Years of work behind the scenes working with the visionary Imvelo Safari Lodge’s team to bring white rhino back to Hwange – and I finally got to walk in the wild with them recently and see what some thought was impossible – turn into a thriving reality.
Being involved in one of the greatest conservation projects in Africa today – having rhino on community land bordering the park and to be able to have such a close up quality interaction with them was truly one of the most rewarding moments of my career to date and then to experience it with some of my old team mates from the Bulawayo office was so very special.
I think that is the absolute key take out here – being able to have a 2 hour up close quality interactin on foot, vehicle or just sitting and watching these two rhino roam freely with our home trained community anti poaching unit – gives one an exceptional wildlife experience, while also contributing to the much larger vision at hand. Which is, in time to have a flourishing huge scale area with many white rhino that forms a critical buffer zone between communities and the park and is part of the solution to the ongoing human wildlife conflict in that area, one of the largest in the whole KAZA region.
This experience delivers everything guests are looking for when they say they want to have a purposeful immersive safari. Imvelo Safari Lodges continue to strive for lasting conservation and community upliftment and positive change. We truly have some African warriors on our team.
Watch this African child meet Thuza and Kusasa – it was a dream come true.
For on tap updates on the progress of this project please keep an eye on Hwange community Rhino – there is a wealth of information on the amount of work happening – it is extremely exciting!
For an overview of Imvelo Safari Lodge’s Community and Conservation projects in 2023 – please download this summary which shows the enormity of the projects supported and the impact that was achieved. It is truly remarkable.
