Tanzania Selous safari holiday & Zanzibar

Planet

During your time on safari, you can rest assured that your visit will positively impact the environment in two key ways. Firstly, the conservation fees paid to the Selous Game Reserve will be directly invested into projects that enhance quality of life for wildlife, reduce poaching, and support the diverse activities that go on to ensure the Game Reserves remain a safe and abundant environment for its residents. Secondly, the accommodations chosen have been selected for their attention to their own ecological footprint, for instance paying attention to how they source energy and dispose of waste, as well as employing guides who are proactive and conscientious in ensuring that the highest standards are upheld whilst out exploring.

When you arrive in Zanzibar, our properties take a similarly conscientious approach to their operations, and further offer activities which are mindful of wildlife and respectful of their wellbeing. You can find readily available advice about which activities to avoid (for instance, some independent activity companies on the island offer the opportunity to swim with dolphins, which we strongly object to owing to its stressful and disorienting impact on the dolphins themselves), as well as which activities offer a great opportunity to learn about marine life in an ethical manner.

Our offices in the UK and in Bangkok take a leading role in setting the standard for an environmentally friendly work environment. Alongside ensuring that our waste is appropriately recycled, we have instituted a paperless work system, in which paper usage is kept to a bare minimum. We have also implemented a plastic ban in our offices, starting with coffee cups and single-use plastic drinks bottles, and expanding to encompass food packaging as far as possible. Each office has a designated ‘sustainability officer’, who helps to implement programmes and answer questions, whilst all team members are able to set the environmental agenda by highlighting their ideas on a specific sustainability channel in our internal communications network.

People

The safari accommodations we promote all have a strong focus on recruiting staff form within their local communities: many aim for at least 75% of their staff coming from their immediate local community. This provides jobs and skills and is one of the most direct ways of positively affecting community development.

In Tanzania where we employ staff directly, we take great pride in paying fair wages, often exceeding government standards which we still consider too low, and thereby remove the reliance on tipping from travellers for livelihoods.

Our accommodation choices make use of locally owned properties where possible and often include adventurous, authentic choices such as local homestays which therefore involve local people and their communities in the very fabric of our holidays.

We encourage all our travellers to research local customs and read your trip notes before you depart to ensure you are conscientious and respectful in a different culture.

In most cases we strongly recommend that you do not give money to children beggars. If begging is a successful enterprise, parents are encouraged to forsake their children’s education in pursuit of this opportunity.

Talk to us about packing for a purpose and see if you can get involved by making a small material contribution to the communities you are visiting. We have developed partnerships with charities and accommodations throughout Tanzania and are constantly working to extend our reach with the help of our travellers.