Community & Conservation

White Rhino Conservation

Local villages once had nothing to gain from safari tourism, but we—together with our Zimbabwe partners—are changing that. Through the groundbreaking Community Rhino Conservation Initiative, local communities have dedicated portions of their communal land for rhino sanctuaries. By transforming unproductive grazing land into thriving wildlife havens, they now directly benefit from conservation—operating and protecting the sanctuaries and their four resident rhinos, with 70% of the sanctuaries’ revenues going directly back to the communities. This initiative is also reintroducing white rhinos to Hwange National Park, where they’ve been absent for more than 50 years. This is an awe-inspiring conservation project WT is proud to support, and our travelers are thrilled to witness firsthand on our Zimbabwe safaris.

Community Initiatives

• Built 8 double classroom blocks comprising Ngamo primary and secondary schools accommodating 640 students from the local communities and 11 teachers’ accommodations.
• Donated over 6,000 new books to eight schools in collaboration with the Hwange Schools Project.
• Treated over 15,000 patients since 2011 as part of the annual Dental and Optical Safari, providing free dental care to local people in the remote areas around Camelthorn and Nehimba lodges (12, 041 dental patients and 3,377 optical patients).
• Drilled over 80 boreholes for local villages, providing approximately 1,500 school children and 2,280 households, totaling 13,680 people, with clean drinking water.
• Fed 2830 students per day at 11 schools for five months during the drought of 2015-2016, a remarkable total of 415,310 meals!

Conservation Initiatives

• Provide support and funding for two anti-poaching teams in Hwange National Park in the form of wages, training, supplies, bedding, tents, and communication equipment. The locally renowned cheetah, Queenie, is alive today due to the success of anti-poaching units who released her from a poacher’s snare.
• Operate 16 boreholes inside Hwange National Park, pumping 185,000 gallons of water at the peak of dry season, which sustain an estimated 20-25% of Hwange’s wildlife and as many as 10,000 elephants alone.
• Installation of a solar water pump at the remote Makona ranger station in the south of Hwange National Park, which provides not only water for the animals and rangers, but also power for radio communications with park head quarters and charging batteries for handheld radios and lights for the rangers.
• Maintain 175 miles of fire breaks along the border of the park as well as fight wildfires within the concessions and in the park itself.
• Built and operate Jozibanini Camp in remote southern Hwange National Park, which is near the site of a terrible elephant poaching incident in 2013. The camp was specifically opened to provide more “eyes” and “boots” on the ground in the wild and remote southern part of Hwange. Since Jozi opened in 2015, poaching in this part of Hwange has been nearly eradicated thanks to the camp and the benefits of tourism delivered to nearby communities, in addition to the increased presence of park rangers and anti-poaching teams.