Africa

9 facts that show our impact at a glance

Cultures & Communities

Conservation

Merryn Haller

9/20/2024

Wilderness Impact at a glance

Wilderness Family Trust
Lions – we recommitted support to the Lion Recovery Fund and Lionscape Coalition

As the world’s leading conservation and hospitality company, the impact we make on the environment, its wildlife, and its communities is the very reason we exist. 

 

For more than 40 years, we’ve been a driving force for conservation and community empowerment across the African continent. And through our independent non-profit arm, the Wilderness Trust, and with the help of generous donations from our guests, trade partners and stakeholders, we’ve made significant strides in increasing the world’s wilderness.

Focusing on the three core pillars that make up our impact strategy – Educate, Empower and Protect – we’re proud to share some of the quantifiable changes we’ve helped action in the last few years. Taken from the Wilderness Trust Report, here are nine facts that showcase our impact between 2018 and 2023. 

EDUCATE

Building the next generation of conservation leaders in order to sustain the future conservation of the wilderness.

Explore our Impact pillars

USD630,000 supporting educational programmes

At the core of our Educate pillar is the Trust’s Children in the Wilderness (CITW) programme, dedicated to empowering communities through youth leadership and environmental education. Through these efforts, our initiatives increase economic opportunity, family resilience and support for the conservation of wildlife.

2,500 children participate annually in our Eco-Clubs 

Our work makes a real impact in the world right here, right now. But our Impact strategy is equally geared towards our vision for the future as it is towards present-day change. If we are to one day double the land we help protect – and double it again – we must pave the way for young people to take our place as stewards of the natural world. 

 

With the support of the Wilderness Trust and various local non-profit organisations, CITW has established Eco-Clubs at partner schools in several African countries, offering interested children the chance to learn about environmental issues while developing invaluable life skills. 

 

By educating and inspiring young minds and instilling in them a deep appreciation for the environment, CITW’s Eco-Clubs lay the groundwork for the conservation leaders of the future. 

 

 

 

300 children attend annual Eco-Club camps

Being truly immersed in the wild is a privilege we wanted to extend not just to our guests, but to the children who call these areas home. So, for four days a year, a Wilderness or partner camp will close to host select students from the Eco-Club programme, giving them the chance to experience the wildlife areas they live so close to, yet seldom explore as foreign visitors do. 

 

Our camp programmes include interactive workshops and wildlife activities like game drives, all under the mentorship of dedicated Wilderness volunteers who often come from the very same communities as the young participants. By acting as friends, counsellors and more importantly, role models, these volunteers show the children something they won’t soon forget: “If we can do it, so can you”.

Almost 600 scholarships awarded

 

 

While primary education is often free or low-cost in the areas where we operate, many children don’t get the opportunity to complete secondary or tertiary education. The CITW scholarship was designed to combat this, providing scholarships, as well as funding for uniforms, stationery and other school expenses where possible. 

 

The programme first awarded scholarships to 36 secondary school children back in 2007, and today, with the addition of tertiary scholarships, CITW continues to change the lives of hundreds of young people every year, with over USD1,02 million worth of scholarships awarded.

EMPOWER

We’re building a conservation economy with empowerment programmes that work to create self-sustaining communities.

Explore our Impact pillars

USD1,08 million pumped into 4 empowerment projects

In our mission to help preserve the world’s wilderness, we must ensure we never forget the men, women and children living in the communities surrounding our camps. Which is why empowerment is an essential part of what we do. 

 

Many of the communities surrounding our pristine wilderness areas rely on tourism for their livelihoods. They depend on us to survive. So, we’ve made it our duty to provide them with the tools, infrastructure and support they need, not just to self-sustain, but to thrive.

 

Whether it’s launching literacy centres in Zimbabwe, drilling boreholes in Botswana or establishing a medical clinic in the most remote corner of Namibia, Wilderness’ empowerment footprint stretches across the African continent.

Partnered with Rwanda’s first community-owned lodge

Take Wilderness Sabyinyo in Rwanda, for example. This camp may by operated by Wilderness, but it’s owned by community-based non-profit Sabyinyo Community Livelihood Association (SACOLA). With the help of the fees earned from leasing land to Wilderness, SACOLA is able to drive tangible, genuinely transformative socio-economic development within the community, all while conserving the local environment. 

