Highlights of Uganda safari vacation

Environment

We visit a number of parks including Murchison Falls, Kibale Forest, Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Lake Bunyonyi and Lake Mburo National Parks. The money paid to visit these areas directly goes on conserving the wildlife and provides an alternative source of income to the local people to poaching. Operating in the parks also provides an avenue of employment that allows local people to remain in their home area rather than migrate to urban areas which the lure generally exceeds the reality.

With specific referance to the Mountain Gorillas. The Mountain gorilla is extremely endangered and while exact numbers are difficult to verify, it is widely assumed that there are only around 850 left. Visiting the gorillas is a great way to support them because the money spent on permits directly funds their protection. An extremely important part of the future conservation of the remaining gorillas rests in community development work – as local communities change their attitudes towards wildlife and start to protect rather than poach, the future of the mountain gorilla is improves.

On this trip there is opportunity to see many animals of the savannah such as lion, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, hippo and leopard as well as rainforest primates and Great Apes including the Mountain Gorilla. We feel seeing them in the natural environment spreads the word of conservation globally and local guides help guests to view all wildlife in a responsible manner.

Where appropriate on the trip we offer game viewing from a bicycle, by foot or by by boat . We also ensure that when non low carbon forms of transport are used that they are shared.

Our group size throughout the trip is limited so as not to overwhelm both the communities we visit, and the environment.

At home, our office supports the need to reduce, reuse and recycle. We encourage our workers to travel as environmentally sensitively as possible either by car share, bus or bicycle. We operate a flexi start to fit in with our local bus timetable.

Community

All the accommodation that we have chosen to use on this trip practises responsible tourism, in one form or another.

The visits to local communities on this trip are organised by our supplier who works with Akatagyenda. This was established as an umbrella organization representing communities in destination areas of S. Western Uganda. Tourism in Uganda offers one of the best hopes for increasing the income of local people and at the same time preserving 'protected areas'.

Uganda, as a tourism destination, has become more suited to the smaller scale, environmentally focused tourism called Eco-tourism. Akatagyenda aims to form a symbiotic relationship between tourism, indigenous people and nature in environmentally sensitive areas.

It encourages communities to develop tourism activities that they can plan, manage and develop themselves. They highlight the need to maintain the more traditional agricultural based economies as well as the introduction of tourism.. This is essential to the well being of the community and the tourism industry that they are trying to create. Community tourism can involve everyone. Those in the community, who do not speak English, have poor education levels or work experience can still be employed as porters, to transport water and firewood, in trail and compound maintenance and for construction as labourers. These are not dead-end jobs, and community members will find opportunities to move into other positions as they develop the needed skills.

We issue all our travelers with a Field manual that not only is full of useful information regarding health and visas and practicalities about their trip but also outlines the need to travel in an environmentally and culturally sensitive manner.