The land is owned by the government but it has been leased to the conservancy for conservation purposes.
The lodge now is 100% owned by the community thanks to the donation made by the EU. This community (Khoadi//Hoas conservancy) has around 6,000 members. Most of the people live in farm houses and they survive on live stock. There is 85% employment rate in this area.
We are currently employing 22 people, all from the local conservancy. They have been on training courses with one of the major tour operators in Namibia. Furthermore we have compiled an in-house guide manual and we provide training on the ground.
15% of the total revenues go to the conservancy and 80% of the profit goes to a contingency fund where the local conservancy will decide towards which projects to spend that money While sustainability of the Conservancy is a primary objective which the Lodge would contribute towards, there are additional benefits such as increasing direct job opportunities in a poorly developed area; supporting marginal people with projects such as building schools, clinics, creating a community kitchen for the elderly and vulnerable groups and award bursaries to promising pupils with the proceeds of the lodge. Another important aim of the Lodge is to reduce the animal/human conflict in this community so that the locals will be more tolerant of the lions, cheetahs and elephants and give them a value from a tourism perspective.
We have created two water holes for wildlife. We are in coordination with Save the Rhino Trust to help in the conservation of the black rhinos. The conservancy also does game counting on a yearly basis for conservation purposes and we are trying to get tourists involved too as these figures are extremely important for MET in order to keep track of the various species.
The fact that we have created extra employment and that now 22 families have a sustainable income and food supply is already an achievement in itself. Nevertheless, the success of the lodge is critical to demonstrate the value of the land-use which the conservancy is promoting. The exclusive development area needs to show the value in setting aside “core” areas for tourism and biodiversity conservation.
This holiday is part of the responsibletravel.com and Conservation International Community Based Tourism Programme to support and promote community based tourism ventures that offer significant conservation and development benefits to local communities. To see other community based tourism holidays and find out more about the programme click here.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
