Tanzania highlights holiday

Planet

Each safari camp is designed to operate on an environmentally sustainable basis, and to directly support conservation and community development projects in our landscapes.

In terms of its own ecological ‘foot' print, the camps abide by a code of responsible practice in relation to: energy conservation (inverter systems have recently been installed so as to reduce the camp's use of diesel-fuelled generators), waste recycling (glass, plastics, ‘wet waste' and the distribution of food-waste to local pig-farmers), sewage disposal, air emissions, non-CFC use, pesticide-use, noise reduction and visual pollution. Wherever possible, local produce is featured on the menus.

The camps are working in cooperation with SENAPA (Serengeti National Parks Authority) regarding a re-afforestation tree-planting programme.
They also work in cooperation with SENAPA in maintaining and up-grading the roads in the park so as to keep the erosive practice of ‘off-road' driving to a minimum.

The camp has smoke arrestor to reduce carbon deposition in the atmosphere and a water harvester to accumulate rain water to reduce the dependency on other water sources. It also has a soak pit sewage system.

People

Tourism in areas outside the parks is a means by which pastoral communities like the Maasai can earn income from the wildlife that they have co-existed with for aeons, without changing land use or cultural norms. Tourism is increasingly providing much needed income for communal needs such as safe clean water, schools etc. and Hoopoe is one of the pioneers in Community based Tourism and also supports the efforts of other like minded companies in East Africa with a similar ethos to us by using their camps in areas we are not operative.

The camps rely on the support of the local communities for the provision of staff members, guides, dancers and entertainers. Consequently they host a number of eco-programmes, all of which are designed to support and sustain the natural and human community including:

Offering ubsidized medical care to the local community - particularly in relation to maternal care and child-immunization; also in relation to HIV/AIDS sensitization. The camps are also presently working on supplying a dedicated healthcare clinic for the area.

They create both temporary and permanent jobs for the local community and offer training and work-exposure programmes for school leavers.
Interaction between guests and the local villages is positively encouraged - hosting tours and promoting the sale of handicraft items. The camp is an integral part of the local Cultural Tourism Programme, which offers visits to neighbouring local communities and schools and talks on the heritage and tradition of the local Ikoma and Sikuma tribes.

In order to promote the overall health of their workforce, the camp has also established the Employee Wellness Programme, which aims to address the holistic health needs of not only their staff, but also of the communities that surround their lodges. In essence, the programme is devoted to reducing the incidence of accident and illness in the workplace, promoting healthy lifestyles, maximizing potential, and promoting optimum quality of life.