Empowering communities through conservation and tourism
The people involved in GweGwe Beach Lodge are a wonderful blend of enthusiastic mPondo women, knowledgeable and experienced tourism folk, nature addicts and passionate conservationists, with Colin Bell mentoring the team. Colin has successfully pioneered a number of Southern Africa’s very first community / conservation partnerships over 35 years ago, which are still running today and have become role models for other community partnerships elsewhere in Africa.
At GweGwe Beach Lodge, hospitality begins with the people who call this place home. Every welcome, every shared story and every meals reflects a genuine connection to the Wild Coast and its community. Here you will find the quiet generosity of Pondoland hospitality.
Discover the power of responsible travel
Guest Experiences That Empower Communities
At GweGwe Beach Lodge, our focus is on creating a project that not only provides our guests with unique experiences, but also ensures that the local community who own the land, can now receive and enjoy a lions’ share of the financial and employment benefits from the Lodge and Mkambati’s outreach initiatives.
Closely associated to GweGwe Beach Lodge is the Mkambati NPC, a not-for-profit entity dedicated to raising funds for conservation and community upliftment. Please find more information on this by clicking on the link below.
Rooted in Purpose
The vision
The vision was (and still is ) to use the revenue generated by low-impact tourism to finance and protect wildlife and to benefit and uplift neighbouring partner communities.
As a result of these successful and enduring partnerships, Colin and his partners were invited to Pondoland to tender for Mkambati Reserve’s northern concession.
On the left: Our very first meeting with the Mkambati Land Trust and Traditional Leadership in 2002
Partners in Purpose
A Family of Brands
Mkambati Matters (Pty) Ltd, is the company that won the rights to develop GweGwe Beach Lodge. It is an independent company, that also forms part of the Natural Selection Safaris portfolio. GweGwe Beach Lodge is the trading name of Mkambati Matters.
The Mkambati Conservation and Community NPC (Pty) Ltd is a not-for-profit entity that operates in parallel with Mkambati Matters that funds all Mkambati Matters’ conservation and community outreach programmes in and around the Mkambati Reserve.
The Mkambati Land Trust represents the rights and distributes the benefits to the community who own the Mkambati Reserve
