2017 Activity Report

Travel responsibly the Namibian way.

12017 Activity ReportTOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

About TOSCOContents

Research

Desert Lion Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Desert Elephant Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Namibia Dolphin Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Kwando Carnivore Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Giraffe Conservation Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Living with Wildlife

Lion response Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Predator Proof Kraal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Conservation Contribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

De Riet Info & Craft Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Water Pump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Lion Rangers + Rhino Rangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-14

Awareness

Rhino Pride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Boards for National Parks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Desert Elephant Pamphlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Responsible Travel Brochures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Clean Travel

Carbon Offsetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Water Bottles & Merchandise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Funds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-23

Partners & Sponsors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-27

TOSCO Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Words of Appreciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Mission: “To develop responsible travel by

supporting conservation”

“Tourism Supporting Conservation” (TOSCO Trust) is the Namibian leading Responsible travel organization (nonprofit), that funds various conservation programs (research, people living with wildlife, public awareness…) with memberships from the private tourism sector. TOSCO offers the opportunity to the travel industry and the public to do their share by contributing directly to conservation in Namibia.

Preserving wildlife through a social and economic development approach.

4 Namibia is the only country with an expanding free-roaming lion population outside national parks,

4 There are three times more rhinos in Namibia today than there were in 1982,

4 Namibia boasts the world’s largest free-roaming popula-tion of black rhino,

4 There are three times more elephants in the country today than there were in 1995,

4 In 2013 communities generated US$6 million in revenue, thanks to conservation efforts,

4 More and more territory has come under conservation management in Namibia as a result and today it makes up 44% of the total land area, a leap from just 12% in 1990 at independence.

TOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

32017 Activity Report2 TOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

The Logger Early Warning System, a direct early warning system is being developed since 2017. This method works with high quality electronic sys-tems and GPS recorders that record accurate po-sition coordinates of the lions every hour at night and every four hours during the day. The Logger can detect the lion collars from a 2 – 3 km distance from the settlement and triggers one or two of four (each direction) LED flood-lights in the first and a powerful siren in the second phase. These tactics are used to deter the lions from approaching farms and their livestock and therefore reduce conflict and retaliations

ResearchDesert Elephant ConservationResearch Desert Lion Conservation

Early Warning System and Scare Tactics (120 000NAD)

As per the North west lion management plan endorsed by the cabinet and MET recommend, TOSCO co funds the strategies that anticipates the Human Lion conflict.

Objective is maintaining long term data collection on northern desert elephant herds and continue expansion into territory east of current study area in conjunction with IRDNC in order to assess areas of human elephant conflict and possible solutions.

Logistics for field research trip (10 000NAD)

Desert Elephant Conservation pro-motes the long-term conservation of Namibia’s desert elephant popula-tion through research, monitoring, and the sharing of the knowledge of the status and distribution of desert-dwelling elephants in the Hoarusib, Hoanib, and Uniab River drainages.

Two lioness of which the left one is fitted with a satellite collar XPL-69

Hoarusib-Hoanib subpopulation trends from 2002 through 2017. The total number of elephants (not including calves less than one year) in the Hoanib and Hoarusib clans has declined from 45 in 2008, to 31 in 2015, a 30% decline over seven years.

The first 12 specially designed “Early-warning” collars were completed.

During the next few months these collars will be fitted to lions at two

conflict “hot-spot” areas along with two “Logger Early-warning” units.  

4 TOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation 52017 Activity Report

Research ResearchNambian Dolphin Project Kwando Carnivore Project

The Namibian Dolphin Project was established in 2008 and by now has collected many data on the whales and dolphins in Namibia. The research focusses on the small, coastal population of common bottlenose dolphins, the endemic Heaviside’s (or Benguela) dolphin and humpback whales.

Sea Search concentrates on scientific research output, education and advice to managers with the overarching aim of promoting conservation. The team members of Sea Search are working on a wide range of species and research topics in the southern African sub-region with the focus on South Africa and Namibia. The data from these study sites are being used within a comparative framework to investigate ecological inter-actions and human impacts on whales and other water animals.

