We have spoken about how important your visits to any of the safari camps we work with are, that a small part of your stay will contribute a huge amount to the efforts of the local community and staff within the camps and the surrounding area. One of our newest lodges to our portfolio, Sungani has just shared with us some stunning and very important news of the effort they have put into helping with conservation within the South Luangwa. Along with new guests who have visited Sungani, each one has helped in some small way to achieve such a fantastic result.

Working with Conservation South Luangwa, Sungani are running a match funding campaign. This year, Sungani have donated a total of $25,000 USD to Conservation South Luangwa and following this, they have pledged to match any donations up to $25,000 USD. Conservations South Luangwa’s mission is to work with the local community as well as conservation partners, such as Sungani, in the protection of the wildlife and habitats within the South Luangwa ecosystem. The long-term view is to ensure the survival of the wildlife and habitats within the South Luangwa under the custodianship of the Zambian people. With Sungani donating this wonderful sum of money, they are hoping to inspire and encourage new doners to also pledge their support, with the result being they will raise a total of $75,000 USD by the end of this year.

Sungani have been able to assist with helping in numerous ways; from creating new road systems as well as grade road networks to make the area much more accessible, supporting with the deployment of scouts which in turn is helped by the 365-day presence within the area to report any incidences. Even one of the guides, in fact, the head guide at Sungani – Michael – is an honorary wildlife police officer which is invaluable to the Conservation South Luangwa team. The airstrip which Sungani is used by many conservation partners and conservationists, so they will also insure this is up to running efficiently. Finally, one of the last things Sungani lend a hand in to support the Conservation South Luangwa team is to assist in monitoring predators in and around the area allowing up to date almost live reports of all that occurs on the ground.

As many of you might think, conservation doesn’t just involve wildlife, it is also a huge support to the local community, because without these people, these conservation efforts wouldn’t even be able to start. To work with the local people within the area ensures you can educate, inform and allow them to participate with projects such as anti-poaching and wildlife monitoring. With this, the hope is to dissipate the human-wildlife conflict and encourage everyone to work together. Sungani started building their wonderful camp back in 2019. Like many camps and lodges we work with, they employed people from the neighbouring villages to work within the walls of Sungani. To start with, it was a challenge, but to have people who are keen to learn and want to support conservation within the area, as this is their home, the persistence to keep with the structured training was invaluable. Sungani can now boast up to 90% of their front and back-of-house teams all live and come from the local community. With the blight of Covid-19 throwing a bit of a spanner in the works, this did allow for training of staff to be elongated and the chance for staff to become involved on game drives that would have been for guests. This also allowed for the guides to keep on top of their game and to teach their knowledge and to encourage others without to learn more. Because of this, this has meant the team at Sungani have a hugely rounded knowledge on both the area, the wildlife but it has also meant they call Sungani their home, becoming a family as such. As Sungani have reported to us ‘It has been remarkable to maintain such a happy workforce who continues to amaze us every day! We have truly become a family’.

When visiting Sungani, you will not only be welcomed in as part of the family, you will also be contributing to the conservation within the whole area, including wildlife and local community support and leaving with fabulous memories, stories and experiences to encourage others to visit too – who knows how much good you can contribute to such a worthy and rounded conservation cause.