Botswana luxury tailor made holiday

Carbon reduction

Your holiday will help support local people and conservation. We must also reduce CO₂. Learn about the CO₂ emissions of this holiday and how to reduce them.

Environment

This safari includes a donation to the Botswana Rhino Relocation and Re-introduction Programme. Botswana only has about 60 rhinos left and they need help. The current population needs protecting and we need to increase numbers through translocation and breeding projects. Although you will be seeing amazing wildlife on this trip, it’s quite possible that you won’t see a rhino. However you will definitely be helping rhino conservation through buying the safari.

Some of the lodges on this trip are pioneering electric safari vehicles. The lodge by the Chobe River has made a huge walkway out of what looks like wood, but is actually recycled plastic bags.

The company that organises this holiday is a multi award-winning responsible travel company. They try to ensure that nothing they do at home (in UK) or abroad compromises the environment or wildlife or exploits people. They believe in ensuring that travellers are well-informed, as an informed traveller tend to be a more respectful and sensitive traveller. They also believe in giving back to the country, people wildlife and environments which are affected by tourism.

For every person that travels with the company, it plants trees through The Travel Forest initiative. Depending on where they plant and the requirement of the specific area, they plant either indigenous trees or a mix of indigenous and non-native species. Planting non-native seedlings may seem counter-intuitive but doing this can often help any remaining indigenous forest from being cut down (e.g. for fuel) as some non-native trees grow much more quickly than indigenous types. They particularly aim to save ancient or older indigenous forest, through offering an alternative option for fuel requirements of local communities. In addition to this benefit, their Travel Forest initiative helps with such things as planting for water-course retention, soil erosion, shade and even food – all depending on what is planted and where. They have planted almost 100,000 trees to date in various degraded locations including the Andean mountains in Peru, northern Tanzania and Malawi. This has always been done in conjunction with the local communities who plant and then tend the seedlings. Trees are far more important to the health of this planet (and us) than many people imagine. This global Travel Forest initiative can and does make a big difference.

The UK head office has a good policy of recycling, reducing and re-using (electricity, paper, plastic etc). They also buy only fair trade goods such as tea, coffee, and use biodegradable detergents etc. They also make a point of buying only top eco-rated equipment (eg monitors).

Community

The Chobe River lodge has an all-female guiding team - unique in Botswana and a real coup for women in this country as this is a profession dominated by men in the main job roles. they are known as Chobe's Angels.

All the lodges have a policy of employing locally first and foremost, and training and promoting within the current staff.

The company offering the trip works with partners on the ground in each destination, and only uses local guides. They also primarily promote locally-owned services (hotels etc). They are very clear which accommodations have good environmental and social responsibility credentials. This information is used to ensure that any traveller wanting to ensure they are really making a difference, can choose between one property and another on eco-issues.

They also promote community-owned projects and services where applicable and possible.

The company backs a charity with funds and administration. This is a registered UK charity whose principle aim is to relieve the poverty of indigenous communities in areas outside of the UK which are affected by tourism. The charity backs poverty alleviation, education, cultural preservation and conservation projects within these regions. It has backed schools, clinics, micro-business projects and more. They are currently raising funds for 9 different grassroots projects in nine different counties, which travellers are encouraged to donate to if they would like to give something back.