Tswalu has appointed Prince Ngomane as Sustainability Officer. In this new role, Ngomane is mobilising, tracking and monitoring the impact of Tswalu’s conservation efforts, in line with its commitments. These are working towards best practice in sustainability, focusing on the use of resources, as well as ensuring that its commercial, conservation, community and cultural preservation activities are amongst the best in the world.
The wide, open spaces of Tswalu, South Africa’s largest, privately owned reserve have long drawn travellers seeking a deeply layered, immersive safari. Regarded as one of Africa’s great conservation stories, Tswalu has adopted a holistic approach that lays the groundwork for long-term ecological and economic viability. It has created a model of conservation supported by ecotourism that can be sustained indefinitely. Tswalu became a Fellow Member of The Long Run in 2020, an organisation that holds each of its members to the highest standards of sustainability across a balanced scorecard of parameters.
With a BSc Honours in Environmental Management and seven years of hands-on conservation experience on the reserve in his previous tole as conservator, Ngomane is committed to activating positive change within the Tswalu community. He was therefore the natural choice when the time came to appoint an in-house sustainability officer. Passionate about changing perceptions around sustainability, Ngomane describes it as being about ‘thinking, seeing and acting beyond today and being able to convey that message to everyone’.
Tswalu Kalahari Reserve offers what discerning travellers crave most – time and space. Ngomane believes one of the greatest challenges is changing the habits of individuals who have done something the same way for many years. ‘Once people understand the impact of individual consumption on the overall carbon footprint, it starts to become easier. Education is key’, he says. In his role as sustainability officer, Prince is using his strong communication and leadership skills to motivate and inspire the Tswalu community.
Sustainability is about integrating the needs of the greater community with the integrity of nature for the benefit of future generations so that Tswalu can always be a place to recalibrate and reconnect, both with nature and oneself.
