Wildlife conservation in South Africa

Planet

The nature of this trip is all about making a difference, contributing to an important wildlife conservation research project.

Your hard work enables the project to study important questions. The results of this research have the potential to be extremely influential for private reserves in Africa. Current studies being undertaken include rhino movement patterns, elephant range and movement patterns, elephant vegetation preferences and impacts, lion social behaviour and bird surveys. Data is used by both external organisations such as Cape Town University and the reserve’s own ecologist.

Private game reserves now collectively represent more land under conservation than national parks. These reserves often don’t benefit from national government funding and are reliant on self funded conservation research projects such as this to create essential data from which to develop best practice policies for private reserve managers.

Volunteers are also involved in other essential hands on activities that are critical to conserving the environment on the reserve.

People

We also try to make sure the trip is as responsibly run as possible including:

Social responsibility
Before volunteers depart we provide them with a detailed information pack on the area they will be visiting. We try to educate and encourage our volunteers to understand and respect the local cultures and customs and get involved with local communities.

Economic responsibility
For over 10 years we have been providing volunteers to help at charitable projects around the world. A UK charity has now been launched to build on this success by providing financial assistance to overseas causes as well. The organisations we work with are often struggling to fund the work they are doing so every penny raised makes a real difference.

A large part of your fee is used for your on site costs such as transport, accommodation, meals and research activities. A percentage of your fee goes directly to the reserve conservation fund from which the ongoing research project is financed.