By SVEN LUNSCHE

COMBINING business with environmentalism is the driving force behind Conservation Corporation Africa.

This week CCA detailed its ambitious expansion plans for the next few years - a listing of the company on Nasdaq or the London Stock Exchange, a listing of its local operations in Zimbabwe and on the JSE, new lodge acquisitions and an innovative marketing drive to win back SA customers.

Environmentalists Dave and John Varty started with four mud-huts in Londolozi in the mid-1970s and have built up what must rate as the world's foremost ecotourism company. Since 1990 its rapid expansion has been driven by chief executive Alan Bernstein.

Bernstein estimates the CCA's 21 lodges in four southern African countries will turn over about $30-million in the current financial year to end-June. By the time of the listing on an international stock market later next year, the existing range of lodges are expected to produce profits of up to $12-million, rising to $20-million in the year to end-June 1999.

Over the past nine months the group has added nine lodges to its portfolio, which includes names such as Singita, Phinda and Londolozi in South Africa, Matetsi in Zimbabwe, as well as camps at Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania and Kenya. New lodges have been announced for the Okavango Delta and Zimbabwe.

Overall occupancy rates have been about 60%, although this moves up to 70% at the more established lodges. The bulk of visitors (80% in South Africa, 100% in the rest of Africa) are from North America and Europe but the group is seeking to expand its visitor base to south-east Asia and Latin America.

Bernstein says the group is building up its international profile by establishing offices in Dublin and Miami. The campaign will culminate with an eventual listing on the Nasdaq stock market in the US and/or the LSE. "What we are selling is a leisure concept coupled with the most exciting wildlife experience in the world and it is succeeding," he says.

Counting among its shareholders such luminaries as the Getty family (20%) and Hambros Bank, and in South Africa the AECI pension fund (25%) and Southern Sun (10%), CCA is well placed to finance an international expansion drive outside of its African home. "Once we have the listing under our belt there is nothing to prevent us from expanding Conservation Corporation as a worldwide franchise," says Bernstein.

The group has formed a new publishing and film production company in the United States, aimed at spreading the wildlife message through books and wildlife features.

However, the focus will remain on Africa. In Zimbabwe the group is looking at bringing in local partners before seeking an eventual listing on the Harare Stock Exchange.

And in South Africa plans are to list the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park Company on the JSE by next year. The company is a joint venture between CCA, the Natal Parks Board and local communities.

"We see ourselves primarily as the sponsor of the project, while control rests firmly with the Natal Parks Board and the various communities. We are also seeking to attract other financial institutions as well as hospitality groups to the company," says Bernstein.

He sees opportunities for job creation in the eco-tourism venture in an area that is overpopulated and job-starved.