At Wilderness Safaris we
believe that in the world’s wilderness areas
lies the preservation of humankind. We want to
make a difference in people’s lives by enabling them to
find new paths, and by leaving a legacy of conservation
for our children.
Since 1983, Wilderness Safaris has specialized in
privately hosted safaris and memorable wildlife
experiences in the most remote and pristine areas in
southern Africa. Our goal is to share these wild areas
with guests from all over the world while at the same
time making use of the benefits of tourism by
contributing to the local communities, helping to ensure
the future protection of Africa’s spectacular wildlife
heritage.
Why Choose Wilderness Safaris
There are many safari companies in Africa and a
vast array of areas to choose from so why choose
Wilderness? You will notice that our brochure focuses on
the incredible wild places in which we are privileged to
operate and less on our lodges. These magnificent areas,
far off the beaten tourist tracks of Africa, represent
for our guests and for ourselves a way of reconnecting
with our primeval nature and spirit that often gets
trapped in our busy everyday lives. The locations and
the feeling of being in true, prime and remote
wilderness areas means everything to us. The way we host
our guests enhances the physical beauty and spirit of
these pristine areas. Passionate and dedicated
people run our camps. Our aim is to share with you all
we have learnt: - on game drives, on foot, by canoe or
mokoro.
The key to a successful
African safari is to ensure that the company you choose
is truly capable of providing what you are looking for
in terms of the reserves in which the lodges and camps
are situated, the wildlife viewing opportunities, the
design and style of the camps and most importantly the
knowledge and quality of the guides and staff.
The reserves we profile are
large, exclusive and offer unbeatable experiences. We
have displayed these areas in our brochure knowing that
each camp and lodge has a superb location. Here
are some good reasons why we feel you should consider
choosing Wilderness Safaris to host you in southern
Africa:
* We have 21 years of
experience in running southern African safaris.
* Dedicated conservationists and guides own and run
Wilderness Safaris and in doing so, they do what they
enjoy most.
* We have the best locations and are privileged to
traverse over vast acres of prime, mostly completely
private African wilderness.
* Even though some of our camps are located within
countries where malaria can occur, we have a superb
malarial safety record. Our camps are sprayed regularly
and are far removed from populated areas where malaria
may occur. Many camps have the new "Mossie Magnet"
machine that further helps to minimize the mosquito
numbers.
* Through The Wilderness Trust, we support strategic
conservation causes across southern Africa
* We contribute directly to the upliftment of the
communities who live closest to the parks and reserves
in which we operate. This ensures that these communities
become conservationists in their own right and do not
have to turn to poaching to survive. We turn the
potential poachers into ardent conservationists
* By working with communities, we have converted close to
half a million acres of land into prime wildlife
reserves and conservancies that now have formal
conservation protection.
* Wilderness Safaris is recognized worldwide for our
efforts in conservation. We don't practice conservation
in name only. In January 2003 Wilderness Safaris was
awarded the "Oscar" of the eco-tourism industry - The
World Legacy Award for nature based tourism presented by
Conservation International & National Geographic. In
October 2003 Wilderness Safaris received the prestigious
ASTA Environmental Award
* Our camps are small and intimate - most have less than
10 rooms.
* We have a no hunting policy in all our reserves, so
animals are relaxed, enabling us to offer the best
possible game viewing.
* Repeat guests form a huge portion of our business and
many of our guests have been on safari with us more than
10 times.
* We ensure that the camps have their own individual
flair. Although the design of each camp varies, each
lodge or camp has a warm homely atmosphere. We are not
offering a sterile hotel chain in the bush.
* We take our responsibility to the environment seriously
and look for the same sentiment in our guests. Wildlife
and wilderness is our prime motivation and the main
reason why our guests choose us. It's an opportunity to
escape the pressures and excesses of city living Ð a
life changing experience, a journey of self discovery
and enrichment.
* Wilderness guides take a more holistic view of the
environments we operate in and give our guests a broader
and more rounded experience than other more traditional
areas of Africa where the emphasis is sometimes solely
on the "Big 5" and spas in the bush.
