Family luxury safari & beach vacation, South Africa & Mozambique

Planet and people

The Safari Lodge we use empowers its staff by allowing them to become share holders in the company - the Lodge’s Staff Trust now owns 25.1% of the shares in the company. The significance of this is enormous as the staff have a say in how the lodge is run, are highly motivated and strive to ensure every guest has the most incredible and memorable African Safari experience. A testimonial from one of the staff members explains:

“To me the Staff Trust means a serious commitment from the original shareholders in the people on the ground. It means that I as a part owner am now looking after my own and the reward is shared with me. But let me also say that I love the product, therefore it is not difficult for me to be enthusiastic about it regardless”.

The lodge also operates a recycling project as a community initiative which allows all lodges to participate in cleaning and preserving their precious environment.

Local community members who were very excited and motivated to get underway with this project were allocated land and an old farm house to become their base to sort recyclable products. They also worked with participating recycling companies and visited neighbouring villages to collect waste which has been illegally dumped over the past many years.

The recycling is initially focused on all glass, cans/tins (cold drink, beer, food, aerosol) and plastic bottles (especially the plastic water bottles). The community then sorts the glass from the plastic and the tins etc, before placing everything into separate collection containers.

Moving forward the project will include the collection of all paper and other plastic based products as well. The goal is to recycle 90% of all rubbish from all participating lodges, and the organic waste will either be taken to the villages for farm animal feed or internally utilized as compost.

The lodge runs a waste water recycling project which feeds their wetland: this has flourished with a multitude of bird, frog and insect life. This year, three clutches of Knob-billed ducks, two clutches of white-faced whistling ducks and two little black crake chicks grew up and learnt the lessons of life on its waters.

The owners of the resort on Bazaruto Island in Mozambique have invested in their local community by building a community centers, and provided transport facilities and access to water for local islanders. They have also focused on the education and training needs of local people by initiating adult literacy programmes.

A partnership with local communities initiated by the resort is intended to conserve the ecosystem and assist the Bazaruto National Park staff with transport, communication and health care facilities. Teaching the importance of conserving local marine life and working with the authorities to counter illegal fishing activities is a priority as well as implementing a tag and release policy for fishing activities in conjunction with Durban's Oceanographic Institute.