Episode 3: COVID-19 & Conservation with Reilly Travers | Imire: Rhino & Wildlife Conservation, Zimbabwe.
"This is our opportunity, as human-beings, to make a difference." - Reilly Travers, Conservancy Manager. A sector of conservation that is often overlooked is voluntourism- essentially a blend of volunteering and tourism. The value behind voluntourism is to contribute in a selfless and meaningful way, and to give back to the project and the people of the destination that tourists are visiting. Imire has been running a volunteer programme for 14 years, and in that time the operation of the conservancy and its conservation efforts have become dependent on the contribution of resources from international volunteers. With the impact of COVID-19 on international travel restrictions, the effects are being hard-felt at a project level at Imire as project funding and human resources becomes less. In this conversation I chat with Reilly Travers who is the Conservancy Manager for Imire: Rhino & Wildlife Conservation who shares some of the effects that the loss in volunteer revenue has caused for their conservation efforts, and what he believes is the future of responsible travel.