I have the good fortune of being able to spend much of my time in Africa with the emphasis on understanding the various conservation and community projects in the region.
This is something that is very close to my heart and so supporting conservation every time I return to Africa on safari, is where my personal itinerary planning now always begins.
Spending time amongst wildlife provides one with the opportunity to experience nature’s most intimate moments - pure, wild and exhilarating.
A surfeit of conservation opportunities lie in Kenya – from up close and personal with wild dog (Africa’s most efficient and elusive predator with wildlife enthusiast and guide extraordinaire Steve Carey), to spending time in Laikipia with the Laikipia Predator Project (the wonderful Alayne, the only mother on a school run who has a giraffe carcass leg for her lions in the back of her pickup truck!) with the possibility of being part of a lion collaring (given sufficient notice). Collared lions enjoy a high level of protection as a result of close monitoring.
Those individuals who live on conservancies such as Laikipia have both high productivity and high survival rates as their movements are closely tracked, keeping them from straying into areas where they could pose a threat to humans or their livestock and obviously suffer from any form of retaliation.
Other opportunities include the chance to learn from the researchers of the Mara Elephant Project and going out with them for a morning or afternoon and learning all about their activities, to spending time at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, where you can see orphaned elephants being released as part of a herd back into the wild in Tsavo East National Park (such a great charity!) and finally, spending a morning or afternoon in Samburu with Save The Elephant Foundation, set up by world authority on the African elephant, Dr Iain Douglas-Hamilton.
Spend time with the researchers, understanding the animals ‘migratory movements, learning how they identify them, learning what they are doing to stop elephants from raiding crops and thus risking their lives. (The most successful initiatives are planting chillies around the crops, which elephants cannot eat, or, even more successful, is the planting of bee hives every few metres around the crop.
Elephants have incredibly sensitive skin and get stung easily. In addition, it provides a food source for the local people as well as enabling them to sell the honey for income. We are losing 86 elephant a day across Africa and this is the race against time to try and ensure that there are sufficient funds, which invariably come from private enterprise.
The best news of all of course, is that China has said that it will ban the import of ivory from the end of this year, which is a step in the right direction! The other excellent news is that the present President of Tanzania, John Magufuli, is cracking down hugely on corruption (which includes poaching) and we are hoping to see an eventual eradication of this nonsensical barbarism – but until then, we all need to work together to achieve this end goal and we offer you the perfect opportunity to become involved and be a part of this process!
All you have to do is choose which experience you would like to have and we will arrange it for you! Donations range from $250.00 per person to $750.00 per person although ultimately, we know that once you have visited these fabulous projects and met with these inspiring people, that you will want to support them in a more meaningful way on a longer term basis.
Naturally we have the most wonderful places for you to stay at whilst visiting these projects!
Blog Updated 28th January 2021 - Originally posted on the 30th January 2018
