Sustainable Travel: Protecting the Chimpanzees in the Mahale Mountains of Tanzania

In order for us to travel the world respectively, sustainable travel has always been a top priority for The Walking Connection. This means that we seek out opportunities to get involved in both environmental protective initiatives as well to help local communities thrive.

We have ventured with guests several times to the far flung shores of Lake Tanganyika in search of the chimpanzees in the Mahale Mountains. Always an exciting experience seeing the antics of the chimps, but also rewarding being a part of the conservation of the area.

The following is an important update from our friends and local partners at Nomad Tanzania regarding the safety of the chimpanzee community at Greystoke Mahale:

"We’ve been keeping a close eye on scientific advice surrounding how coronavirus will affect our great apes and are not prepared to take any risks when it comes to the safety of the population we’ve worked hard to protect in Mahale for the past 30 years.

Since the close of camp there has been a skeleton crew of just four staff remaining at Greystoke. We immediately outlined protocol surrounding access to the chimps, putting the forest on a lockdown of its own, with no one permitted to venture beyond camp confines. Should the chimps come into camp, which is rare at this time of year, our staff immediately retreat into the nearest building and remain separated from them until the coast is clear.

The staff remaining at Greystoke include our wonderful managers Barbara and Fabio who have put in place strict cleaning processes throughout camp to ensure that there is no risk to the chimps should they come into camp. We’ve also supplied over two months’ worth of rations for the team there so that there will be no one visiting or accessing our beach unless there is an emergency.

We’re in very close collaboration with the park and wildlife authorities to discuss a combined route forward and we’ll know more in the coming days on what this looks like for the longer term, and we’ll share that out once we have it."

Thank you Nomad Tanzania for helping to take care of our closest animal relatives

that are extremely vulnerable at this time.

We hope to be back soon!