Gamewatchers Safaris Limited and Porini Safari Camps Mission Statement

‘Gamewatchers is an exclusive tour company that specializes in delivering tailored safaris to small camps and lodges in Africa. We are committed to helping preserve Africa’s unique wildlife, landscapes and local communities. We believe that the best way to do this is through sustainable ecotourism ventures that benefit the local communities and give our guests a rewarding experience. Our Porini group of camps is a sustainable model that practically implements these principles. We are dedicated to providing our clients with exemplary personalized service and strive to have them leave as friends.’

Travelife is a leading training, management and certification initiative for tourism companies committed to reaching sustainability. This includes our products, monitoring and managing our impacts, and how we support our suppliers on their road to sustainability.

Gamewatchers Safaris LTD is a certified partner of Travelife and as such has committed to;

Labour

We abide by all Kenya labour laws.
We have an accessible human resources policy available to our staff which provides information regarding their rights under national labour and employment law, including their rights related to wages and benefits.
We document and communicate to all employees and workers (including contract workers) their working conditions and terms of employment. These include their entitlement to wages and benefits, hours of work, overtime arrangements and overtime compensation where applicable, and leave for illness, maternity, vacation or holiday, that at a minimum comply with national law.
All our employees are granted the right to associate freely and to bargain collectively, by forming and joining workers’ organizations or through alternative means.
Gamewatchers safaris shall not make employment decisions on the basis of personal characteristics unrelated to inherent job requirements but rather on the principle of equal opportunity and fair treatment.
We provide all employees with a mechanism to raise reasonable workplace concerns, confidentially or anonymously if needed, so that concerns can be addressed promptly at the management-level without any retribution.
Gamewatchers Safaris will not employ children, nor work with any partners that employ children in a manner that is economically exploitative, or is likely to be harmful to the child or to interfere with the child’s education. We do not employ forced labor, which consists of any work or service not voluntarily performed by an individual but executed under threat of force or penalty.
Gamewatchers Safaris pays keen interest to our supply chain and pays attention to issues raised of unfair labor practices of its suppliers, especially in instances where low labor cost is a factor in the competitiveness of supplies, and ensure that this is not due to harmful labor practices.

Environment

All our environmental actions are based on our policy which ensures the conservation of land, water and energy. As well as ensuring the safe disposal and treatment of solid waste and sewage.
We also make sure that we are fulfilling our legislative requirements and abide by the environmental laws of Kenya
We are constantly keeping up to date on the most efficient and environmentally‐friendly practices when it comes to our camp design, pollution control, waste minimization strategies, training of our staff, reporting methods and setting goals in order to improve our systems and to minimize our impact on the ecosystem
Our overall aim is to lower to the minimum level possible our eco-footprint in the ecosystems we operate, while ensuring correct natural resource management with minimal impact on the indigenous biodiversity.

Land

We are committed to protecting the natural flora and fauna found in the areas in which we operate.
Our tented camps, purposefully, have no permanent structures and are strategically placed around the available trees and shrubs. In so doing, when the time comes to remove the camp the area will revert back with no visible signs of a camp or people ever having been there.
We are also very aware of the risks and damage of fires and ask our guests to help us avoid this. We do not allow smoking on game drives and also ask our visitors not to smoke inside the guest tents. Within camp, smoking is limited to the area around the Mess Tent, where an ashtray is provided and we request guests to discard cigarette ends into these ashtrays.
Control density; The total number of guests at any one time is limited, thereby preventing damage to the environment that may be caused by the large numbers found at many other lodges and camps.
Each of our tents pays to protect 700 acres of habitat and therefore in the areas of our Porini Camps the vehicles density is also thereby controlled to about 1 vehicle to 1400 acres
We believe in setting up private conservancies, where possible, to ensure protection of the wildlife and flora and providing a direct monetary benefit to the surrounding local communities, through a monthly lease fee directly to the bank account of the hundreds of landowner families we work with, a per tourist fee and also through employment including at management levels. We find that this increased-direct-value to the local communities results in their active commitment to preserving the wildlife and fauna found in their areas.
We believe in learning from the local community and providing our guests the opportunity to learn first hand from the local people.
We commit to make an effort to actively help in educating the communities on the benefits to them and their lands from ecotourism projects.

Reduce energy consumption through:

Using energy efficient light bulbs across our premises
Deploying clean energy at our camps (Solar energy)
Implement a ‘switch off’ policy in the office for lights and all office equipment.
Ensure all equipment works efficiently through regular, systematic maintenance programs.
Ensure all vehicle operators are aware of energy conservation measures such as turning off engines when waiting for clients.
We ensure that no bush charcoal is used in our camps and conservation areas – as Kenya has a massive problem with deforestation caused by production of charcoal fuel that has reached a national crisis level.

Reduce Water consumption

We are committed to conserving and preventing contamination of water found in our areas. We

Ensure toilet flushes are eco-friendly through dual flush mechanism
Ensure there are no leaks in the water pipes system.
Implement a “Don’t keep taps running policy”
Deploy water saving Safari Bucket Showers in our camps

Waste

Reduce reliance on plastic in the office and business. Support locally made reusable bags.
Purchase in bulk in reduce on wrappings
Use reusable water bottles, cups and lunch containers.
Use environmental or natural cleaning products and insect repellent to reduce pollution.
Set Printer to print on both sides of paper by default
Purchase recycled or sustainable certified paper
We have implemented a recycling system for all waste from the camps – this is segregated into certain categories [Glass, plastics, metals and tins, used oil, mineral water bottles, used batteries, paper waste, and all bio-degradable waste] The segregated waste is then treated accordingly – the bio-degradable waste is composted in a closed and locked pit – and the remainder is packed and then transported back to Nairobi for proper disposal.
All sewage and waste water is managed so as to prevent any contamination of the water table and water courses.

Community

Our aim is to work closely with communities living alongside national parks and wildlife reserves to help them derive benefits from conserving wildlife species and the indigenous habitat. They are able to earn an income from eco-tourism from monthly rental payments for setting aside areas of their land as wildlife conservancies, thereby creating wildlife dispersal areas outside the parks, increasing wildlife numbers and species variety, habitat and bio-diversity.

We Support local purchasing when quality, service, availability and price allow.
We support a number of initiatives aiming to improve the lives of local communities, to which our customers are invited to make contributions
We work with locals to provide local souvenirs
We give priority to the family members of the local community for all job opportunities in the conservancies and our small camps so that they can earn livelihoods from being closely involved in our eco-tourism activities and currently employ over 260 people from the communities and many in management jobs.

Suppliers

We inform all suppliers of our commitment to Travelife sustainability management.

Destinations

We aim to provide tourists with relevant information to encourage responsible tourism behavior via blog, our social media channels and newsletters.
We feel it is important to effectively communicate the project’s actions to stakeholders, locally and internationally. Our company literature which is given to each client emphasizes our goals.

Accommodation

We only use hotels and camps that adhere by local laws and do not engage in any activity that is harmful to children e.g labor or child sex tourism.
We emphasis on the more personalized and smaller safari camps, with high quality guides and using 4×4 safari vehicles for game drives and particularly those that are doing more to protect habitat and work with local communities.

GOALS

We will reduce printing paper usage by 40% in the next year.
We will reduce waste from the office by 25 % over a year.
We will reduce energy bills in the office by 15% over a year.
We will reduce water usage by 10% over a year.

For more information on our sustainability policy, please contact our sustainability coordinator :

Jeremiah Chege – Jeremiah@gamewatchers.co.ke | +254 722 509 200