Zambia tailor made safari

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION

Chundkwa River Lodge is powered by solar and hydro-electric power. Baines' River Camp installed a state of the art solar power system as of November 2023, therefore for the 2024 season onwards it will largely be solar powered. Flatdogs Camp has a solar powered water heating system.

All three camps in the itinerary offer human powered activities, most notably walking safaris. Depending on the particular guests interests they can do as much walking as they want to and could forgo vehicle safaris completely should they wish.

At Flatdogs Camp great food is a very important feature and the use several local farmers to help us achieve our goal of fresh, locally produced food. They have worked with the Chikowa Youth Development Centre and other local farmers and advised them on what to grow and how to get it to the market.

When buying locally, Flatdogs also considers the effect of their bulk purchases; buy too much of a scarce commodity, and prices rise beyond the reach of local people. So they try to balance their our needs, the demands of the business and the prosperity of local people when making purchasing decisions. When we need lots of a product in short supply, we encourage farmers to grow plenty of it so that the camp doesn't have to buy at the local market. So every tomato eaten in camp will be local, but none of the wild fish! Fish is a valuable and legal protein source for local people and Flatdogs wants to keep prices down. The camp now spends over $250 per week on local produce for our kitchen!

ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE

Chundukwa River Lodge supports Zambezi Animal Welfare Services (ZAWS) a non-profit organization established in 2014 by a group of friends who love animals. ZAWS programs include education, community veterinary outreach, and the population control of dogs and cats through sterilization and rescue within Livingstone and the community. ZAWS offers a variety of educational programs including presentations at local schools, educational lectures and interactive sessions. The focus is on values of respect, compassion, and a reverence for animal welfare.

Flatdogs has entered into an agreement with the local Chief to encourage conservation locally by keeping the land adjoining Flatdogs’ boundaries as conservation areas. Fishing and development are prevented and they therefore ensure that a large patch of land along the river is protected for the sole use of wildlife. In a region where development is putting the ecosystem under increasing pressure, Flatdogs are very keen to protect wildlife havens whenever possible, and give the local community some benefit financially.

At Flatdogs Camp all ‘green’ kitchen waste goes to the garden as compost for the vegetable patch, jars are saved to store dry goods during the rainy months and plastic bottles are used to make ice blocks.

People

LOCAL ECONOMY

Traditionally, people in the local area to Flatdogs Camp cook in pans balanced on mopane branches and bricks. This is not only inefficient, as most of the heat escapes, but every year children are badly burned when pots of hot water fall off the fire. The camp worked with C - Quest Capitol and Project Luangwa to provide safer, more healthy and environmentally friendly cook stoves for local people and have used that design to make some bigger mud brick stoves that the staff cook, Timothy, can use to cook for our 80+ staff members.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY

Mfuwe Secondary School is the only Secondary school in the area. Until tourism came to its aid, it had only one classroom block of its own. Its 550+ pupils squeezed into these 3 classrooms and any classroom space that it can borrow from the Primary school next door. As well as depriving the 1400 primary school students some of their own classroom space, this situation reduced the quality of education that the Secondary school offers. The end result is that much of the good work that is being done at Pre- and Primary school level is wasted because it is not followed up with good education standards at Grades 8 – 12. Through Project Luangwa, Flatdogs Camp have built one block of three classrooms, one block of four classrooms plus staff offices and a common room, the community have collected the funds for another and other donors have built a further classroom block, science labs, library and dormitories for boys and girls. This should give Primary school leavers a good chance at a place in Secondary education.

Through Project Luangwa, Flatdogs Camp are supporting several projects which promote women’s rights and independence. Fwilane Banda, a qualified social worker employed by Project Luangwa, is encouraging women to continue their education and seek work themselves, a lifestyle which local culture sometimes discourages. Fwilane runs the girls club and has been instrumental in setting up the boys club as well, to ensure that the issues are also being highlighted to the boys.