Volcanoes Safaris is the winner in the ‘Small Hotel Chains, Doing It All’ category of the 2013 Condé Nast Traveler World Savers Awards. It is a significant piece of recognition for Volcanoes lodges that 'do as much to support the local community as they do to protect the wildlife'.
Volcanoes Founder, Praveen Moman, recently spoke at the Great Apes Summit in Jackson Hole, USA. The summit addressed many of the issues that affect the conservation of great apes. Praveen Moman was invited to speak as the great ape tourism expert and highlighted the following points:
- Conservation must become part of the economic mainstream if national parks and great apes are to survive.
- Communities should be central to the vision of conservation. Getting bread on the table for local people is essential.
- Sensitive controlled tourism, and the involvement of the private sector, is central to the survival of the protected areas and the habitats and animals.
- This is the great ape ecotourism model that Volcanoes Safaris has pioneered in Uganda and Rwanda.
- Tourism may not match the economic return of extractive industries such as oil and minerals but it can create livelihoods which is essential to safeguarding protected areas.
All these are continuing elements of the recognition Volcanoes Safaris is receiving for its pioneering work in Great Ape tourism and for its unique eco-luxury lodges.