Singita Game Reserves, South Africa’s premier operator of luxury game lodges, will take a stand against global warming on Saturday March 28, in a show of support for the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Earth Hour 2009 global initiative.

Acting on the unified call for action on climate change, Singita’s nine lodges in Southern and East Africa will ‘power down’ at 20h30 (SA time), together with over 500 cities in 75 countries that have already signed up to take part in the 60 minute global ‘lights out’ campaign. 

During Earth Hour, guests at the various Singita lodges will become part of this global effort as they sit down to an ‘unplugged’ Bush Banquet in one of the breathtaking outdoor settings for which Singita Game Reserves are renowned. Chefs will transform menus and dinner settings to reflect a ‘green’ theme, while guests seated for this special occasion, will be able to view the lights going down in the far distance as generators are turned off and the bush turns into complete darkness and quiet.

Recognised internationally for providing ‘the best safari experience in Africa’, Singita is renowned for its uncompromising dedication to conservation, eco-tourism and sustainable development initiatives. 

Says Singita CEO Luke Bailes: ‘Singita’s core ethos dictates minimum impact on the land and wildlife at all our lodges and reserves. Climate change not only threatens every human being on the planet, but also our planetary wildlife resources. As a business, we operate close to Mother Earth and place this issue at the very top of our agenda. We do believe it is our responsibility to take action, with a show of support for this vital WWF initiative, and are proud to take part in this global challenge.’

Since its inception, the award-winning Singita Game Reserves has based its entire operation on the philosophy of ‘touching the earth lightly’. This approach of low impact and high value tourism underscores the idea that a minimal number of guests would have little impact on the land and its fauna and flora, thus benefiting the environment while providing up-close, intimate experiences for guests.

More about Earth Hour
Earth Hour aims to reach more than 1 billion people in 1000 cities around the world, and is anticipated to be one of the greatest social movements the world has ever witnessed.  The purpose of this global effort is to save the earth by inviting communities, businesses and governments to switch off their lights for one hour on 28 March. The awareness raised will enable organizers to demand that world leaders pay attention and take serious action to deal with this threat. Furthermore, the goal is to gather 1 million signatures for a petition which will be handed to the United Nations Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. The objective of the Copenhagen meeting is to agree on a new global climate deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012. http://www.earthhour.org.za

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