All travel has an environmental impact, but it need not necessarily be a negative one. And – the carbon implications of getting there notwithstanding – safaris offer some of the most positive instances of how tourism can bring both economic and environmental benefits.
Take the 25,000 hectare Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa. “About 18 years ago my parents bought a patch of land in the Eastern Cape in South Africa as a family getaway,” says Paul Gardiner, whose family founded and manage the reserve. “What wildlife had existed there had almost all been wiped out. The last lion was shot in 1863. My father began to research into what fauna and flora had thrived there 250 years ago and realised how very rich it had been, so he decided to turn back the clock and reintroduce the animals that had lived here. We started with five elephants in 1990; then came hippo, rhino, buffalo, antelope, zebra, giraffe, baboon, as well as dung beetles and red-billed ox-peckers.”
