A conservation institution that happens to run exceptional camps.
Wilderness is not a safari company with a strong conservation record. It is a conservation institution that has been operating for forty years and happens to run exceptional camps. That distinction is not semantic — it shapes every decision the organisation makes, from the ecosystems it chooses to enter to the community programmes it builds around them. SafariSeven® works with Wilderness because the conservation outcomes are verifiable, the camps are exceptional, and the founding conviction — responsible ecotourism as the primary economic argument for keeping land wild — has never been diluted.
Founded in 1983 in Maun, Botswana, by guides Colin Bell and Chris McIntyre with a single overland vehicle, Wilderness now protects 2.5 million hectares across seven African countries — funding more than 20 conservation and anti-poaching projects annually through the Wilderness Trust and supporting 33 IUCN Red List species.
Colin Bell and Chris McIntyre were guides in Botswana when they registered the first formal tour operator business in the country's history. They departed with one overland vehicle on the conviction that responsible ecotourism could produce the revenue to keep land wild — that the economic argument for conservation could be made through the experience of wilderness itself, rather than against it. Forty years later, that argument has produced 2.5 million hectares under conservation protection, a Trust that funds more than 20 projects annually, and a portfolio of camps across seven countries. The scale is remarkable. The founding premise has not changed.
2.5 million hectares is an area roughly the size of Lesotho. In practice, it means wildlife corridors between conservation areas that would otherwise be isolated. It means anti-poaching operations at a scale that individual concessions cannot sustain. It means community programmes in seven countries, each adapted to the specific relationship between the local community and the wildlife ecosystem adjacent to it. It means 33 IUCN Red List species — animals at risk of extinction globally — actively supported through habitat protection, monitoring, and reintroduction across the Wilderness footprint.
The Wilderness Trust funds more than 20 conservation, anti-poaching, and community projects annually. These are not generic conservation commitments — they are specific, funded, operational programmes in ecosystems where Wilderness camps are the economic engine.
"The camps fund the Trust. The Trust funds the conservation. The conservation produces the quality of ecosystem that makes the camps worth visiting. The circular logic is the model."
Children in the Wilderness operates on the principle that the most effective long-term guardians of African wildlife are the communities that live adjacent to it. The programme has educated more than 2,700 rural children through Eco-Clubs, with the explicit goal of producing a new generation of conservation leaders from communities whose support is the most consequential force in protecting African wilderness over the long term.
Children in the Wilderness is the most distinctive element of the Wilderness model, and one too often overlooked in accounts that lead with camps and concessions rather than community. The programme works with children in communities adjacent to Wilderness camps, delivering multi-day environmental education experiences that connect them with the wild landscapes that border their homes. The ambition is not conservation education as a general good. It is the specific production of the next generation of people who will make consequential decisions about African wildlife.
Wilderness has set a goal to double its conservation footprint to 5 million hectares by 2030. If achieved, it would represent one of the most significant expansions of private conservation management in African history, and a demonstration that luxury safari can function as a genuine instrument of continental-scale ecological protection.
The ambition requires not just expansion of camp operations but conservation partnerships with governments, communities, and NGOs across the African continent. Whether it is fully achieved in the stated timeframe, the goal reflects the institutional conviction that drives Wilderness: that the economic model of responsible ecotourism, scaled with intention, is one of the most powerful conservation instruments available.
Wilderness operates camps across seven African countries. Key destinations include the Okavango Delta, where Wilderness has some of its most significant concession positions, and the Linyanti, one of Botswana's finest predator habitats.
Okavango Delta, Linyanti, Central Kalahari.
Explore →Namib, Damaraland, Skeleton Coast.
Explore →Hwange, Mana Pools.
Explore →Kafue, Liuwa Plain.
Explore →The Masai Mara ecosystem.
Explore →Volcanoes National Park and Nyungwe Forest.
Explore →Part of the seven-country Wilderness footprint.
Explore →Wilderness was founded in 1983 in Maun, Botswana, by guides Colin Bell and Chris McIntyre — who arrived with a single overland vehicle and the conviction that responsible ecotourism could be the primary economic argument for keeping land wild. They registered the first formal tour operator business in Botswana's history. Four decades later, that founding conviction has produced 2.5 million hectares under conservation protection, a Trust that funds more than 20 projects annually, and camps in seven African countries. The scale is the result of a founding premise that has never been revised.
Wilderness protects 2.5 million hectares across seven African countries — an area roughly the size of Lesotho. In practice, that means wildlife corridors between conservation areas that would otherwise be isolated, anti-poaching operations at a scale individual concessions cannot sustain, and 33 IUCN Red List species actively supported through habitat protection, monitoring, and reintroduction. The Wilderness Trust funds more than 20 conservation, anti-poaching, and community projects annually across the portfolio. These are operational commitments with specific budgets, specific ecosystems, and specific measurable outcomes.
Children in the Wilderness [CITW] is a programme that works with rural children in communities adjacent to Wilderness camps across Africa, delivering multi-day environmental education experiences with the explicit goal of producing the next generation of conservation leaders. More than 2,700 children have participated in Eco-Clubs. The programme operates on a specific conservation logic: the communities that live alongside Africa's wildlife make the most consequential decisions about its future, and investing in the environmental education of children from those communities is the most durable form of conservation investment available.
The Wilderness Trust is the conservation funding mechanism through which Wilderness directs a portion of its commercial revenues to conservation and community programmes across its operational footprint. It funds more than 20 conservation, anti-poaching, and community projects annually across seven countries. The Trust supports 33 IUCN Red List species — animals at risk of extinction globally — through a combination of habitat protection, active monitoring, and, where necessary, reintroduction. Children in the Wilderness is one of the Trust's most distinctive funded programmes.
Wilderness operates camps in seven African countries: Botswana (Okavango Delta, Linyanti, Central Kalahari), Namibia (Namib desert, Damaraland, Skeleton Coast approach), Zimbabwe (Hwange, Mana Pools), Zambia (Kafue, Liuwa Plain), Kenya (Masai Mara ecosystem), Rwanda (Volcanoes National Park, Nyungwe Forest), and South Africa. The Okavango Delta and Linyanti positions in Botswana represent some of the finest camp positions in the portfolio. A SafariSeven® Travel Designer will match the right Wilderness destination and camp to your timing, travel history, and what you're seeking.
Speak with a SafariSeven® Travel Designer to shape a private safari around Wilderness, matched to your season, your pace, and the experience you are seeking.
