Since we created our Post-Lockdown Promise to give 100% of our profits to our self-created Give A CCR:AP Framework, we have worked to keep this going through the tough year of very little to no profit actually being made! We did manage to keep our community-led Opuntia project running the entire year. Starting in April 2021, we employed 40+ community-members once a month to clear the invasive weed that has been causing havoc within the Makurian group ranch. The group ranch members decided to clear certain segments of land where the cactus was particularly bad, and over the year have been working to clear a total of seven acres that surround the new Sand Dam (a dam built by GIZ & German Government) which has provided water for the whole community, even through the very long dry season (the rains arrived 6 months late). The Sand Dam hopes to provide clean water for the community using a pump and, having an area that is easily accessible will make the use of it even easier.

Our guests have not visited the Community Boma as much as we had hoped, simply because we have not had as many guests coming as we would have hoped. In the last months of this year, guests from UK, Sweden, USA and beyond visited the Community Boma - with great success. In fact, for many guests the visit was a highlight and an experience that they cherished. We thank Makurian for opening this experience up to us and our guests. We hope in 2022 that we can bring more guests to visit the experience, and that our guide, Elijah, can host many more within his community.

Some of the funds for this project came from our membership to The Conscious Travel Foundation.

Tourists join in traditional dances in cultural village in Kenya — *Guests join in with a traditional dance in the Makurian Cultural Manyatta - great fun and a fantastic learning experience*

Sustainability and ‘For Your Lifetime’

By becoming both a founding member of The Conscious Travel Foundation and a member of Tourism Declares A Climate Emergency, we have put ourselves out there as a destination that is committed to providing an experience and stay that benefits both the guests and the area we are located in.

We managed to achieve,sustain or even improve a number of our sustainability pledges, including keeping our camp solar-only, improve our grey-water system for the toilets, reducing economic leakage by purchasing local to Kenya and by offering staff training and encouragement to grow within the camp (our night askari is now a guide!).

Empty glass soda bottles go back for refilling

However we have also not been so successful within a number of other areas, too. The year has been very tough and to say that we had only been successful in all areas would just not be true. We want to be honest and improve in all places, year in and out.

Our biggest place for improvement has been our promise to try to create a carbon-neutral camp, including offsetting the travel of our guests to arrive at the camp (either by road or flight). Last year we partnered with Seedballs Kenya to try to do this, however since then I have spent many (MANY) hours learning about offsetting carbon emissions and, as it turns out, it is really complicated and confusing - much more than I could have ever expected! In 2022, we plan to work with a carbon credit scheme - at the moment we are speaking to the world’s first marine (or ‘blue’) carbon credit scheme, Mikoko Pamoja and a Tsavo-based Wildlife Works. We have also been advised to over-purchase credits in order cover any addition carbon that we, personally, create as a camp.

In January, our moved from Google to Ecosia, a search engine that uses 80% of their profits to plant trees across the world. This amazing company just planted their 140 millionth tree! Over the course of a year, our computers planted 1,640 trees. In such an easy move, we love shouting about this company and their great work - we highly recommend everyone to make the change too! Read their blog posts to learn more.

Another area we had hoped to improve on was moving from traditional chemical-based cleaning products to natural-based ones. By using chemical-filled soaps and detergents, the water to wash clothes and dishes goes into the soil which is not good for the plants and animals. We want to move to using products by Grounded, a cleaning product company based in Kenya that only uses chemical-free ingredients. However, because of course you pay for quality products, as a business we can’t quite afford the move yet. However, I have hopes for 2022 and beyond!

We remained a member of The Conscious Travel Foundation, and their support and mentorship over the past year has been invaluable. We have applied to renew our membership for 2022.