Keeping your distance

TOGETHERNESS

On safari, every day ends around the campfire. The

Karibu

Here’s to 2021! After everything we have all had to

AFRICA IN FOCUS

With 3800 images submitted, Wilderness Safaris’ 2020

My beautiful home

An inspiring initiative in the Matobo Hills, in Zimbabwe

Reading matters

A selection of recent releases for Afrophiles

DEADLY ENCOUNTERS

Readers witness the dramatic fight for survival in the African bush

MY ANGRY GIANT

Not all storms are equal, discovers Judy Barnes

The great escape

With the challenges and pressures that 2020 presented, we could all be forgiven for wanting, at some point, to get as far away from it all as we possibly could.

WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES

Why do lodges charge the rates they do, and what exactly are you paying for when you go on safari? While pricing is often influenced by government and environmental policies – how many tourists to allow in a protected area, for example – it is useful to understand what responsibilities your hosts have, and quite how much positive impact your stay has.

nature’s call

An audacious philanthropic project in Mozambique has created one of the world’s greatest ecological recovery stories and rede_ined what conservation can mean for locals. Today, Gorongosa is one of the most biodiverse parks in Africa, but needs tourism to help secure the foundations laid by its quite remarkable turnaround.

Blooming dales

Tourism can not only sow the seeds of a healthy, thriving business — providing employment and supporting local communities — it can also nurture ground-roots conservation and help protect some of our most precious and vulnerable habitats. Few places is this more evident than in South Africa’s coastal fynbos region.

HOME SWEET HOME

As travellers seek more downto- earth, natural experiences in harmony with the local environment, so remote communities are able to bene_it from tourism without compromising their way of life. Can this ‘partnership’ ensure a more equitable and mutually-bene_icial arrangement for all parties?

Urban legend

Championing culture gave Johannesburg city back its centre, but tourism is what will sustain inner city revival in and around Jeppestown.

LIGHTNESS OF TOUCH

How do you increase tourism revenues without impacting the environment and keeping it affordable to all? It’s the challenge being tackled in Gonarezhou, where every effort is made to keep the National Park and its facilities as natural as possible. The result is an authentic, absorbing safari experience in a vast wilderness. Will this prove a sustainable, transformative approach? Time will tell, but we have to hope so.

Somebody to love

For many wildlife lovers, lemurs hold considerable allure, the stars of Madagascar’s unique and whacky wonderland of biodiversity. Vulnerable in their isolated island home, lemurs are now the most threatened mammal group on the planet. Embarking on a road trip, we discover how vital ecotourism is for protecting them and the forests in which they live.

Northern powerhouse

Tourism is key to the transformation of Kenya’s northern rangelands, with communities driving efforts to protect elephant, black rhino and other endangered species

Could mountain gorillas help save the planet?

The restorative impact of tourism on wildlife and habitat is most noticeably apparent in the Virunga mountains, where mountain gorillas, communities and the forest are all bene_itting. It’s hugely encouraging for the environment

Remembering Cheetahs

“Imagine travelling in a car as it gradually accelerates, speeding up to 30mph (48kmh) through to 60mph," says Dr Sarah Durant of the Range Wide Conservation Program for Cheetah and Wild Dog.

Saving Serengeti’s cheetahs

Across the continent, from projects like the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia to smaller localised efforts in private reserves like Samara in South Africa, many hundreds of people are working to protect Africa’s cheetahs. Sue Watt meets one of them, in Tanzania’s Serengeti plains

Aerial Art

If you’re looking for somewhere remote and barren to escape to, Namibia offers space in abundance. Viewed from above, one gets a greater appreciation for this intricate, ancient tapestry. We asked photographers Jay and Jan Roode to re_lect on some of our favourite pictures from their new book

Thinking on my feet

For seventeen days over July and August 2020, Nick Ridden, Matt Blair and Mana Meadows walked 350km down the length of the Luangwa Valley. The expedition offered a rare insight to untrammelled wilderness, privileged close-up encounters with wildlife, an opportunity to better understand the relationship between the land and the people who live there… and plenty of time to get lost in thought

FOREST TRUMP

Following the successful rehabilitation of Akagera National Park,

Frontline stars

Every year Tusk organises an awards ceremony to celebrate the remarkable people who work on the frontline of conservation across Africa.

What is wildlife worth?

Can we really quantify the value of wildlife – and could doing so bring into focus the economic prudence of preserving Africa’s natural wealth?

Baby bamboo plants help restore gorilla habitat in Rwanda

AWF and its partners will plant some 20,000 ‘wildings’ at the protected edge of Volcanoes National Park

Botswana names Cyanobacteria as culprit in die-off

Is the mystery surrounding hundreds of elephant deaths finally solved?

Keeping you safe… air travel

How safe are you from Covid-19 when you get on a plane?

Spatial awareness

Within the vast NamibRand Nature Reserve, Natural Selection’s Kwessi Dunes appears like an oasis, in the middle of nowhere.

…and that was 2020

Even this mountain gorilla seemed to feel the pressure!