Great Plains Conservation

Great Plains is a Conservation Tourism organisation that uses sustainable ecotourism as a tool to support conservation programs in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Kenya. It oversees almost 500,000 hectares of precious African soil across the three countries: a network of community conservancies, former hunting concessions and migratory corridors, many of which suffered some prior degradation, but are now given over exclusively to wildlife and conservation.

Exclusivity is key to the Great Plains experience. All its camps and villas are small and intimate, offering a combination of understated luxury, superb service and award-winning cuisine offset by an emphatic bush character and sensational locations. Game drives, guided walks and other activities are undertaken in vast private concessions to which Great Plains has exclusive traversing rights. This ensures that guests are treated to a holistic African wilderness experience rather than simply trying to tick off the Big Five – though, with luck, you’ll do both.

There’s plenty of ecological variety on Great Plains portfolio. Within Botswana, it operates a trio of small camps in a 33,000-hectare concession bordering the Okavango Delta, and another five camps in the predator-rich 130,000-hectare Selinda Reserve, part of a game corridor that links Okavango to Chobe National Park.

Great Plains’ Kenyan properties includes three camps on private land bordering the world-renowned Masai Mara Reserve, part of the ecosystem traversed by the annual wildebeest migration through the Serengeti. Its other camp stands in a vast private conservancy in the Chyulu Hills, which are wedged between Tsavo West and Amboseli National Parks, an area renowned for its giant tuskers and stirring views of snow-capped Kilimanjaro.

In Zimbabwe, Great Plains operates three camps and villas alongside the mighty Zambezi River. One is set within a 128,000-ha concession bordering Mana Pools National Park, while the other two are found in a private concession within Zambezi National Park, practically within earshot of the explosive Victoria Falls.

Great Plains Conservation is deeply committed not only to the preservation of Africa’s wild places but also to the support of those local communities who live alongside them. All guests are levied a conservation and community fee that is directed to the Great Plains Foundation, a non-profit organisation that operates several innovative community education initiatives. In addition, the foundation supports Rhinos Without Borders, a project designed to relocates rhinos from high-risk poaching areas to more remote and safer locations, and which also now offers additional protection to their vulnerable calves.