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After what has been yet another challenging and uncertain year for everyone, I wanted to share with you some inspiring news about Wolwedans’ progress during 2021 and our vision for the future. It is a vision that we believe everybody can happily embrace – one that sees the possibility of being and doing better for our planet, future generations, and each other. July 2020 marked our Jubilee year at Wolwedans – 25 years since we pitched our first tents atop the dunes of the Namib Desert. We were optimistic about the future and had a strategy to launch into the next 25 years, better than ever before.
Then COVID struck and everything came to a grinding halt. Wolwedans was certainly not spared this unprecedented disruption; it did however provide the luxury of time to reflect, rethink, reboot and open a new chapter. As the saying goes, every crisis bears opportunity – you just need to make use of it. What emerged in the past two years – more profound and pressing than ever before – is that although the complexity and challenges of our times can often feel overwhelming, we, as humanity must stop talking and start walking. Each and every one of us needs to step up and effect a paradigm shift – away from the depleting yet dominant economic models of the past, towards a more positive, balanced dynamic that respects the interconnectedness between business, natural resources, and people. Wolwedans has accepted its role in this and has developed a practical framework – The AridEden Project – Wolwedans Vision 2030 – to bring the concept of sustainability to life, showcasing that “business for good” can indeed work. It even inspired our new vision statement: “Our purpose is the pursuit of Happiness and Wolwedans exists to inspire a new way.”
To achieve this Vision, we will continue to be guided by the Longrun “Cs”: previously these were Conservation, Community, Culture, and Commerce, and we have added “Consciousness” to ensure that we maintain a mindful awareness of balancing people, planet, and profit. For each of the 5Cs we have defined activity areas, i.e. projects and programmes, resulting in a 5 x 5 matrix or “Matrix | 25”, as we call it. Underpinning all of this is the necessary pursuit of happiness for people (including guests, team and community), the environment, and the financial bottom line of the Wolwedans Collection, the commercial arm of Wolwedans.
We have committed to sharing our journey, including challenges experienced along the way, lessons we learn, and successes enjoyed by our team’s efforts. It is our hope that this will inspire others to act and advance our collective progress towards systems that thrive. In so doing, The AridEden Project could even become a blueprint and lighthouse project in Namibia and perhaps even globally! Wolwedans has a proven track record of delivering high impact developmental and conservation results and we are committed to offering this experience as a platform on which sustainability solutions can be tested, refined and implemented more broadly. Together we can, should, and will get the Wolwedans Foundation and all the good it represents back on track. As humanity, we are running out of time; action is required now and Wolwedans is poised to do its part while hopefully inspiring others to do the same. The mission cannot be shouldered alone and to make it happen, we need support. We are tremendously grateful for having secured some committed strategic partners, ‘putting shoulder to the wheel’ to make The AridEden Project – Wolwedans Vision 2030 a reality. Thanks to these partners (see our thank you’s right at the end), we started walking again.
One step at a time. As Edward Abbey, said, “Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.” What are we waiting for? We hope you feel inspired reading the first AridEden Project annual progress report and who knos, maybe you consider ‘to put shoulder to the wheel’, thereby becoming a partner and an enabler of change.
The time is now. It’s worth a shot.
Stephan Brückner
Chairman Wolwedans Foundation
Windhoek, Namibia
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