Beyond the warm hospitality, adventurous tour experiences, and exquisite accommodation packages, MARA is an ecotourism agency whose heart beats for the urgent realization of harmonious, symbiotic coexistence between man, nature and environment.

We care for the health and wellbeing of the planet by advocating for sustainable utilization of the earth’s natural resources to meet our needs and the needs of generations to follow. Conservation at MARA is hinged on three tributaries; Protecting depleted land and biodiversity of wildlife through Agroforestry, Capacity Building of the Endangered Ik Community and Environmental Sustainability.

With a distinct mission “To be the most socially and environmentally responsible tourist lodges in Uganda,” MARA’s inherent nature thus dictates that our lodges not only provide a unique, state-of-the-art hospitality and a customized tour experience for clients, but also remain mindful of the community in which we operate and about the conservation of the attendant surroundings.

Because of this, our materials are locally sourced, we rely heavily on green energy such as solar for water heating and our Corporate Social Responsibility interventions within the Ik community are climate-resilient.

Agroforestry: As part of the experiential excursion, guests can voluntarily participate in tree planting. Seedlings will be provided from the lodge’s nursery and implanted in the health center compounds, school yards or homesteads of the Ik and Karamojong tribes.

MARA’s Agroforestry venture comes with an exciting perk. Guests can adopt trees — akin to a family co-option. On subsequent visits to the lodge, you will be able to physically visit your trees. Furthermore, MARA’s Customer Service teams will keep tabs on all the “new family members,” by taking photographs, textually documenting their progress and regularly sharing email updates with “adoptive parents.”

Guests and their adopted trees will be permanently immortalized in our newsletter’s guaranteed wall of fame. Alternatively, you can financially sponsor MARA’s tree nursery of three identified geologically viable species. Your financial generosity will go a long way in replacing Karamoja’s rapidly diminishing forest cover.

Capacity Building: A Chinese proverb extols; “You give a poor man a fish and you feed him for a day. You teach him to fish and you give him an occupation that will feed him for a lifetime.” MARA’s conscious ecotourism efforts will entail training of community influencers, local leaders, school children and interested tribesmen on sustainable agroforestry.

The lodge’s nursery will supply tree seedlings to the local people. Our ambition is big. Our passion is fiery. Our drive to create meaningful change is vast. And so, we institute other capacity building activities such as celebratory commemoration of World Environment Day, engaging local leaders and politicians to interact with their constituents and lobbying them to pledge commitments in ensuring environmental sustainability.

MARA will correspondingly set up activity-filled, fun, engaging environment clubs in neighboring schools with the help of patrons and head teachers. The clubs are safe spaces for children to gain awareness of environmental issues and to become community champions and advocates for conservation efforts.

School children, like MARA’s guests, have the opportunity to plant, adopt and nurture trees. This will instill accountability, responsibility and respect for the environment in them, but most importantly it will creatively engage them to complete their education — reducing the alarming school drop-out rates of Ik children.