Endangered wildlife conservation in South Africa

Environment

Getting here and back with minimal impact is important to us. We are uneasy about supporting most carbon offset programmes, as we feel that in most cases they are not in fact a “fair” trade off and do not address the real issue of decreasing people’s actual emissions. Instead we encourage smart traveling, which includes taking direct flights, our one day a week pick up policy (getting picked up as a group instead of individually), providing discounts for the longer volunteers stay or alternatively going to projects which are close by (presently our projects are all within a 45 minute drive of one another).

We are painfully aware that our mere presence is a burden on the biodiversity here, and therefore institute measures to limit our impact as much as we can. All of our accommodation is on the reserves within which we work and we endeavour to change and convert the accommodation environment into a sustainable system. While doing so we are continually showing our volunteers the environmentally friendly techniques we are developing and implementing along the way.

This includes firstly all those things that can be done by changing just a few things around the house at no major expense and include: energy efficient light bulbs, recycling of waste, geyser blankets to save power, rain water collection, the use of natural based cleaning products, the switching off of appliances/lights when not in use.

10% of our profits goes towards our Fund, which help fund local community upliftment initiatives and the purchase of VHF collars and the collaring of priority species to enhance monitoring efforts on reserves we work on. Without your participation, we can not do the work we do: Helping to save priority species (many of them being endangered like wild dogs, cheetah and black rhino) by gaining scientific understanding of their role in the delicate African ecosystem.

Community

100% of volunteers money, is put directly back in to our organisation. Each project provides sustainable employment for the staff and allows them to build personal financial security. All food and supplies are purchased locally, and volunteers are encouraged to buy their souvenirs from small village craft outlets.

50% of all our staff employed hail from local communities surrounding the reserves we work in. Along with this we are presently a Satisfactory Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Contributor as stipulated by the South African Department of Environment and Tourism. We strive to support other BEE compliant companies in whatever procurement we may have. Structured within our workforce is a learnership programme, whereby we train aspirant local community members to break into the conservation field, and in so doing build up valuable experience and skills needed to further their careers.

All photos by Christian Sperka.