Jobs with purpose

futures with hope

Employment

at Cape Vulture Nature Reserve

At Cape Vulture Nature Reserve, employment is more than a job—it’s a way to grow, belong, and contribute to something meaningful. Rooted in the surrounding communities, we create opportunities that empower people while protecting nature. Every role here—whether in conservation, hospitality, or community projects—supports a shared mission: to restore the land and build a more sustainable future for all who call it home.

Jobs with purpose,

futures with hope.

Many of our team members first set foot here in the permaculture gardens, tending seedlings under the African sun. With training, mentorship, and the chance to grow, they have moved into roles across the reserve—welcoming guests at the Cape Vulture Eco-Lodge, guiding birding excursions along the escarpment, maintaining wilderness trails, and caring for the colony of vultures that gave the reserve its name. Their stories are the living proof of what regenerative tourism can achieve. Today, the lodge is staffed almost entirely by locals. Each stay helps fund jobs, skills development, and conservation work—ensuring that the benefits of tourism ripple outward into the nearby villages of The Oaks and Ga-Moraba. When guests arrive, they are welcomed not just into a lodge, but into a community where people and nature thrive side by side. Employment here is designed to be transformative: creating livelihoods that last, passing down traditional knowledge, and nurturing new skills for the future. In this way, every role—whether in the kitchen, on the trail, or in the conservation field—becomes part of something larger: a future-focused model that sustains both people and the planet.

Volunteering

Skills Exchange

As part of our employment and upskilling goals, Cape Vulture Nature Reserve has created a Volunteering Skills Exchange program—an open invitation to the wider world to join hands with our community. Volunteers come not only to share their expertise but to become part of a living exchange: where knowledge flows both ways, and learning is rooted in real experience. Participants spend between three and eight weeks with us, contributing their skills in areas where we seek to grow—whether it’s teaching English, offering basic IT training, assisting with conservation work, or introducing entirely new perspectives. In return, we provide food, board, and a chance to live immersed in the rhythms of the reserve. For our staff, these exchanges are more than lessons. They are moments of discovery—learning a new language, exploring digital tools, or deepening their conservation practice—while also connecting across cultures. For volunteers, it is equally transformative: the chance to live off-grid, to be part of a regenerative conservation project, and to form bonds that stretch far beyond the boundaries of the reserve. Our skills exchange is not about a one-way transfer of knowledge, but about building bridges. Every volunteer who joins us leaves behind a lasting impact, woven into the growth of our team and the future of the reserve.

Get in touch with out team to find out how you can add value to a meaningful project.

educenture@capevulturelodge.co.za