Founded by a native Zimbabwean who grew up on the outskirts of Hwange, the lodge today occupies its own 20-square-mile concession within the park, from which it operates dozens of educational and infrastructural programs within surrounding (mostly Nambya) villages. The property is also the crowning jewel in one of the only Black African-owned hotel groups on the continent, African Bush Camps. Set in ZimbabweвЂ™s largest preserve, the 56,000-square-mile oasis of Hwange National Park, Somalisa Camp is a longtime favourite of luxury safari travellers.

Guest fees from the lodge contribute to these efforts, and also to the protection of the preserveвЂ™s many rare and threatened creatures, among them black and white rhinos, pangolins, scaly anteaters, and more than 300 bird species. But the property also funds myriad services within the villages themselves, including preschools and care centers for young children, digital-skills learning programs for older kids, and training classes in teaching, entrepreneurship, and financial management for adults. The lodge hires most of its staffers, including chefs, spa attendants, and incomparably knowledgeable game-drive guides, from nearby Shangaan settlements. Like many properties in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve-250 privately-held square miles that border Kruger National Park, and share its splendid biodiversity- the lavish, architect-designed Earth Lodge goes to great lengths to help members of its local indigenous communities thrive. Guests who stay at these lodges can rest assured that, as well as aiding in these efforts, they are also helping to maintain the conservancy as an important sanctuary for animal species like endangered GrevyвЂ™s zebras, African wild dogs, elephants, leopards, and lions. Since 2015, when the international organization helped secure the purchase of the surrounding 56,000-acre Loisaba Conservancy, the lodges have been able to expand their outreach in local Samburu and Maasai villages-contributing to projects ranging from school-building to water-management systems to supplying local healthcare clinics. Loisaba Tented Camp, an Elewana Collection property, along with several equally luxurious sister lodges set on KenyaвЂ™s dazzling Laikipia Plateau, has been able to spearhead an impressive array of sustainability programs, in part through its partnership with The Nature Conservancy. If maximizing your impact on these efforts is important to you, consider including these properties in your custom safari itinerary. These properties, by either collaborating with or forming their own nonprofit foundations, have been able to provide especially comprehensive support to local tribespeople, and also to mount more extensive wildlife conservation programs. There are a handful of partner lodges, however, whose community outreach and land stewardship initiatives have truly raised the bar in the luxury safari industry. This means that all Micato travellers (as well as contributing toward the companyвЂ™s Nairobi-based nonprofit arm, Micato-AmericaShare) are pitching in to boost sustainability in AfricaвЂ™s most treasured safari destinations. Most do this by training and employing members of nearby tribal populations, and also by donating a portion of every safari guestвЂ™s accommodation fee toward conservation initiatives-like anti-poaching and wildlife monitoring-in their regions. Every safari lodge and camp that Micato partners with works to uphold, and benefit, both its local community and its surrounding ecosystem.

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