TOURISM

supporting conservation

NATURE

providing resources

TOSCO (Tourism Supporting Conservation Trust) is the leading organisation in promoting responsible travel in Namibia, by bringing tourism into harmony with nature.

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries worldwide and in Namibia. With its wide-open landscapes, free-roaming wildlife and authentic traditional cultures, Namibia will continue to be an inspiration for travellers from all around the world. For tourism to be sustainable, it needs to support the conservation efforts that secure the natural resources that the industry depends on.

TOSCO is an NGO that offers tourism businesses a platform to link travel to positive conservation outcomes, by supporting the communities that look after it. Rural communities have been central to Namibia’s conservation success story, and so the relationship between tourism and nature can only be strengthened and deepened when travel contributes to poverty alleviation and rural economic development. This way, communities can benefit from maintaining a healthy environment.

This is how TOSCO assists tourism businesses in being the responsible agents that travellers are looking for.

Travel responsibly, the Namibian way!

TOSCO'S VISION

Our vision is for tourism and nature to flourish in harmony. Tourism members go up as natural ecosystems grow more diverse and spectacular, whilst benefiting local communities for the natural resources that they conserve, in a self-sustainable and infinite way.

We promote responsible travel by linking tourism and conservation within three key themes:

Climate

Support climate change mitigation and climate resilient livelihoods whilst sequestering tourism carbons.

Education

Support awareness and capacity building for sustainable tourism and conservation within the travel community, rural communities and amongst youth.

Wildlife

Support landscape conservation of wildlife species whilst developing tourism-related incentives to conserve.
Creating impact through travel

TOSCO in numbers

A cumulative total of 0
members joined TOSCO since 2012
TOSCO supported various conservation projects with 0
namibian dollars since 2012
Download Latest Activity Report

Join the
responsible travel
movement

By becoming a TOSCO member you join a growing movement of responsible tourism businesses that together want to ensure a sustainable future for travel in Namibia.

Become A Member
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Have you seen our sustainable travel goodies?

TOSCO Buff

TOSCO Buff

N$90.00
TOSCO Water Bottles

TOSCO Water Bottles

N$100.00
TOSCO Cap

TOSCO Cap

N$100.00
Vanishing Kings – Lions of the Namib Desert Book

Vanishing Kings – Lions of the Namib Desert Book

N$700.00
Vanishing Kings DVD part, A & B

Vanishing Kings DVD part, A & B

N$350.00

Our Members

Our Stories

LATEST NEWS FROM US

TOSCO celebrates 10 year anniversary

In 2012, tour guide Félix Vallat had a dream. He wanted to strengthen the relationship between the tourism industry, in which he worked, and conservationists and communities who needed more…

Read More

TOSCO & NDP working hand in hand

The Namibian Dolphin Project (NDP), A non-profit, research and conservation organization run by several independent scientists and educators, has been working in Walvis Bay and Lüderitz since 2008. Their primary…

Read More
Our Key Partners

what partners say about us

“TOSCO identifies conservation priority needs on the ground and provides timely and well-directed assistance. In this way, the tourism sector is able to achieve high-impact conservation linked to community development. (…) Their potential to continue to grow and expand their work once the impacts of COVID have passed is significant. Your assistance in helping them get through the next year is important and would be greatly appreciated by both the tourism and conservation sectors.”

– Dr. Christopher J. Brown (CEO of NCE)

“In my capacity as the Director of the Namibia Association for CBNRM Support Organizations (NACSO) and having a long working relation with TOSCO, I can gladly attest to their significant contribution in promoting responsible tourism and being a link between community conservation and the tourism industry, especially in north western Namibia. By acquiring broader support in terms of funding, it will enable their activities, as an institution, to further contribute to the broader CBNRM goals.”

– Maxi Louis (Director of NACSO)

“I came to learn about TOSCO by watching what they do, they speak less and do more. They have been critical in providing exceptional support to a variety of projects in the northwest. As a new upcoming support agency, their footprint in terms of support and the impact of their assistance is visible in the northwest. My feeling is that they will get their hands dirty with the massive task that they have recently embarked on in close collaboration with IRDNC and MEFT that of minimizing elephant related damages to community properties such as gardens and water points.”

– John Kenena Kasaona, Executive Director, Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation.

“TOSCO is a committed organization that uses tourism as a vehicle to support community-based wildlife conservation initiatives in northwestern Namibia. TOSCO played an instrumental role in assisting the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism with human-wildlife conflict, particularly the conflict between the arid-adapted lions and the local farmers in Kunene Region. TOSCO’s support and involvement have led to reduced human-lion conflict incidences and have further improved the capacity of the local communities to respond to human-lion conflict incidences.”

– Kenneth Heinrich /Uiseb, Deputy Director, Wildlife Monitoring and Research, Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism