EARTH DAY 2022
As far back as 1970, the environmental movement started. In August 1977, Kenya banned all trophy hunting as women turned out to protest in the streets against hunting. More and more, a kinder attitude toward the environment and nature took hold. This movement that has spread across the globe, based on the same philosophies we have in Great Plains – kindness, care, empathy, affording nature dignity and grace – ensures that we remember that this is our only house on Earth Day, and it requires good keeping.
Our news today is about enhancing the Zambezi with the opening of Tembo Plains after a few months’ soft test phase last year. We are looking forward to introducing guests to this new area at last. Over the coming weeks, you will hear more about conservation plans for Sapi Reserve, the 280,000-acre concession spread out downstream from the Mana Pools National Park, along the Zambezi River, heading east. We took it over five years ago and let it rest following years of hunting whilst recording wildlife numbers as they rebuilt steadily and developed their trust in us. When we did this before in Selinda, it took six years to rebuild those numbers. The Sapi Reserve mirrors that, with our flagship Réserve Collection camp in Zimbabwe, Tembo Plains, opening its doors on Earth Day.
The camp and the private reserve pay homage to the elephants that have fluctuated in numbers, presently declining in their own complex relationship with the area and the river. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the Sapi Reserve is the centrepiece of that exciting 1.6-million-acre unrestricted landscape.
We see our role as being just a small part of a more extensive Zambezi valley collaboration with many informed stakeholders over many years and, once again, taking guidance from our guides, the elephants.