Haven Lodge, Uganda

Near Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Uganda, you’ll find Haven Lodge, a community-owned lodge focused on sustainable tourism.

The lodge is owned and run by the local community through the Buhoma Mukono Community Development Association (BMCDA). Alongside Haven Lodge, BMCDA runs a number of other projects in the area, including schools, access to clean drinking water, and agricultural initiatives. Profits from the lodge’s operations help to fund and maintain these initiatives.

BMCDA’s purpose is to improve living conditions for the local community. When Bwindi was designated as a National Park in 1991, to protect the highly endangered population of wild mountain gorillas, local communities’ access to the forests was severely restricted. BMCDA was therefore established to create alternative, sustainable sources of income for the people living around the National Park.

The project not only creates jobs, but also fosters local understanding that the gorillas are worth protecting. By protecting the gorillas, the community secures long-term income, which has helped build strong local support for the National Park. In this way, the villagers around Bwindi have, to a great extent, become the gorillas’ most important guardians.

Staff at the lodge are mostly recruited locally, and the kitchen sources most of its ingredients from local producers. This ensures that a significant share of the revenue remains within the small communities surrounding the lodge.