Travel should be a force for good. When done well, it can revitalise communities, boost economies, preserve habitats and create opportunities. For those of us doing the travelling, it can educate and inspire, altering our perspectives and opening our eyes.

We are passionate about travel’s transformative power. And this passion runs through the heart of the business. So we only work with companies that are committed to delivering life-changing experiences for their guests while supporting conservation and community initiatives in a meaningful way.

We work with businesses and property owners that actively seek to make positive impacts; those that collaborate closely with locals, help reduce human-wildlife conflict, preserve the environment and seek to consciously educate the next generation of conservationists. Many of these businesses also create opportunities for guests to take part in their conservation activities – in non-contrived ways – so they leave with a greater understanding and a deeper connection.

In short, we work with those that have a profound love of the places within which they operate, and who want to share them with the world.

Actions Not Words

In addition to working with people and businesses operating in a conscious and ethical way, LH Travel is a member of The Conscious Travel Foundation, a social enterprise established to unite and educate owner-operated travel businesses and promote travel as a force for good, raising funds for grass-roots charity projects around the world.

We have also been supporting Mara Elephant Project for a number of years. Launched in 2021, it’s mission is to protect elephants and their habitats across the Greater Mara Ecosystem, and to help create a stable and healthy population of these amazing animals that co-exists peacefully with local communities.

But MEP’s work isn’t just about hands-on elephant protection. It’s about people. For a start, the project offers skilled work opportunities for the Maasai, enabling them to financially support their families. But more than that, the MEP rangers become ambassadors within their communities. They share their knowledge and passion, igniting a flame in local young people, inspiring them to want to protect wildlife themselves. The rangers are kickstarting a societal change.

And we are immensely proud to support Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. Deep in northern Kenya’s Samburu landscape, Reteti stands as a pioneering example of community-led conservation. It’s Africa’s first and only community-owned elephant sanctuary, established in 2016 with a simple yet powerful mission: to rescue and rehabilitate orphaned elephants, then return them to the wild.

But Reteti is about more than just elephants—it’s about people, too. This sanctuary represents a growing grassroots conservation movement, where communities recognise that protecting wildlife brings real benefits. Jobs created at Reteti improve livelihoods and provide opportunities beyond elephant care. An incredible and heart warming example is the Milk to Market program: when COVID-19 disrupted imported baby formula, the team turned to locally sourced goat’s milk. Now, over 1,200 Samburu women earn an income by supplying more than 1,000 litres of milk daily for the orphaned calves.

Reteti embodies a new model—one that proves conservation and community development can thrive together. By protecting elephants for, not just from people, it is transforming lives, preserving cultural traditions, and ensuring Kenya’s iconic wildlife has a future.

This is more than a sanctuary; it’s a symbol of what’s possible when conservation is led by those who share the land with wildlife.