Conservation Travel Foundation

ple and cultures we share it with. By offering these authentic, life-enriching safaris that benefit not only our guests but also the places and people we visit, we have Namibia’s well-being at the forefront of everything we do. We believe that having registered a legal foundation where 100% of funds raised are invested in approved projects we have set a benchmark for sincere, ethical and transparent socially responsible investment. We feel that the coalition of funds has a much larger impact on any project or area than smaller donations coming from a variety of different avenues. The foundation focuses all of its funds to make a difference in the larger scale. By forming and strengthening links between responsible conservation travelers and Namibia’s cultural and natural heritage stakeholders, we can together strive toward preserving them. The link between travel, conservation and sustainable development enhances the experiences of our guests by creating more meaningful and authentic cultural encounters through learning, sharing and giving something back. The Conservation Travel Foundation has become a reliable vehicle and avenue through which our guests and partners can safely do this. As the foundation is legally registered, fully audited and completely transparent at all times, guests and partners can feel comfortable making tangible contributions through the foundation which will enrich lives. Culturally and environmentally responsible tourism can be a powerful force for conservation and community development. Collaboration between the public and private sectors, conservation NGOs, government and the tourism industry and creating partnerships between local communities is proving to be an effective way of enhancing this development. In fact, this is how travelers can contribute tangibly, directly and significantly to Namibia’s environmental conservation and human welfare at a local level. Our projects are monitored through Ultimate Safaris and its staff who contribute extensive ‘in-kind’ services. We have invested in areas that we visit regularly and where our guides spend a lot of time, making monitoring easy, inexpensive, regular and very efficient. Our early results demonstrate how local level models of conservation and community development supported by conservation travel really do enrich lives while protecting natural and cultural heritage. These projects help local communities and they also increase goodwill between hosts and guests to stimulate authentic cross-cultural interaction. By teaching guests to be sensitive and conscientious, the Conservation Travel Foundation provides an alternative to the unintentionally exploitative and destructive elements of conventional tourism. Through our projects, Ultimate Safaris enhances the personal travel experiences of our guests through learning, sharing and making a contribution, and this can be the inspirational purpose that guides those guests when exploring the rest of the world. Our trips are sensitively designed to include projects with which we are involved, encouraging guest participation in environmentally responsible travel. By assisting local communities and demonstrating a concern for the value we place on ecological and cultural preservation, conservation travel can become an instrument of sustainable development. The active and compassionate involvement of our staff and guests, at a minimum, heightens our own awareness of problems and the practical difficulties in solving them.