Borneo holiday, Mt Kinabalu, orangutans & rainforest

Our local partners in Borneo are committed to low-impact policies, from discouraging the use of disposable packaging to avoiding unnecessary travel wherever possible. They use small local food outlets to provide income to local communities and private hotels that employ local staff as a matter of policy. The operator’s policy is to provide clients with an advice booklet on arrival about how they can contribute to conservation and why it is so important in Borneo.

The trip supports two local projects in Borneo; the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre and the Turtle Conservation Project.

At all of the featured destinations we use local guides recruited from the community ensuring that the money stays local. We pay fees to help preserve the national parks and protected areas as well as supporting the work of the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre, and smaller community projects such as KOPEL community eco tourism project where we use a homestay programme.

Although we use a UK owned operator in Borneo they contract local service suppliers employing local people in each location we visit. This helps build up good long-term relationships that serve the local community well. Our local partner is run by one by a long-standing member of our leading staff who is well versed in responsible tourism, and exceedingly keen to invest in the local people and communities. They employ local guides and provide regular training in all areas of Responsible, and Sustainable Tourism. We provide guide training as well as certified first aid training to all of our staff as a matter of course. We also offer extra training courses to selected guides free of charge at the end of each year allowing them to develop their skills, these might include nature, management, driving or environmental awareness courses.

We use local leaders, plus they have received training and get additional refresher training on a regular basis.

Our leaders give responsible tourism briefings plus our clients receive a booklet outlining the problems that the environment in Borneo faces, this gives them advice on being responsible both environmentally and culturally. eg: Leaders advice to pax on where to shop, what to buy (and not to buy), how to behave, hotel towel policy, switching A/C off when not in the room, litter policy, drinking water (reduce reliance on plastic bottles) visits to projects, schools etc.

We use predominantly locally owned and run accommodation on this trip. This contributes directly to the local communities as local staff are employed and locally produced and sourced goods are bought for the accommodation benefiting the wider community. All the hotels we use have in-room advice on towel washing and conservation of the environment.

Group sizes average at about 13 per group, this is a good size as it is neither threatening to a small community nor does it produce a critical mass of waste that will overwhelm the local waste disposal facilities.

We have at our offices worked to reduce our carbon footprint through a reduction of energy use and energy conservation measures. We also actively reduce the waste produced by having active reduction and recycling policies in place. We run annual staff workshops on Responsible Tourism.

Global warming is a reality and to help you make a difference by reducing the carbon dioxide that is produced when you travel we offer a chance to carbon balance your flights. We encourage all our clients to do this and do so for all our staff travel.