Tanzania camping safari, Selous and Ruaha

Environment

Accommodation:

When fly camping, we employ responsible and environmentally friendly campsite procedures on which your expedition leader will brief you before you depart. By camping we have an absolute minimum impact on the environment. We take only photographs and great experiences and leave only laughter and happy memories.

What we and are parent lodges do in terms of reducing environmental impact is not simple. We all use alternative solar or hydro energy and minimise water use through composting toilets or advanced reclamation tanks etc.


Selous Game reserve:

Some of our time is spent in the Selous Game reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a rich and diverse eco system with over 750,000 mammals.

To greatly reduce our impact on the environment there will be a maximum of ten team members and the itinerary is a one-off so will not be repeated. This helps to minimise the damage associated with large scale tourism. The Selous Game Reserve is run chiefly by the income tourism brings, without the money we give to the reserve, it may not be possible for them to continue preserving and protecting the wildlife – some of which is endangered. The majority of transportation is by public transport and on foot, one of the best and most unobtrusive ways to view wildlife. You will be issued with instructions as to how you can help to preserve the environment and we hope that you will follow our advice to help make a difference.

The Selous reserve authorities have understood that to avoid conflicts with locals, who naturally want to hunt in the region, they must involve the villagers and allow them to gain from the conservation process. Consequently a Community Wildlife Management Programme has been established whereby villagers agree to create wildlife management areas on their land in return for a sustainable hunting quota. The system has proved its worth with over 50 villages participating.

Community

The staff at the camp sites are mainly from a nearby village and produce is purchased locally (where available) or in town from local businesses. We also train numerous local people to work for us, on good salaries , who help the local community to see the reserve as an asset rather than an inconvenience. The lodges are also responsible for building hospitals - serving 20,000 or 10,000 local people each’

We employ local tour operator. Employing local guides and operators means that not only will we have the best and most knowledgeable people for the job, but we are also supporting the local economy. Additionally we can gain a real insight into Tanzanian culture by spending time with these guides. We treat every person associated with this trip with equal respect and expect clients to do the same.