Important repairs on the research boat “Nanuuq” (10 000NAD)

In December 2017 TOSCO contributed 10 000NAD to the Namibian Dolphin Project which was used by Sea Search to do necessary exchanges/reparations on their research boat “Nanuuq”. In order to be able to research the dolphins and whales which are existent in the Namibian waters the workers of Sea Search are in urgent need of the boat. The contribution TOSCO did in helping to mend the ship therefore was of high importance for the organisation. The boat is already over 15 years old and has been used in Namibia for the ninth year in a row now.

Research on large carnivores in the Zambezi and Kavango regions

(15 000 NAD)

The Kwando Carnivore Projects overall aim is to conserve the large carni-vores in the Zambezi and Kavango regions through human wildlife con-flict mitigation and applied research.

”We thank TOSCO for the financial

support to repontooning our research vessel.

We are now able to show that conservation

measures are needed.”

The monitoring of large carnivore populations is very important. It is done by using various survey methods which are applied throughout the Zam-bezi region. This provides long-term information on population trends and highlights conservation issues with regard to large carnivores.

Area Pridename Pride/Groupsize

Adultmale

Adultfemale

Sub-adult Cub

NkasaRuparaNP

Liadura 7 2 2 3Mparamure 4 1 3 Nkasa 7 1 1 5

MudumuNP Mudumu 13 2 3 4 4BwabwataNP(Kwando)

HorseShoe 4 1 3Angola 3 3 Mukwanyati

2 2

Susuwe 2 2 BwabwataNP(Buffalo)

Buffalo 6 2 1 3

BwabwataNP(Mahango)

Mahango 3* 1 2

KhaudumNP TariKora 12 3 3 3(dispersing)

3

KhaudumOmuramba

12 2 4 3(dispersing)

3

Leeupan 2 2 NyaeNyae/KhaudumNP

NyaeNyae/Sikaretti(Ongava/Khaudumgroup)

7 2 4 1

NyaeNyae/Sikaretti(Nomadgroups)

7 1 4(dispersing)

2

Total 91 19 24 19 29*TheMahangolionshavenotbeenseensinceJune2017andcouldpossiblyhavebeenpoisonedorsnared.

6 72017 Activity ReportTOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

Living with Wildlife

We should be supportive of local communities who have the will to assume

their role of hosts and conservation managers with the little means they have;

rather than be exposed as a touristic curiosity or, even worse, completely ignored.“

Giraffe research vehicle in North-Western Namibia (10 000NAD)

The overall number of giraffes living in the wild across Africa is declining, although North-western Namibia is home to one of the last remaining free-roaming, healthy giraffe population on the continent. Researches demonstrate that only 100 000 giraffes remain in the African wilderness which prompted the reclassification of giraffe as a Vulnerable Species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature  and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List.

The Giraffe Conservation Foundation is concerned with conserving the giraffe population since its origin in 2015 and in order to continue to protect the Namibian key population it is important to better under-stand its long-term environmental needs. A four-year research led by Emma Hart and supported through the GCF is the main objective in col-lecting these precious data. In 2017 the project faced a problem, the 18-year-old vehicle which was of great value to the programme needed to be replaced because the project relies on a functioning car to travel the 4,500km² of the research area on a monthly basis. TOSCO contributed 10 000NAD to the GCF and supported the purchase of a new research vehicle.

Research Giraffe Conservation Foundation

8 92017 Activity ReportTOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

TOSCO disburses the money which will be distributed over two years (100 000 NAD each in 2017 & 2018) and managed by the Integrated Rural De-velopment and Conservation (IRDNC). The funding will be utilised for covering run-ning costs of the team’s re-sponse vehicle. The vehicle is used in lion and elephant range conservancies in the Kunene Region, to facilitate patrolling and assist con-servancies in preventative measures against conflict.

“There is a threat on the ground and communities are loosing their livelihoods. This funding came at just the right time. We were becoming hopeless. At least now the community will receive a sense of assistance through the presence and support of the response team. It will benefit communities by reducing the level of conflict they currently experience.” – John Kasaona, Executive Director of IRDNC

Living with Wildlife Lion Response Team

Running costs of the response

teams vehicle

(200 000NAD over 2 years)

In 2017 the Tour and Safari Asso-

ciation of Namibia (TASA) supported

the Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC)

Response Programme through

its Lion Response Team. It made

a magnitude funding of 200 000

NAD for conservation available.

