South Africa – Timbavati Balancing Tourism and Hunting Revenue to Ensure Sustainable Contribution to Conservation

For the past few years, the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve – home to both of our Tanda Tula camps – has been facing a dilemma. In the Greater Kruger, poaching has shown no signs of abating, wildlife crime syndicates are becoming increasingly ruthless, and reserve security costs have continued to soar – 850% in the last five years, to be exact. We have become increasingly aware that this situation is not sustainable, and for some years now, we have been exploring leverage points. Where could the much-needed revenue be generated? Since the idea behind sustainable utilisation is for it to be just that – sustainable – increasing hunting quotas to boost income is simply not an option. Using the same logic, increasing revenue by adding too many commercial beds in the Timbavati would also be unsustainable.