ANDY HOGG, THE BUSHCAMP COMPANY

ANDY HOGG, MD AND FOUNDER OF THE BUSHCAMP COMPANY IN ZAMBIA’S SOUTH LUANGWA NATIONAL PARK, IS PHENOMENAL EXAMPLE OF HOW TOURISM CAN PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES TO AN AREA THAT IS WILLING AND ABLE TO GRAB THEM WITH BOTH HANDS, ESTABLISHING AN IMPRESSIVE ARRAY OF IMPACTFUL PROJECTS THAT SUPPORT BOTH CONSERVATION AND THE LOCAL COMMUNITY.

Having grown up in Zambia’s Copperbelt, Andy Hogg founded The Bushcamp Company in 1999 and has since has dedicated his career to ensuring his camp and all other facets of tourism in the South Luangwa work together to support and sustain both the wildlife and local communities. ‘If we don’t look after the community, there will be no wildlife’, says Andy, adamant that if the camps benefit from tourism money from viewing the wildlife, then the community must benefit too.

Spread across the South Luangwa, The Bushcamp Company’s six camps and the beautiful Mfuwe Lodge are not simply there for tourism - Andy sees them as a by-product to enable local villagers to prosper. Take Davey, who started as a water carrier at one of the camps and has since risen through the ranks to head chef. Currently, Davey is putting together his own book of recipes, the proceeds of which will be donated to the foundation. And Manda, winner of Wanderlust magazine’s inaugural Paul Morrison Guide Award in 2006. Manda invested his prize winnings in in solar cookers to help his local community, something that gives him great pride.

Not only do the camps instil a sense of pride to those who work there, but Andy and his team are able to fund some incredible, high-impact projects in the wider South Luangwa area. They are able to support 700 children through school each year, providing a safe space for education and a guaranteed wholesome meal for every child that attends. They are also passionate about getting the children involved, and run a competition each year to draw a or paint artwork that gets transformed into a calendar. Selling between 700 and 800 each year, they raise on average $10-12,000 to invest into more local projects.

Artwork from the annual charity calendar

Going hand in hand with education is their quest for clean water, recognising that without access to clean drinking water, children get sick and don’t go to school. So, in 2014, the team introduced their “Commit to Clean Water” project, drilling deep boreholes to provide safe, clean drinking water to 300 people each day. Not only do these wells provide access to disease-free drinking water, by creating a safe access point they are preventing children from walking hundreds of metres through the bush to waterholes or the river, putting them at risk of wildlife attack. This project has now installed 123 boreholes in the South Luangwa, making a huge impact on the lives of the local communities.

Andy and his team have realised that by looking after the community in this myriad different ways, then you in turn look after conservation. One needs the other to survive. In the last 10 years, they have raised approximately 4 million US dollars that has been directly invested into conservation and the local community, simply by charging an additional $10 per person, per night. Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on these vital projects.

Normally operating on around 14,000 bed nights between the camps each year, in the wake of the pandemic they are down to just 500, half of which they expect to be cancelled. And yet The Bushcamp Company are paying the staff pretty much on a full basis. The only way for the staff to feed their own families would be to poach or cut down wood, so by keeping them employed, Andy and his team are trying to remove that risk.

But Andy tells us that despite their best efforts, poaching levels are going up. Not the big game hunters and illegal exports, but simply because local people need to hunt to survive. The rains finished three months ago and the maize they have grown and stored has already been sold or eaten. Once their stores are empty and money has dried up, locals in the South Luangwa (and across southern Africa) will likely need to poach to feed their families. Sadly, Andy feels that the largest impact of the poaching is yet to come.

To keep these initiatives going, they are drawing on reserves from within in the foundation and have continued to donate to these projects as if the guests were there. They are still feeding over 2,500 children each day, with some additional donations from external benefactors, and they are still planning on building an extra 6 classrooms to allow more children to go to school. But they are, in Andy’s words, 'limping a lot', and quickly using up reserves and company funds.

Never has it been more important for agents to reinforce to their clients what businesses like The Bushcamp Company are doing for their local communities, and in turn for the wildlife that client travel across the world to see. As the tide turns in favour of a more conscious, intentional way of travelling, now is the time for us to spread the word, allowing Andy and his team to continue the vital work they do to support the people and animals of the South Luangwa.

To discover more about The Bushcamp Company’s incredible conservation efforts or to donate, visit thebushcampcompany.com