In 1927 Praveen’s great-uncle, Churanji Lal Phakey, from the Punjab, India, pitched a tent in the bush, among lions and leopards, some twenty miles east of the Source of the great River Nile in Uganda and became His Majesty King George V’s Postmaster at Iganga. He was the first family member to live in Uganda.

In 1997, Praveen too pitched a tent in Mgahinga National Park in southern Uganda, where he had first walked aged 12 in 1966 with his father Kuldip Rai Moman. This was the beginning of Mount Gahinga Lodge and Volcanoes Safaris.

Watch the teaser to our 25 Year Anniversary Film

In 2000 we started taking guests from Mount Gahinga to track gorillas in Parc National des Volcans in Rwanda and opened an office in Kigali.

In 2005 Volcanoes Safaris became a signatory of the UN Kinshasa Declaration on Saving the Great Apes.

In 2009, the Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust (VSPT), a non-profit organisation that creates long-term, self-sustaining projects that enrich the livelihoods of local communities and promote the conservation of the great apes was established.

In 2017 The Dian Fossey Map Room at Virunga Lodge was opened, containing a permanent exhibition, curated by Giulia Ajmone Marsan, charting the ‘Conservationists and Explorers of the Virunga Volcanoes’.

Download ‘Explorers and Conservationists of the Virunga Volcanoes’ Photoessay

The Kyambura Gorge Ecotourism Project, launched in 2019, is a series of connected community and conservation activities around the Kyambura Gorge area which seek to safeguard the chimpanzees, reduce human-willife conflcit, and increase income for local people by improving their skills.

In 2021 VSPT announced a long term partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute Uganda for supporting the threatened chimpanzee population at Kyambura Gorge. In collaboration with the Uganda Wildlife Authority the partnership significantly reinforces community-led conservation and ecotourism development centred around the Kyambura Gorge landscape in the Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.

In November 2022 Volcanoes Safaris hosted a retreat at Mount Gahinga Lodge with twenty-five conservationists with the theme ‘The Albertine Rift Ecosystems and Great Apes: Conservation Challenges 2022 to 2050’. Following the retreat the ‘Albertine Apes Alliance' was created to support collective action and advocacy to support responsible ecotourism, improving community livelihoods, protecting habitats, health and disease issues. You can read more about the aims of the group here.

Volcanoes Safaris announces the opening of Kibale Lodge in Uganda on 1 July 2024. Bookings are now open!

Read the full press release here.