Too often, safari tourism across Africa comes at the expense of local communities and environmental sustainability. In 1999, Imvelo Safari Lodges set out to offer a counter-model. Operating on community-owned land on the edges of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, Imvelo has spent more than two decades showing that ecotourism can be both protective and empowering, supporting a symbiotic relationship between conservation, responsible tourism and rural livelihoods.

Communities and Conservation: A Necessary Connection

Conservation efforts have historically overlooked a critical reality: communities living beside national parks must be aligned with wildlife protection. When they are not, wildlife can become a liability rather than an asset.

In an interview with Hannah Tranter from the Community Rhino Conservation Initiative (CRCI), a partner organization of Imvelo, she explained that “local support is fundamental—local people need to have the means to be able to live with wildlife, rather than against it. They need access to water, food, safety from wildlife, employment, education, health care… so if you want to conserve wildlife and habitats, you need to make sure the local people’s needs are also covered and satisfied.”

For families facing poverty, food insecurity and limited economic opportunity, the negatives of living alongside wildlife often outweigh the benefits. Animals may destroy crops that people rely on, and predators such as hyenas and cheetahs may kill livestock. This imbalance often fuels subsistence poaching, which is driven not by malice but by necessity when no alternative livelihoods exist.

This disconnect weakens conservation outcomes and erodes trust between local people and park authorities. Imvelo’s model is designed to counter this cycle. By ensuring that wildlife contributes directly to community well-being through employment, services and long-term development, Imvelo helps reduce the economic pressures that drive poaching and replaces them with shared incentives to protect wildlife.

Reintroducing White Rhinos to Community Land

Historically, Hwange National Park was home to a robust white rhino population. By the 1980s, there were more than 100 rhinos, but poaching in the 1990s led to their disappearance. In 2007, the last white rhino in the area was killed.

CRCI has now successfully brought white rhinos back to Hwange, placing them on communal lands rather than solely protected government parks—this time with local communities as custodians.

Local communities have designated grazing land specifically for rhino conservation, giving up usable land for long-term goals. Importantly, revenue from rhino-viewing tourism through Imvelo’s lodges flows directly back into communities—100% of the income generated from rhino-related tourism is returned.

In 2022, Thuza and Kusasa became the first white rhinos ever to roam community-owned land in Zimbabwe. Since then, a second sanctuary has been built for two more male white rhinos, Mlevu and Asenze.

While the second sanctuary marks major progress, challenges persist. “A larger area is harder to protect. We need to recruit and train more local community members as scouts, need to buy another vehicle, more uniforms, pay more salaries, more food, more equipment,” Tranter explained. “It’s a larger cost and a bigger poaching threat, but growing the area and rhino population is essential… we need to get a bigger population of rhinos—not just four male rhinos!”

Employment and the Cobras Wildlife Protection Unit

The initiative also employs a local wildlife protection unit known as the Cobras, a team of community-based scouts. Recruited from nearby villages, Cobras receive training in first aid, weapons handling, conservation law, radio communications, rhino monitoring and human-wildlife conflict resolution.

A stable salary is transformative—improving food security, supporting school fees and reducing economic pressures that might drive poaching. Beyond income, placing community members at the heart of wildlife protection fosters ownership and pride. As one Cobra scout said, guarding rhinos is about “protecting what we can best describe as our own future.”

Since the arrival of Mlevu and Asenze, CRCI is training 24 more scouts, including three women who will become cheetah scouts.

Supporting Education in Wildlife-Adjacent Communities

While employment is vital for poverty reduction, education is the foundation for long-term change. Young people living on the frontline of Hwange’s wildlife areas face barriers such as long travel distances, understaffed classrooms and limited resources. Imvelo’s education program responds directly to these challenges, supporting 14 local schools through infrastructure development, learning materials and staffing assistance.

Support has included constructing classroom blocks, building teachers’ cottages, drilling boreholes for safe water and supplying desks, textbooks and uniforms. In 2010, Imvelo built its first high school classroom block with donor help. By the next year, the school had expanded to include two double classroom blocks, an ablution block and three teachers’ cottages, serving 110 students. In 2023, Imvelo provided two new dormitories and an ablution block, allowing boarding students from remote villages to attend school consistently.

Tranter emphasized the importance of education: “Investing in education is a priority. But so is actual experience. It’s important to simultaneously educate students about conservation and wildlife protection as well as allow community members to feel and appreciate the benefits of wildlife and the potential for improved livelihoods that wildlife can bring.”

Improving Health Care Access

Access to reliable health care is essential for communities, especially those in remote wildlife areas. In 2017, Imvelo began constructing Ngamo Clinic with donor support, and by September 2022, it treated its first patient—an important milestone for surrounding villages.

Imvelo also runs the Smile and See Safari, launched in 2011, which brings volunteer dentists and eye specialists from Smile Is a Foundation to provide free care to rural villagers. Over the past decade, the initiative has treated more than 36,000 patients. Support from Imvelo guests and partners in Australia has further strengthened health care and education facilities in Sidinda, providing essential infrastructure and economic uplift.

A Community-Centered Conservation Model

By placing communities at the center of wildlife protection—through education, health care, employment and the Community Rhino Conservation Initiative—Imvelo has built a model that benefits both people and nature. In a region where exclusion once weakened conservation, Imvelo offers an example of a more equitable approach, one in which communities and ecosystems can thrive together for generations to come.

– Elysha Din

Elysha is based in Guildford, UK and focuses on Good News and Politics for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr