Gabon wildlife vacation, mandrills and gorillas

Planet

In Gabon (as with everywhere we go) we carefully choose accommodation, suppliers and transportation that either minimise their effect on the environment or that help to contribute to its sustainable development. By choosing small, privately owned accommodation where possible we also look to only stay in true eco-lodges that abide by basic and also pioneering methods of ecological sustainability.

Where possible, we make sure that the lodges and hotels that we use support local projects for the protection of the wildlife and local communities which rely on tourism as the principal source of income. We try and make sure that all the accommodation that we use are ecologically responsible and use solar power electricity and water recycling pumps etc. On this trip we visit one national park in particular (Lope National Park) where we contribute to the on going research of conservation of the mandrill population, but hiring the researchers and ranger during our tracking of the mandrills. We also make sure that all the food consumed is produced locally.

We also contribute and participate in as many studies that the local researchers and scientists are conducting as possible. In Gabon this is largely facilitated by hiring guides and or rangers who work for the national park or larger NGO's such as Wildlife Conservation Society.

Wildlife Promise:

By bringing people here with a professional zoologist/naturalist as well as professional local guides we aim to showcase the environment in full but also to allow you to learn about the problems facing the ecosystems here and highlight the ways that continued development and human exploitation are affect the species and how cutting edge research is countering the problems as well as showing you examples of success stories. We also keep a record of all the great sightings we see on each tour and record the environmental factors, this data is used by ourselves but also given to the researchers who are working on many of these species. All the information collected in invaluable as the knowledge of some of the animals that live here are little understood. We also donate our pictures to the researchers to aid in their photo identification studies.

People

As with any of our tours throughout Africa or elsewhere in the world we always employ local guides and drivers. We also do our best to employ as many local guides as possible, so that we can share the money from tourism around more than one regularly used guide. They have a much better local knowledge and also helps to bring in revenue sources to the local community.

All of the hotels and lodges that we stay in make sure that all our resources such as food, drink and equipment is locally sourced. We also try and make sure that all the local guides that we hire and who work for the lodges, camps and guesthouses that we visit are from the local area. When in Lope and Loango and tracking the two principle primate species (mandrills and lowland gorillas) we will be hiring local rangers who do the tracking and hope to bring more and more people here so that the burgeoning wildlife tourism around these primates continues to grow and the locals all benefit.

We also have an option extension to Mikongo which is a basic camp and needs support from ecotourism. We think that by employing local guides we have encouraging a future generation to follow this career. Many of the accommodations that we use are involved in community based projects and schools in particular. Many of the projects that are funded by people staying here are geared towards helping children in townships get better education and enhance their career opportunities in the future. We also encourage the purchasing of local handicrafts which are all created in a sustainable way and provide great unique souvenirs.