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This itinerary has been but together using government-owned rest camps and small lodges or guest farms. Some, like Doro Nawas and Nhoma Safari Camp, are very proactive in community tourism. Doro Nawas lodge was built in 2007 after Wilderness Safaris signed a joint partnership venture with the Doro !Nawas community. It’s a particularly good example of growing development between tourism and communities in Namibia. As well as benefiting from the revenue produced by the lodge, the staff at the lodge come from the Doro !Nawas community. We readily support initiatives such as these that give local villagers an understanding of the importance of sustaining the environment unique to their area and a share in the benefits created by tourism.
Nhoma Safari Camp is another example of a lodge set up as a joint venture with the local community. Your visit with the Ju/'hoan Bushman provides them with income and a sense of pride in their culture. Some of the younger San generation have returned to the village from the towns to learn traditional skills from their grandfathers so that they may continue to attract tourism and its benefits to their area. Income from tourism is put into a trust for the villagers and enables them to buy meat to supplement their diet and avoid hunting out the land in the immediate vicinity of the village, to buy blankets for the cold winter months, and to purchase other supplies not otherwise readily available to them.
Erongo Wilderness Lodge is heavily involved in land and wildlife conservation. The lodge owners are instrumental in setting up the 2,000km2 Erongo Mountain Nature Conservancy. This comprises 30 farms & their lodges over which fences have been taken down in order to create a protected area for wildlife. As proof of its success, white rhino were released here in 2009 & the first calf born in 2010, although they are rarely spotted.
These are just three examples of places where the money paid through tourism, and more specifically this safari, helps Namibia’s unique environments and the people and wildlife that live here. We believe that sensitive and sustainable tourism is an invaluable help to developing the communities and preserving the environments of sub-Saharan Africa. So we encourage more people to visit Africa; promoting the positives through enjoyable and informative trips – whilst maximising the benefits these generate for the local economies, environments and host communities in Africa.
We aim to be a very fair company – to our travellers, to those who work for us and with us, and to the areas and communities which host our travellers.
We actively support areas where our traveller’s visits will help to conserve habitats and develop local communities. We aim to work with suppliers who provide local employment and training and who offer good quality, environmentally and culturally sensitive activities. We encourage local community participation in tourism projects and over the years we have supported a number of successful, small-scale conservation, community and educational projects in Africa.
Responsible tourism is very important to us. We encourage our travellers to minimise their carbon footprint and their effects on the environment, as well as being sensitive to the cultures of the places that they visit. We prefer that their interactions with the local cultures are handled sensitively, so avoiding damage to their culture and traditions. We would also encourage our travellers to support the local businesses and economy of the regions they visit.
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!
