Education brings a brighter tomorrow
Over the past 25 years Dorobo Safaris has been running educational based trips in northern Tanzania. Three brothers, Mike, Thad and Daudi, grew up in Tanzania and fell in love with the country’s people, wildlife and landscapes. They started Dorobo Tours & Safaris as a small, family-run business in the early 80’s, taking people out to experience and enjoy what the rich country of Tanzania has to offer. Since Dorobo’s beginning, it has based its travel concept on the philosophy that our natural environments (and wilderness and wildlife) are intimately and irrevocably linked to people - both locally and globally. Based on a sound natural sciences background and a thorough knowledge of the peoples of East Africa, Dorobo has designed wilderness travel for individuals and groups that provide stimulating educational experiences.
Promoting community- based conservation through tourism
Seeing firsthand the changes, often negative, being placed on natural resources by the pressures of a growing and changing human population, Dorobo began to focus energy and resources into establishing partnerships and linkages with local communities whereby wildlife/wilderness for the first time became an economic option for them. From these agreements, we have nurtured long-term mutually beneficial relationships with many communities, from the Swahili coastal people to the Maasai (pastoralists), Hadzabe (hunter gatherers), and Iraqw (mixed farmers). We are thus able to offer privileged opportunities to learn about traditional cultures that dance to different tunes and to partake of a rich synergy of traditional and scientific knowledge as we interact with these traditional cultures that are still intimately connected to the earth.
In addition to traditional livelihoods in the rural setting, urban Tanzania also has much to offer. Dorobo and its non-profit organization have been involved in projects such as organic farming, urbanization as it changes cultures, the issues of over-population and family planning, women’s rights, and health care. Through these connections, students can learn and engage in the issues faced by urban communities while providing positive impacts for those communities. Hand in hand is the possibility to get involved with service learning in the form of building schools and interactions with local education systems. Many of our programs work with local students to share and learn from each other in the form of projects and practical fieldwork.
Tanzania is famous for its savannah ecology that supports the largest diversity and density of mega-fauna on the planet. A combination of National Parks and conservation areas gives clients and students the chance to study this unique habitat and the complex interactions between all living and non-living aspects in the environment. These wilderness areas, however, do not sit in isolation and their conservation relies on complex interactions between land, people and wildlife. Conservation is a key point in many of our established programs where students can evaluate and look at various forms of protected area management such as National Parks, Game controlled areas and Wildlife Management Areas, and the complex underlying forces that influence them.
The uniqueness of Tanzania, with all of its history, wildlife and rich culture has led to our involvement with many educational field programs with all ages of people. The experiences we provide remain rich and exciting, allowing students the chance to learn and engage hands on with some of the many complex aspects of what Tanzania and East Africa have to offer. We have many examples from past students that show the experiences provided by our programs are more than just school work, they can be life changing.
The uniqueness of Tanzania, with all of its history, wildlife and rich culture has led to our involvement with many educational field programs with all ages of people. The experiences we provide remain rich and exciting, allowing students the chance to learn and engage hands on with some of the many complex aspects of what Tanzania and East Africa have to offer. We have many examples from past students that show the experiences provided by our programs are more than just school work, they can be life changing.
"It is quite the transition I will say. More of an unconscious transition than I would have imagined. I remember so many things, and yet I cannot explain what is happening inside of me, the changes. We lived the dream, we lived the fantasy… thank you for making it an adventure that will thrive in my soul for the rest of my life!"
Lily Clarke, Lewis & Clark College
Awards
“Our winners have an ethos that extend beyond the commercial – linking thriving business with the well being of local people and the longevity of their environments. They want to make profits with principles, communicate bottom lines that balance people, planet and profit, and won’t undermine sustainability in the pursuit of superior product quality. They are resilient, determined, humanising advocates for their destinations. They provide hope and inspiration for the future of tourism in Africa.”
Gold Best for Community Benefit 2019
Dorobo operates small light-weight mobile camps and safari vehicles in Northern Tanzania. Its greatest achievement has been promoting cultural dignity and supporting land security for vulnerable communities.
Dorobo has assisted community partners to secure 23,500 hectares of their land for traditional hunting and gathering in the Yaeda Valley. Along the Maasai Steppe, over 27,000 hectares of grassland is being sustainably managed by the local communities for livestock and wildlife grazing. With legal certificates to the land and transparent tourism agreements, communities earn revenue for protecting this vital area against agricultural encroachment, permanent settlement, and charcoal production.
Fourteen tourism agreements with local villages benefit in the order of 55,000 local people. The business works directly with local village governments who represent the greater community. Contracts span five years and follow local laws and customs. A payment structure and a guaranteed annual income are agreed upon, enabling communities to budget efficiently each year. Communities members have access to periodic reports of revenue from tourism that has been disbursed and can hold local leadership accountable for the management and use thereof. Further, in 2018, Dorobo Safaris employed community members for 1430 days of work hosting clients in community areas – this was in addition to locals employed in full-time positions.
Dorobo operates small light-weight mobile camps and safari vehicles in Northern Tanzania. Its greatest achievement has been promoting cultural dignity and supporting land security for vulnerable communities.
Dorobo has assisted community partners to secure 23,500 hectares of their land for traditional hunting and gathering in the Yaeda Valley. Along the Maasai Steppe, over 27,000 hectares of grassland is being sustainably managed by the local communities for livestock and wildlife grazing. With legal certificates to the land and transparent tourism agreements, communities earn revenue for protecting this vital area against agricultural encroachment, permanent settlement, and charcoal production.
Fourteen tourism agreements with local villages benefit in the order of 55,000 local people. The business works directly with local village governments who represent the greater community. Contracts span five years and follow local laws and customs. A payment structure and a guaranteed annual income are agreed upon, enabling communities to budget efficiently each year. Communities members have access to periodic reports of revenue from tourism that has been disbursed and can hold local leadership accountable for the management and use thereof. Further, in 2018, Dorobo Safaris employed community members for 1430 days of work hosting clients in community areas – this was in addition to locals employed in full-time positions.