The number of human wildlife conflict incidents is high and therefore the losses of livestock are a serious concern to local farmers. To avoid the killing of livestock through wild animals it is common to build kraals for farms to protect their animals. A kraal was originally a circular area with a strict organised social structure. They were most of the time surroundedby a thorn fence, specially in southern Africa.

Today, the Kraal is built in a stronger way to protect domestic animals like cattle and sheep from predators.

Living with WildlifePredator Proof Kraal

Construction of a kraal in Torra Conservancy (15 000NAD)

The Torra Conservancy is one of the many areas where the human wildlife conflict increased due to the drought in the last few years. In order to save both, the livestock on the one hand and the wild animals on the other hand, the construction of kraals is mandatory.

TOSCO contributed 15 000NAD for the construction of a kraal in Bergsigpos to prevent the killing of wild animals by farmers who try to protect their living.

10 112017 Activity ReportTOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

Living with Wildlife Conservation Contribution

On communal land the local communities carry the costs of conserving the wildlife that tourists come to enjoy. To contribute more to covering the costs of conservation and living with wildlife, the members of the TOSCO community have committed themselves to paying a voluntary conservation contribution of 50NAD per guest per day for their nature-focussed activities, as well as an additional 50NAD per guest per night for wild camping. The contributions are paid to TOSCO from where they will be passed on to the specific conservancies to mit-igate human/wildlife conflict. One of the projects realised in 2017 with the conservation contribution is the construction of the DeRiet Info & Craft Center.

We would like to thank all those

TOSCO sponsors that are already imple-

menting the contribution!

Torra, Sesfontein and Puros con-servancies (71 950NAD raised)

People all over the world travel for their own joy and tourists cannot get enough of watching wild animals like elephants, lions and rhinos in their natural habitat and beautiful landscape. Unlike in a national park, where you have to pay an entrance fee to manage animals, conservan-cies can be visited for free; but the cost of living with wildlife remains.

DeRiet Info & Craft Center

Deriet is a small village in Torra conservancy which has a lot of tourism traffic. Guides and tourists often drive through the village while on their excursions to look for the desert dwelling elephants in the Huab or Aba-Huab riverbeds.

TOSCO has noticed that the advantage of high tourism flow is not used by the villagers although the demand for information about the area and it’s traditions is high. Because of this the idea to build a ‘Craft and information center’ arose. TOSCO initiated the construction of this center in one of the abandoned bungalow with help from local people. The project has been funded with money that TOSCO raised from the conservation contribution.

Living with Wildlife

DeRiet Info & Craft Center(64 889 NAD)

The centre is not only for information but is also an opportunity for visitors to get in contact with local people, buy their craft art or drink a tea or coffee.

12 132017 Activity ReportTOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

Living with WildlifeLion Rangers

The Lion Ranger programme goal is the long-term sustainable man-agement of human-lion conflict by communities in Kunene to ensure continued desert-adapted lion survival and community benefit. The number one threat to Kunene lions is retaliation following human-lion conflict – the Lion Ranger programme aims to remove this threat.To be sustainable, wildlife conservation must be community-driven, trans-parent, and resilient to both ongoing and unforeseen challenges. The Lion Ranger programme believes that lions and rural residents can thrive alongside one another. Protecting Africa’s disappearing lions means ensuring that rural people struggling against poverty and develop-ment challenges are able to generate benefits from living with lions.

The programme is founded upon four pillars: Supporting Farmers; Con-serving Lions; Developing Skills; and Reducing Conflict.

These pillars support and are realized through three, inter-related, types of operations: field-based, community-based, and organizational.

One year salary for lion ranger (14 400 NAD + 20 000 NAD

equipment)

The Lion Ranger programme goal is the long-term sustainable management of human-lion conflict by communities in Kunene to ensure continued desert-adapted lion survival and community benefit. The number one threat to Kunene lions is retaliation following human-lion conflict – the Lion Ranger program aims to remove this threat.

WaterpumpLiving with Wildlife

Namibia is the country with the world’s richest dry land. Besides beautiful deserts this means that the country often has not enough water for people, wildlife and the environment. With signs of climate change like reduced rainfall in some and increased temperature in other areas the water scarcity in the country is being aggravated.

