Zambia bat migration safari

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION
Kasanka National Park runs entirely off solar power, with no mains electricity connection at all. The trust that manages the park is currently raising funds to expand the system at Wasa Lodge specifically to cut its remaining reliance on backup diesel generators during peak season. At Luangwa River Camp, the operator builds with non-fired bricks and uses solar energy systems and natural air-cooling rather than mechanical air conditioning, reducing the camp's day-to-day power draw.

ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE
Kasanka National Park is managed by the Kasanka Trust, a conservation charity that funds anti-poaching, habitat protection and infrastructure entirely through tourism income and donor grants, including a €1,053,000 award from the French Facility for Global Environment secured in 2019. The park protects a genetically distinct population of elephant, the last of its kind in the Upper Congo river system, alongside near-threatened puku and one of the best sitatunga populations in Zambia. Every November, a team from the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior visits Kasanka to track the bat migration using GPS tags and drone footage, data that feeds directly back into how the migration and its habitat are protected. Further south, Luangwa River Camp's operator funds Conservation South Luangwa, an NGO running anti-poaching patrols and Zambia's first conservation K9 unit across the wider ecosystem, and also supports carnivore research on the valley's lion, leopard and wild dog populations.

People

LOCAL ECONOMY

None of the three named properties on this trip is part of an international hotel chain: the Lusaka hotel is an independent boutique property built with local artisans and materials, the South Luangwa camp is run by a long-established Zambian safari operator, and the Kasanka lodge is owned outright by the conservation trust that manages the park, meaning every dollar spent there funds the park itself rather than an outside company. The Kasanka Trust has also used tourism income to rehabilitate five local schools, sponsor 43 pupils through secondary education and establish a health clinic serving surrounding communities. Separately, the South Luangwa operator funds a medical scheme supporting a government health center used by more than 20,000 local residents, alongside a school fees programme for children in the area.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY
The South Luangwa camp operator states that staff are hired locally at every level based on merit, with high-potential employees sponsored for further management training and in-house courses for the wider team.