Safari, wine, food and nature in South Africa

Ecorating: 3.5

This product meets our requirements for Ecorating, a product that is good for humans and the environment.

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Steenberg Hotel Ecorating: 2.

It employs almost exclusively staff from the local area, and also provides a higher pay than is otherwise standard in the country for this type of work. The staff is trained to think more environmentally friendly and long-term, and has engaging guest activities. The guides at the hotel come from the local community. As far as possible, you have started to recycle and sort your waste. The hotel has been lovingly restored (dating from the 1680s) and is today part of South Africa’s cultural heritage.

Grootbos Private Nature Reserve Ecorating: 4

Grootbos Foundation is a so-called Chapter 21 company, ie registered as a non-profit company. It was founded in 2005 and is located in the Grootbos nature reserve close to Cape Town.

Grootbo Nature Reserve is located on Agulhas Plain in the heart of the area, a region with a unique biological diversity but also with a nature and a wildlife that has been hard pushed back by human activities.

At Grootbos, it is believed that it is necessary to find a way to be able to achieve economic development in the area without destroying the living conditions of the animals and the sea. Nature reserves must be part of the community’s opportunities for a reasonable life, not an obstacle but a condition.

Some of Grootbo’s projects:

Green Future: Unemployed people are trained to become “forest gardeners”. The reason for this particular commitment is that one wants to educate more from the local community to be able to protect and refine the local biodiversity of plants. The training takes place at Grootbos in its own premises and with its own, affiliated teachers. The newly trained gardeners not only help nature in place, they also sell plants to visitors, who by planting them in their own gardens, help to spread and improve the species’ chances of long-term survival. The money you earn goes to educating even more gardeners.

Growing the Future: After the success of “Green Future”, they started “Growing the Future”, a project about food production. Many people have left the country to move into the cities, and gradually one loses knowledge of how the land was actually cultivated a generation or two ago. The project is about giving women a basic education in how to grow vegetables and fruit on a relatively small area, which can later be sold to give the family better financial conditions – and more to eat, of course. Eight women a year undergo the training, which also includes how by refining a product you can get a bigger profit, such as producing strawberry jam in glass from its strawberries, or producing honey ..

Spaces for Sport: Spaces for Sport creates opportunities for young people to be able to train and to get coaching. The goal is to demand social integration between people and social groups, and to get young people to meet on an equal footing – that is something that sport can do. Good side effects are better health, better self-esteem and less risk of becoming a criminal or addict. The project is supported by the Football Association of South Africa. Tiger Turf UK has sponsored a FIFA standard artificial turf football pitch, the first in the country.

Hog Hollow Country Lodge Ecorating: 3.

The hotel has a good and well-functioning recycling program, and it also helps other businesses in the area to get workable systems for this. All organic waste is given to a local pig farm, there is a program to replace previously imported plants with natural plants for South Africa. In 2008, it was accepted as a member of the Wilderness Foundation Green Leaf – a non-profit organization that works to preserve and develop the environment and nature. The organization has a tool where hotels can measure their footprint on nature and the environment in areas such as water management, energy, waste management and other parameters.

Hog Hollow also primarily employs staff from the local area, who receive continuous training and are paid reasonably well. One invests in Kids of Kurland, an organization in the local area that offers school for children who otherwise would probably not be able to go to school. Salaries are paid to teachers at the school.

Kariega Game Reserve Ecorating: 3

Works actively with responsible tourism, and is also the largest employer in the city of Kenton-on Sea. You work with local development and local responsibility. The Kariega Foundation is the sponsor of three schools: Farmfield School; Ekamvalesizwe School and Nompucuko School. Kariega believes that the future lies in the young and that education is the only real tool. The vision is to help these relatively poor school districts become places where young people can receive education, hope and pride. The Kariega Foundation receives its funds from donors, and it also receives help from volunteers from the hotel.

Kariega is also involved in the following projects – which you as a guest are welcome to participate in.

• The Leopard Project which is a partner project together with the Center for African Conservation Ecology of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Kariega is a reserve for leopards and the number of leopards is declining in South Africa. The animals found in the area are observed and protected from poachers.
• Elephant impact monitoring
• Lion Prey monitoring.
• Birds in Reserve Project
• Hyena tracking and monitoring
• Animal Count
• Invasive plant control
• Road management
• Fire management

 
One also supports a local school, by offering transportation to the school on occasion.