 

 

 

Provided 700+ households with health insurance

Wilderness and CITW were also able to provide 767 households in Rwanda’s Gishwati and Kinigi areas with health insurance thanks to generous donations from our guests in 2023. Mutuelle, the community-based healthcare scheme, is designed to cover medical expenses for poor, vulnerable families. 

 

To witness thousands of our neighbours at last receiving essential healthcare for their families – the relief and joy in the eyes of parents, children, dignitaries, community leaders – is a great honour, to say the least.

20,000 relief parcels in 35 communities impacted 100,000 people 

When Covid hit, and countless communities lost their livelihoods from the halt of tourism, the Wilderness Conservation Heroes campaign helped raise USD750,000 to provide our neighbours with food parcels and other essentials.

PROTECT

We are committed to ensuring the world always has a version of its wilds that is unfenced, untamed and unpredictable.

Explore our Impact pillars

USD911,000 supporting 25 conservation projects

Under the Protect pillar of our impact strategy, we’ve supported numerous projects to help ensure the harmonious coexistence of humans and wildlife. 


This goes beyond the maintenance of wildlife habitats; we're actively committed to expanding these spaces, reintroducing wildlife where populations have been depressed, providing water sources and security to keep precious species safe, and conducting vital research and monitoring to guide future initiatives. 

6,000 kilometres of anti-poaching foot patrols walked

In 2022, we reaffirmed our funding of the operating costs of the Scorpion Anti-Poaching Unit (SAPU) in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. This funding helped ensure the SAPU team and the park’s rangers could continue the vital work of reducing poaching levels in the area.


 
SAPU patrolled over 6,000 kilometres of Hwange National Park between January 2023 and 2024 alone, collecting invaluable data on the impact of poaching on wildlife populations, removing wire snares and arresting illegal poachers.

01 / 04

6,500 people trained in vulture protection

The Wilderness Trust also provided support to the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s (EWT) Vultures for Africa programme. Recognising the critical role vultures play in cleaning up ecosystems, as well as their drastically declining populations over the last 30 years, Vultures for Africa works tirelessly to combat the many threats faced by these iconic birds of prey, chief among them being direct and indirect poisoning. 

 

Having trained more than 6,500 people in wildlife poisoning response and prevention – positively effecting seven vulture species across 17 African countries – the Vultures for Africa programme was an obvious partnership for the Wilderness Trust. 

 

Through its donation of USD5,000 to the programme in 2023, Wilderness showed its commitment to protecting these iconic birds of prey and the role they play in maintaining ecological balance.

 

 

 

Donated 5 satellite collars to EcoExist

Another wildlife protection initiative supported by Wilderness and the Trust is EcoExist, a laudable Botswana-based organisation that seeks to reduce conflict between elephants and people.


 
In line with our long-term commitment help alleviate human-wildlife conflict, Wilderness donated five satellite collars to EcoExist in 2022, to be used to collect invaluable data on elephants’ movement patterns, resource use and ecological impacts. These collars help ensure the wellbeing of the elephants wearing them while making data-driven land-use allocation possible.

And we’ve only just begun…

The impact we’ve made between 2018 and 2023 is just a small part of Wilderness’ mission to educate, empower and protect. Along with our 2024 impact projects, we’re well on our way to achieving our goal: to double the amount of land we help protect by 2030. But we can’t do it alone.

Discover our 2024 impact projects

If you’d like to assist us on our mission, you can make a general donation to the Trust or donate towards a specific project on our website. Let’s increase the world’s wilderness and change lives together. 

Wilderness Trust

Let’s increase the world’s wilderness and change lives together.

Ways to contribute

EDUCATE

EMPOWER

PROTECT

Let’s plan your next journey

Ready?

When we say we’re there every step of the way, we mean it, literally. From planning the perfect circuit, to private inter-camp transfers on Wilderness Air, and easing you through Customs. We’re with you on the ground, at your side, 24-7, from start to finish. Ready to take the road less travelled? Contact our Travel Designers to plan an unforgettable journey.