Our Credo
*Our credo is what everyone
working for Wilderness agrees on, prior to joining the
company - and what we do as a company to guide us in our
day-to-day decision making.
*We are a group of likeminded
companies and individuals who strive to provide the
finest possible safaris in Africa's truly wild places.
Marketing and operating under the Wilderness Safaris
umbrella, these companies, which operate independently
in each country, are driven by core values.
They are all holistic, conservation-orientated,
non-consumptive, caring and ethically driven operations.
*We believe that low volume,
low impact, non-consumptive tourism is the most
successful way to create a sustainable engine for
economic growth in a country, for its peoples, our staff
and partners. Our activities must help stimulate these
economies, so that all stakeholders help protect the
environment and its wildlife.
*Everything we do as a travel
and safari company must add value: from the countries in
which we operate, the environment, the local
communities, the people who work for us, our guests, our
partners and finally, the company.
*We put the environments in
which we work above everything else. Our company's ethos
means we can say no to guest's requests if that request
compromises our principles (i.e. is harmful to the
environment, their safety or the safety of our
employees).
*We recognize that one of our
primary resources is our staff. They are, in every
respect, the interface between our products, the
environment, our guests and our clients.
*We believe that it is our
responsibility to employ from, train and help uplift the
communities in the areas where we are represented. We
wish to promote the prosperity of these rich cultures,
the wildlife that surrounds them and the unspoiled
places they occupy. We aim to provide the framework to
enable these communities to fully embrace their
environmental and cultural heritages and become the
custodians of the future.
*On our safaris and in our
camps, we host, entertain and educate our guests,
striving to give them holistic experiences that will
produce new (or reaffirmed) conservationists and create
guests for life. At the end of the safari, our
guests should become the new ambassadors for Wilderness
Safaris and for Africa taking Africa's messages of hope
and conservation success around the globe.
*Hosting guests is our primary
concern. We endeavor to create an ambience in the camps
that makes our guests feel as though they are in their
hosts' home. Our employees have to enjoy interacting
with guests and understand that our future depends on
how well we look after our guests and how much they
enjoy their stay with us.
*Guides, their knowledge and
the way they interact with our guests can make or break
a safari and Wilderness firmly believes that we have
gone the extra mile to train our guides to a level that
is unrivalled in the industry. They also have a
genuine love for their countries, what they do and the
people they meet.
*We always live by the
principle of 'under promising and over delivering' and
always act in all our dealings with integrity!
Our vision and goals
Around 80% of the world's
terrestrial biodiversity can be found on only 5% of the
earth's surface. The key to the continued species
diversity on the planet is to be found in the
sustainable protection of this 5% - the areas known as
environmental "hotspots". These are areas of extremely
high species diversity (or "endemism"), that are found
nowhere else on earth.
The core philosophy of
Wilderness Safaris is to run a good business ensuring
that southern Africa's most pristine wilderness and
wildlife areas remain sustainably protected - while
delivering a great experience for our guests and fair
returns for shareholders and stakeholders. Wilderness
Safaris tourism projects must help protect and nurture
these wild places and our environmental "hotspots".
Nearly every region where we have developed a
low-density tourism operation, is in an area of high
species diversity and/or is a key wilderness area. We
are proud that our projects have helped to protect these
reserves and have often increased the amount of land
under conservation protection.
We achieve this protection by
hosting guests in remote areas and by sharing the income
streams with the governments, villagers and communities
who live on the periphery of these great wild areas and
reserves. When rural villagers are brought directly into
the tourism mainstream through our unique partnership
models, we are able to nurture the potential poachers
and convert them into the best gamekeepers. The benefits
of tourism through this model (dividends, cash, jobs,
training and community upliftment) while at the same
time conserving the land are what is needed in Africa to
ensure that rural communities have the necessary
incentives to protect their wildlife and neighboring
reserves.
It's a true win-win model for
everyone.
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