A few months ago, in the middle of peak tourist season in Kenya and Tanzania, a disturbing video made the rounds on social media. Shot by wildlife guide Nick Kleer in the Serengeti, it few captured an alarming scene of over a hundred safari vehicles crowding a single point along the Mara River, blocking the wildebeest migration path. Barely had the outrage settled, when another video of tourists swarming the banks on the Kenyan side and sending the wildebeest into a frenzied panic emerged. In both cases, tourists had stepped out of the vehicle—against park rules—risking the safety of both animals and humans.
While it is tempting to shrug these off as isolated incidents, the lack of respect for wild spaces is becoming increasingly common on African safaris. “Witnessing the wildebeest migration is a dream for many people, but what happened in the Serengeti was really shocking behaviour,” says Alex Millar, sales and marketing specialist at Great Plains Conservation, a tourism and conservation organisation.
The good news is that authorities have already begun to impose strict regulations to protect these areas from overcrowding. Talking about the drastic increase in tourists thronging the Masai Mara, Ryan Powell, COO of andBeyond, a luxury experiential travel company, says, “The Kenya government is doing a lot to control vehicle movement and limit visitor numbers within the reserve.”
Rules are even more stringent in places like Uganda and Rwanda, where tourists come to see endangered chimpanzees and gorillas. Praveen Moman, founder of Volcanoes Safaris and someone who has been personally involved in the great apes conservation story for over 28 years now, asserts that wildlife authorities have restricted the number of visitors going into the forest each day and set guidelines for ideal behaviour in the presence of wild animals.
But the onus of promoting ethical, responsible, and sustainable wildlife travel still falls largely on the lodges and safari companies operating in these regions. “We’ve always had strict protocols regarding where we go or don’t go on a game drive, when we are prepared to go off road, and so on. When we operate in our own private reserves, we are clear about how many vehicles we will have around a sighting,” Powell adds.
Experts agree that it is up to the guides to enforce responsible behaviour during game drives. And this flows from the top, with management training their guides on protocols, and empowering them to stand firm. “You’ve got to feel sorry for the guides because they’re under an enormous amount of pressure,” says Millar. “We train our guides to [understand] that the animal comes first. So, even if you’ve got an important client in the vehicle, their photo can wait if you know the priority is the wildlife.”
Matt Starkey, managing director of luxury safari company Asilia Africa, agrees that for animal behaviour and movement to remain unchanged by human presence, it requires skilled guidance from people “who are trained to read body language, understand thresholds, and know when to approach and when to pull back.” At Asilia, guide training is made easier as many of the staff grew up around the area, with an inherent love of the land and the animals. So is the case with private reserve Sabi Sabi, whose highly skilled rangers and trackers are trained to interpret animal behaviour, ensuring that each encounter is ethical, educational, and deeply meaningful.
That is not always easy, given the money, time, and effort travellers put in to reach popular African safari destinations, expecting to have the experience of a lifetime. But sustainability means co-opting guests into the care and conservation process. Starkey says, “Without tourism, these landscapes would be far more vulnerable to encroachment and fragmentation, but exploring these wilderness areas must also be done sensitively.”
The emphasis on animal welfare is only getting stronger, with an increasing number of species under threat from poaching, loss of habitats, and climate change. As Jacques Smit, marketing director at Sabi Sabi, puts it, “We have always believed that there are three interconnected pillars: conservation, community, and tourism.” This translates to conservation as an innate, daily practice, involving everyone—whether guest or guide—in the larger story.
One of the key things lodges and operators are, therefore, focusing on is the education of various stakeholders, including staff, guests, and locals. Liesel van Zyl, head of positive impact at luxury safari company Go2Africa, says, “Sustainability isn’t a trend; it’s a movement. It’s the baseline for how we choose to work at Go2Africa, preferencing partners who are deeply invested in long-term conservation efforts and community-led development.”
Millar states that one way to ensure guest participation is by explaining how being a noninterfering observer can lead to a more satisfactory safari experience. “Sometimes, you just have to back away and give animals the space to exhibit their natural behaviour,” she says. “For instance, if you see a pride of lions, by not crowding them you actually get to observe and appreciate the dynamics within the group.” Powell adds, “We would rather risk guest feedback than succumb to a situation that doesn’t align with our own values and ethics.”
Most guests at high-end lodges pay a fee that goes back into a fund devoted to conservation and development. Other ways responsible safari businesses are subtly championing conservation include promoting offseason travel.
Going back to the craze around the wildebeest migration, Powell says that many people don’t realise it is a year-round phenomenon. “The months of February through May, and then October and November offer some of the best sightings of the migration. And, often, you’ll have no one else sharing that spot,” he says.
Go2Africa does its bit by offering guests a chance to immerse themselves in local culture and causes with its Trips with a Purpose collection, designed to “contribute more than they consume, and leave Africa a better place,” says van Zyl. For instance, travellers can choose to spend time with gorilla doctors in Rwanda, plant trees in Uganda, shop for a purpose in Zimbabwe, or just spend time visiting the community and conservation projects that benefit from wildlife tourism.
The final piece to this story is community. Lodges and operators are working to educate and involve local people in the conservation process. This begins with lodges trying to tread lightly on the land and leaving minimal impact, while also sourcing from local communities and reducing water, energy, and food waste.
Finding local solutions to local problems is vital, according to Powell. It is crucial for people who live on the land—as they have for thousands of years—to see the value of wildlife tourism and, therefore, conservation. “Part of the responsible tourism journey is to make sure that communities benefit, because if they benefit, wildlife also benefits, as you’ll have less poaching, including subsistence poaching, within those areas,” he explains.
As Moman says, “Yes, we need to make money as a private company, but we also need to make sure we connect our work to conservation and communities.” Starkey affirms, “At its core, an ethical safari should give back more than it takes.”
Smit from Sabi Sabi describes their approach as going beyond philanthropy to shared ownership, measurable upliftment, and the understanding that a thriving community is essential to a thriving wilderness. “After all, this is their home,” he says.
At Asilia, too, the conservation approach is based on the idea that if local people can generate economic value from keeping the land wild, they have a powerful incentive to protect it. This, in turn, prevents habitat fragmentation, keeping vital migratory routes open for species including elephants and wildebeest.
While many community projects involve young people and women, there is also a focus on instilling a sense of wonder and guardianship about the natural world in children. Millar describes talks and outings regularly hosted by Great Plains for local kids. As Moman says fondly, “These children are our hope for the future, and the welfare of the great apes lies in their hands.” Smit sums it up perfectly, “We are visitors in an environment where wild animals follow a daily rhythm that is unimpeded and natural. We are privileged to catch a glimpse into this world.”