A Sample · Stewardship Report
The Stewards of Uganda.
Before there is a journey, there are the people who keep this country alive: rangers, elders, cooperatives, custodians. This is a sample of the covenant we intend to keep beside them.
A letter from the founder
"Travel without reciprocity is extraction. What you read here is not a marketing document, it is the field, named. We are a young studio. We do not yet have years of activity to measure. We have instead chosen the company we want to keep, and the stewards we want to walk beside. This is what 2025 looked like as we began."
Shamsa N. · Founder, IMAGINE
1,063
Mountain gorillas across Bwindi and the Virungas, the highest count on record (UWA, 2024)
10
National parks and 12 wildlife reserves protected across Uganda
1,073
Bird species recorded in Uganda, the richest list in Africa per square kilometre
60%
Of remaining mountain gorillas on Earth live in this small corner of East Africa
$15M
Annual gorilla permit revenue reinvested into communities adjacent to Bwindi
20%
Of UWA park revenue legally shared with neighbouring parishes
Our commitment
8% of every journey, set aside.
From the first journey we design, eight cents of every dollar is committed to the partners listed on this page. The allocation below is the proportion in which we will disburse it, traced and named in next year's report.
The stewards
The people who keep this country alive.
A short list of the organisations and communities we walk beside, named openly because reciprocity begins with attribution.
All 10 national parks
Uganda Wildlife Authority
The custodians of Uganda's protected areas. Their ranger teams, veterinary units, and revenue-share scheme are the spine of conservation here.
South-western Uganda
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest stewards
A UNESCO World Heritage site. Permit revenue funds ranger salaries, parish health funds, and community schools across the seven zones around the forest.
Echuya and Bwindi edges
The Batwa elders council
Indigenous forest peoples whose ancestral knowledge of these hills predates the parks themselves. Cultural fees flow directly to the council.
Eastern Uganda
Mount Elgon Women's Coffee Cooperative
Small-holder farmers tending the slopes of an extinct volcano. A guaranteed price floor above the regional average funds school fees and dryers.
North-eastern Uganda
Karamoja pastoralist communities
The Ik, Jie, and Karamojong manyattas. Access is by invitation only, negotiated annually with elders.
Northern Uganda
Murchison Falls ranger units
Frontline anti-poaching teams along the Nile. Equipment, training, and welfare contributions go directly to the unit, not the agency.
Four facts that matter
The country we travel in.
The Source of the Nile
The longest river in the world begins its 6,650 km journey in Jinja, Uganda. The communities of Bujagali and Mpumudde have stewarded its first banks for generations.
The Mountains of the Moon
The Rwenzori Range carries equatorial glaciers, one of only three on the continent. Bakonzo guides have led travellers across these peaks for over a century.
Kibale's chimpanzee community
Roughly 1,500 chimpanzees, the densest population in East Africa. Tracking is permitted in small groups, accompanied by researchers from the Kibale Chimpanzee Project.
Lake Bunyonyi
The 'place of many little birds' is one of the deepest lakes in Africa. Its 29 islands are stewarded by Bakiga families whose homesteads we visit only on invitation.
Sources: Uganda Wildlife Authority annual report, BirdLife International, the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration, and the Kibale Chimpanzee Project.
