Conservation
CONSERVATION IN ACTION
Over the course of more than three decades designing exclusive travel itineraries to Africa and other remote parts of the world, we at The Classic Safari Company have witnessed a monumental shift in attitude towards conservation and community among our clients. Our company began at a time when a safari in Africa still brought to mind the big game hunt, when every Land Rover carried a compliment of firearms and a great photo often included a victorious hunter lauding up gleefully over the ‘trophy’. How times have changed!
Thankfully, contemporary travellers recognise that many of the incredible encounters that we are fortunate to enjoy are often in peril, threatened by the relentless march of progress that can have such far reaching impacts on wildlife, habitat and community. As custodians of the planet, we must tread lightly. We must exercise exemplary stewardship to ensure that these incredible encounters are there for our children, grandchildren and beyond, to experience for themselves.
For this reason, The Classic Safari Company takes a serious and proactive approach to conservation and community. Whether it be a breathtaking game safari across the African savannah, a visit to a small community of traditional carpet weavers in India, or taking part in an aid drop to a remote Amazonian rainforest tribe, we believe that we have a responsibility to give something back to those places and people that provide the rich and diverse experiences that enrich our lives.
We are very proud to work with organisations that are as committed as we are to preserving cultures, creating sustainable futures and protecting the world’s wilderness and wildlife. Below we share some of the projects, initiatives and community based programs we have supported in the past, and once we are permitted to travel the globe again we will highlight whom we will be supporting next.
For more information on each initiative and their successes, please click their names:
ZIM SEF : ZimSEF (Zimbabwe Sports & Education Fund) was established to benefit Zimbabwean children and families in the Hatcliffe Community in Harare, through assistance in welfare, education and access to sports (Young Achievement Sports Development Program). They are one of the very few education funds that extend beyond the completion of a primary education and due to the success of their fundraising efforts and the launch of the ZimSEF Sponsor Program, the fund has been able to gradually expand and place girls and boys at different primary and secondary schools in Zimbabwe.
ONE HORIZON : One Horizon’s model of sustainable and responsible tourism has gained an international reputation for supporting Kenya’s communities in need. By creating unique tour experiences for people from around the world, One Horizon delivers community interactions that change peoples lives. Ask us about their signature experiences that we can weave into your own journey in Kenya.
SHEROES HANGOUT : In Agra, a stone’s throw from the iconic Taj Mahal, Sheroes Hangout (Cafe) is run entirely by Acid Attack Victims. Prior to working at the cafe, many of the women at Sheroes led solitary lives and struggled with feelings of shame and trauma. Sheroes now grants many women a place to find acceptance, community and means of income. A stop at Sheroes is always included in our Secret Women’s Series tours to Rajasthan, and can be included in your travels to Agra if you wish.
TSAVO TRUST : Tsavo is one of Kenya’s great wildernesses, a vast and largely roadless expanse of red earth and thornbush that holds the country’s largest elephant population. It is also one of the last places in Africa where you can still find the Big Tuskers, old bulls whose ivory sweeps almost to the ground. Since 2012, the Tsavo Trust has worked alongside the Kenya Wildlife Service to keep them safe. Its small Super Cub aircraft fly low over the parks, picking out individual elephants from the air and spotting signs of poaching, while teams on the ground follow up on foot. The Trust also helps neighbouring communities establish their own conservancies, so that the land beyond the park boundaries supports the families who live on it as well as the wildlife.
A portion of every journey booked with The Classic Safari Company goes to the Tsavo Trust, and this year, thanks to our clients, we were able to send them $5,000.
TIKKI HYWOOD FOUNDATION : Operating primarily in Zimbabwe and Cameroon, the Tikki Hywood Foundation has extended its expertise to 16 other African countries, developing pangolin facilities and supporting rescue operations. Their work is highly specialised and deliberately not open to tourists, an ethos rooted in the belief that encountering a pangolin in the wild is among the rarest and most precious experiences a traveller could hope for.
In 2023, Zimbabwe became the first African nation to adopt a Pangolin Conservation Strategy & Action Plan, thanks in part to the Foundation’s advocacy and collaboration with government authorities . Alongside this policy achievement, countless pangolins have been given a second chance at life, returned to the wild where they belong. Our donation helps sustain this vital work. By supporting Tikki Hywood, The Classic Safari Company ensures that this extraordinary species, a quiet guardian of Africa’s ecosystems, is not lost to history.
PRIDE ROCK TRUST : In 2018, Paul Kamwi established the Pride Rock Trust School with a simple yet profound vision: to provide underprivileged children and orphans with access to education, food, and clothing. The school began humbly, teaching in an old church before moving onto land they could call their own. Today, they serve 40 children, though hundreds more wait hopefully for the chance to join. Our recent donation is helping fund the completion of a staff house, adding a roof, windows, and doors to ensure teachers have a safe place to live. It will also contribute towards the school’s longer-term goals of building additional classrooms and an ablution block so they can upgrade to an upper primary school.
KWANDWE RHINO CONSERVATION TRUST : On the banks of the Great Fish River in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, Kwandwe Private Game Reserve was once overgrazed farmland. Over the past 25 years it has been returned to wild valley bushveld, studded with aloes and giant euphorbias, and in 2000 both black and white rhino were brought back to the land. Today it is one of the most reliable places in the country to see black rhino.
Protecting these animals begins with knowing each one. Working with vets and the reserve’s conservation team, young rhino are briefly sedated and given a small pattern of ear notches, allowing rangers to recognise them by sight for the rest of their lives. This year, Sarah Hoyland, host of our Journeys for Women, took part in one of these notching operations. Alongside our donation, we send clients to stay at Kwandwe, where they too can join this work and see the care behind it first-hand.
