Ultimate Safaris, through their Conservation Travel Foundation (CTF), in 2023, donated a total of 8.5 million Namibia Dollars to various projects across Namibia.

This, according to the company’s latest audited financial statements, includes around N$ 1.8 million for the provision of solar power within the Tsiseb Communal Conservancy, N$ 1 million for the construction of predator-proof kraals (which is in addition to the roughly N$ 1.3 million spent by the CTF on predator- proof kraals in 2021), and over N$ 3.5 million which was donated to aid the efforts of conservation organisations such as the Desert Lion Conservation Trust, AfriCat, TOSCO Lion Rangers, and Communal Conservancy Rhino Rangers.

Save the Rhino Trust’s coordinated Rhino Rangers programme also benefitted directly through the Ultimate Safaris led Pack for Conservation initiative, which, in partnership with Namibian camping and outdoor supplier, Cymot, allows anyone from visitors to the country, to interested individuals both within and outside of Namibia, to buy dedicated Rhino Ranger gear online via a secure platform and have it delivered directly to the Rangers on the ground.

Founded in 2006 by Tristan Cowley, later also a co-founder of Ultimate Safaris, the aim of the Conservation Travel Foundation has always been to partner with Conservation Travel to bring about tangible, positive impacts on ecosystem conservation and on the socio-economic development of rural communities in Namibia. Cowley, now Ultimate Safaris’ Managing Director explains that “as a safari operator we wanted to enrich the lives of communities and enhance the areas we visit, as well as the guests that travel with us. The Conservation Travel Foundation has allowed us to achieve that in the most transparent way”.

From humble beginnings where only a few hundred Namibia Dollars a year was raised, the CTF has, over the past three years alone, been able to deliver over 24 million Namibia Dollars’ worth of support. The Foundation has also developed long-term relationships with conservation partners such as those already mentioned, as well as the likes of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, the Rare and Endangered Species Trust, the Lion Recovery Fund, the Pangolin Conservation and Research Foundation and the Namibia Chamber of Environment, as well as Namibian and international funding partners like Paratus, B2Gold, Swarovski Optik, Moraway Adventures, Wilderness Travel, Geographic Expeditions, Mountain Travel Sobek, and the Adventure Travel Trade Association.

Statements like those of the Vice-Principal of the Grootberg Primary School, Tommy Haxabeb, who said: “With the support of Ultimate Safaris, through the Conservation Travel Fondation, we have been able to enrich the lives of the children at the school”, Dr. Flip Stander of the Desert Lion Project, who explained that the effort and support provided by the CTF “will aid substantially in the conservation of Desert Lions”, or the Save the Rhino Trust’s Jeff Muntefering, who, thanking the CTF for their support in their time of need, explained that the support received from the Foundation would “contribute greatly to the success

of the Rhino Ranger programme”, are evidence enough of the crucial impact the CTF has had, and will continue to have.

In a bid to ensure that all the money raised by the CTF goes to the projects that they support, Ultimate Safaris provides pro bono administrative and logistical support to the Foundation.