Water pump installation for wild animals (20 000NAD)

These water pumps are for wild animals like rhinos, lions and other game. It also helps to mitigate the human-wildlife conflict by ensuring that lions stay away from the farms where they are a threat to the livestock.

It also prevents the rhino population to move far distances to find water close to human populated area where they can potentially be exposed to poaching.

In a place called Nigeria in Torra Conservancy the construction of a water pump has been done in

2017.

14 152017 Activity ReportTOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

Photographic tourism has the potential to provide significant income for

conservation that supports its industry.

Unfortunately, it often does not live up to this expectation.”

AwarenessLiving with Wildlife Rhino Rangers

The north- west of Namibia is home to the world’s largest free-roaming population of the endanered black rhino. The poaching of rhinos is a big problem in Namibia still and therefore the protection of these unique ani-mals is one of the greatest conservation challenges in the world. Monitoring rhinos is fundamental when it comes to combating poaching because in order to protect the animals it is important to know how rhinos move, as well as knowing their behaviour and population trends. In order to be able to get such information and safety for the animals Rhino Rangers work day and night in patrol teams and watch the endangered species.

Jackets for the cold nights on anti poaching patrols (25 000 NAD)

In December 2017, TOSCO donated 55 new jackets for the entire Conserv-ancy Rhino Ranger regime in north-west Namibia which were delivered in February 2018. The jackets are durable and very warm helping keep spirits high during the cold nights on patrol. The rangers were very thankful for the new layer of comfort!

“As always, we thank

TOSCO for supporting our critical

work and helping save critically endangered

black rhinos.”

16 172017 Activity ReportTOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

Awareness Rhino Pride

Together with TOSCO, Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC) Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) initiated the rhino pride tour.

The idea behind this tour was to teach about the crisis facing Namibia’s rhinos and to create awareness for this important topic. The goal was to especially reach the unemployed and out-of-school youth, living alongside rhinos in Kunene, which is particularly vulnerable to become recruited into illegal activities such as wildlife crime. In order to reach the young audience, they organised concerts with the four-unique artist Tulisan, Adora, Bullet yaKaoko and One Blood which presented special rhino songs to spread the message.

A Musical Road Show (15 650 NAD)

We thank USAID, B2Gold, WWF-Namibia, TOSCO, Na-kara, Houston Zoo and Minne-sota Zoo for supporting this event.

Each verbal pledge to protect rhinos in front of their peers was re-warded with a custom ‘Rhino Friend’ bracelet, donated by Namibian leather company Nakara, to re-mind them of their vow and openly display their support for rhinos.

AwarenessBoards for National Parks

Many tourists enjoy the Namibian’s beautiful and diverse landscape every year. Unfortunately a lot of travellers don’t know how to behave in order to sustain this unique nature. In regards of this, TOSCO and the Ministry of Tourism and Environment (MET) have teamed up to install information boards in the Namib Naukluft Park. Five new boards were put up in Deadvlei in 2017.

For the visitors it is important to know that the trees in Deavlei are several centuries old and therefore very spe-cial to the Namibian landscape, its residents and the tourists.

The boards therefore inform all park guests to protect the trees by not touching them.

Set up of information & awareness boards for Namib Naukluft National

Park (8 750NAD)

Three boards were placed at assembly points like the 2x4 parking area and two boards were placed between the 4x4 parking and the Deadvlei.

18 192017 Activity ReportTOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

15 000 pamphlets sponsored and

distributed (14 937NAD)

Awareness Desert Elephant Pamphlet

The Namibian desert-dwelling elephants are a big attraction for most of the tourists visiting the country. It is important to know how to keep yourself as well as the elephants safe and learn about them. On this occasion EHRA and TOSCO teamed up and established some guidelines for visitors which might encounter the wild desert-dwelling elephants during their safari.

AwarenessResponsible Travel Brochure

“On the one hand Tourism is

recognized for its potential as revenue earner,

promoting employment and development.

On the other hand it also brings problems in the form of pollution, off road driving,

disturbance of wildlife and general disruption of the fragile ecosystem of the

wilderness.

Not all aspects of tourism are desirable, and the future of tourism will have to be

strictly responsible.”

