About Us: Get to know the Fox family

Ruaha River Lodge – the first safari lodge in the Foxes Safari Camps’ portfolio – was established in January 1982, on the banks of the Ruaha River amidst the granite mounds and between the silhouettes of ancient baobab trees. It was a pioneer in its time, as the lodge was the only safari camp in Ruaha National Park for at least two decades before Tanzania ‘opened up’ to tourism. 

This was the beginning of the Fox family’s life-long adventure of running and managing Foxes Safari Camps. By the 1990s, the four Fox sons were running the Tanzanian safari company and working towards expanding Foxes Safari Camps into what it is today – comprising seven properties across six locations spread across Southern Tanzania. 

Safari Air Link, our sister company, was founded in 2008 and is run by Peter Fox and his son, Matthew, both of whom are pilots for the airline. It offers fly-in safaris to all of our properties, as well as to main tourist hubs across the country – Serengeti National Park, Zanzibar and Mafia Island, among others.

From the very beginning, our family understood the importance of sustainable development and responsible tourism. That is why we established the Friends of Ruaha Society in 1984 to protect this sensitive ecosystem, while promoting wildlife conservation and enriching the surrounding local community. Today, its work continues as the Foxes Community and Wildlife Conservation Trust, overseen by Bruce Fox, the Trust’s CEO.

The Fox family founded the Foxes Community and Wildlife Conservation Trust in 2005 to support the local community in Mufindi District, the Great Ruaha River Catchment, and the Rufiji Basin Catchment. It does so through education and life skills, while creating local employment opportunities and driving community-based conservation efforts. The registered non-profit offers various social welfare services and runs environmental conservation projects thanks to generous donations from our guests, sponsors, partners and volunteers, in conjunction with the Fox Family’s ongoing efforts. 

Our mission is to provide social welfare in the form of shelter, sustenance, education and medical care for vulnerable children and families in the Mufindi District of Tanzania. At the same time, the Trust teaches valuable life skills (language, fiscal, vocational) for self-sufficiency, while encouraging participation in income-generating projects. Local employment is important to us, which is why the majority of our employees come from local communities, with the opportunity to progress through the ranks.

When it comes to the environment, we always give more than we take. Our conservation efforts protect the flora and fauna in the rainforests of Mufindi District. Our Trust runs a Forest Enrichment Programme under Chris Fox who is planting trees (over 30 000 indigenous trees to date) for wildlife conservation and carbon sequestration. Their daily forest patrols cover 80km2 protecting it from illegal logging and wildlife poaching, while removing wildlife snares.

Meanwhile, the Trust has planted more than 3.6 million trees across 9 000 acres of barren land since Foxes Safari Camps was founded more than four decades ago. This carbon dioxide sink absorbs up to 60 million kilograms of carbon dioxide each year. 

We believe in sustainable development and use renewable energy wherever possible to reduce carbon emissions across our operations. Foxes Safari Camps also runs on a circular economy principle that lowers our camps’ environmental footprint and increases our self-sufficiency in our commitment to responsible tourism.