Kaokoveld, the last wilderness – A.Hall Martin

15 000 brochures sponsored and distributed (14 937NAD)

20 212017 Activity ReportTOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

Clean TravelWater Bottles & Merchandise

56,000,000 (56 million) plastic water bottles are used by tourists in Namibia every year (if we as-sume 4 bottles per day, for 14 days and 1 million tourists).

We all know that every tour vehicle is stuffed with plastic bottles at the end of every day. Where do the empty bottles go? What we can say for sure is that only a small part gets recycled, most get burnt or buried.We, the tourism industry, want to protect our environment. Let’s be fantastic and avoid plastic!

With the TOSCO branded water bottle you can not only achieve clean vehicles but your guests get a take away proof that you are a responsible operator.

Your guests can refill the bottle from taps (as we have good quality water in Namibia) or from canisters provided in the tour vehicle.

Minister P. ShifetaMinister of Environment & Tourism

proudly supports the program.

200 Reusable water bottles, stickers, shirts, TOSCO caps…

(69 152NAD)

Clean Travel Carbon Offsetting

Travel clean by planting trees.”

Namibia is a vast land and we often spend countless kilometres on the road to see unsurpassed scenery and the free-roaming wildlife. Unfor-tunately every kilometre comes with a price, as carbon emissions caused by vehicles have a negative impact on this pristine land. Carbon emissions are produced by the burning of fossil fuels e.g. petrol and diesel which in turn contribute towards global warming, climate change and air pollution. The air can be polluted as much as the ground and both should be cleaned. Good news is that trees can clean after you! In a move towards carbon neutral tourism, the Eloolo Permaculture Or-ganisation and TOSCO joined hands to create Namibia’s very own carbon

offsetting programme. You can now offset your carbon emis-sions by planting indigenous trees in Namibia in a responsible way.

1 tree can absorb ca 6kg CO2 on average per year.

Planting trees in order to compensate high touristic

CO2 emissions (12 500 NAD)

Eloolo is a young and dynamic Permaculture group of Namibians working on food security and climate change mitigation projects. A focus in the execution of such projects is the participation, training, educa-tion and implementation as well as consultation of the community.

cleantravel@tosco.org

232017 Activity Report22 TOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

2

4 3 22

112

13 1513

05

101520253035404550

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Tourists

Overseascompanies

Namibianscompanies

0

50.000

100.000

150.000

200.000

250.000

300.000

350.000

Non-profitorganizations Tourists Professionals

2012=89739NAD

2013=178829NAD

2014=246565NAD

2015=292297NAD

2016=352016NAD

2017=648.407NAD

34%

39%

18%

8%

1%Research

Livingwithwildlife

Awareness

CleanTravel

Admincosts

Funds Funds20172017

FUNDS IN 2017 FUNDS OUT 2017

SPONSORSFUNDS FROM2012 to 2017

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Tourists Non-profitorganization

Namibiancompanies

SURPLUS BALANCE BROUGHT FORWARD

N$ 67.430 FROM 2016/2017 - AMENDEDFUNDS IN 2017/2018

TOURISM OPERATORS SPONSOR-SHIP 173.491PRIVATE COMPANIES: 20.000First National Bank of Namibia 20.000NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS: 237.500TASA 100.000Wilderness Trust 137.500TOURIST & PUBLIC SPONSORS 108.891CONSERVATION CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM TOUR OPERA-TORS

71.950

SALES 6.100TOSCO water bottles and caps 6.100CLEAN TRAVEL PROJECT 30.475TOTAL FUNDS RECEIVED DURING 2017/2018 N$ 648.407

FUNDS OUT DURING 2017/2018RESEARCH 165.000

Desert Lion Conservation 120.000Kwando Carnivore Project 15.000Desert Elephant Conservation 10.000Kunene Giraffe Conservation 10.000Sea Search Namibian Dolphin Project 10.000

LIVING WITH WILDLIFE 180.421De Riet Info & Craft Centre 33.771Puros Lion Ranger 14.400SRT Rhino Rangers 47.250IRDNC Lion Response Team 50.000Conservancies Support - other 35.000

CLEAN TRAVEL PROJECT Carbon emmission offsetting & nursery 42.081

PUBLIC AWARENESS 85.259Responsible Travel Brochures 14.937Desert Elephant Brochures 14.937Professional TOSCO photos & videos 20.000TOSCO water bottles, car stickers, other 12.916TOSCO board and banner 2.725Public Awareness - Activity Reports, other 19.744

TOTAL PROJECT EXPENSES: FOR 2017/2018 PROJECTS 472.761CONSERVATION CONTRIBUTIONS PAID OVER TO CONSERVANCIES 0ADMINISTRATION COSTS: BAD DEBTS WRITTEN OFF 2.700 6.836

ACCOUNTING FEES FOR 2016/2017 2.967BANK SERVICE CHARGES 1.169

TOTAL FUNDS PAID OUT DURING 2017/2018 N$ 479.597SURPLUS BALANCE IN BANK TO BE CARRIED FORWARD TO 2018/2019 N$ 236.240

252017 Activity Report24 TOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

Partners Partners PartnersPartners

272017 Activity Report26 TOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

Sponsors Professional Sponsors 2017

Category Lion Category Leopard Category Cheetah

SponsorsProfessional Sponsors 2017

Category Caracal

28 292017 Activity ReportTOSCO : Tourism Supporting Conservation

TOSCO team

Your sponsor benefits:

1. Enhance your image as a responsible travel operator

2. Enjoy privileged relationship with stakeholders on the field

3. Be part of a conservation community that cares about Namibia wild places!

2018 SPONSOR PACK includes: 4 TOSCO 2018 car stickers and license discs.

4 Reusable water bottles.

4 Giraffe conservation posters and booklets.

4 Vanishing Kings DVD.

4 Desert Lion Conservation stickers

4 Responsible travel guidelines.

4 2017 Activity report.

Words of Appreciation

“IRDNC would like to express its gratitude and appreciation to TOSCO for their continued and sustained support of conservation in The Kunene Region.

While the actual contributions aiding the direct conservation of our desert adapted lions, rhinos and elephants helps significantly, the importance of the involvement and commitment of all your members is tremendous. Exposing

tourists and visitors to Namibia to the challenges of conservation in our country is important. Further, it is great to see a group within the hospitality

industry buying into the resource they sell and use with such energy and commitment. “

Russell Vinjevold, IRDNC

“Dear TOSCO Team. Thanks for such a report and congratula-tions on your fund-raising on behalf of conservation in Namibia. It is great to see your commitment and involvement to this sector and a real pleasure to be a partner with you in your efforts. Keep up the great work.“

Chris Weaver, director of WWF Namibia

“For

the past few years, the

Kwando Carnivore Project has received support

from TOSCO trust in the form of funding and equip-

ment for field projects. This support has contributed

significantly to our monitoring efforts particularly where sensi-

tive activities such as monitoring hyaena cubs at dens is required.

Through our partnership with TOSCO, we have also had the oppor-

tunity of sharing information about the Zambezi Region and our

conservation efforts with some of their guests. We are most

grateful for this support from the TOSCO Trust. “

Lise Hanssen, Kwando Carnivore Project

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world- indeed it‘s the only thing that ever

has.“ – Margaret Mead –

“This is exactly what TOSCO is – a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens that are changing the world. A few

years ago a group of tourism operators got together after a pride of lions got poisoned in the North West of Namibia. They realized that those lions were very important for the

biodiversity of the environment and essential for tourism in the country, thus they had to contribute to their conserva-

tion from then on. “

Travel News Namibia

Better together From our partners

TOSCO Trust – N°T86/12,

19 Lossen Street, WWF conservation building | PO Box 35025 - Windhoek - NAMIBIA

Website: www.tosco.org | E-mail: info@tosco.org

“Major challenges like biodiversity conservation outside of National parks have to be taken up by the current generations; especially the fight against loss of habitat and poaching.

Everyone should take their responsibilities in this fight including the tourism industry who clearly has a major role to play.

But so far, we are not winning and much more needs to be done if we are to secure a safer and healthy world for us and the next generation.

TOSCO has decided to be up to the challenge in the name of tourism and make a difference for the good of the Namibian’s natural resources and its people” TOSCO Team

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TREASURER: Dieter HUAB PROGRAMS: Blandine CHAIRMAN: Félix 081 12 94 643 081 662 9954 081 45 35 855

accounts@tosco.org huab@tosco.org info@tosco.org