Salix
Salix, an Anglo-Ukrainian company, offers high quality nature and heritage tours in the Danube delta region of south-west Ukraine. This area of global ecological importance holds the largest complex of wetlands, forests and steppes in Europe. There are over 1,000 species of flowers and more than 240 birds including pelicans, herons and eagles. You can experience the sights and sounds by taking a quiet ride in our electric-powered boat. We provide high-standard accommodation, with traditional local cuisine including fresh fish and roast duck. Join one of our scheduled tours, or we can plan one to meet your own requirements.
Member since: 27 Jan 2005
How the minimum criteria of the responsible travel standard was met...
Economic responsibility
- Salix adheres to an ethic of environmental care which strives to ensure that the operations of the company shall not result in unsustainable use of natural resources, emission of environmental pollutants, wastage of materials, or lead to the destruction of the social fabric of local communities.
Environmental responsibility
- Salix aims to promote ecologically sustainable development and the maintenance of ecological processes through wise use of natural resources, restoration of damaged ecosystems, conservation of genetic diversity, and increasing human understanding of and capabilities to protect biodiversity.
- Salix has invested in an electric-powered tour boat that eliminates environmental pollution from noise and fuel exhausts. In addition, it runs an information centre in Vilkovo used by local schools for information about the local environment.
Social responsibility
- To provide local employment and develop engagement in business activities that have a positive effect on natural resources.
In this regard, the company employs only local staff in the region and uses local resources such as guides, boatmen and cooks (using mostly locally-produced food), and accommodation is only in locally-owned premises.
- Salix continuously engages in a number of activities to improve local social and environmental conditions in the Lower Danube region.
- Recent examples include:
helping an NGO to win a grant from the Global Environment Facility of $5,000 for training handicapped people to do craftwork for sale to visitors (and now selling the products in its souvenir shop);
assisting the local government to prepare and submit funding proposals to the European Union for development of a health clinic and organic farming;
helping to develop a Green Tourism policy for the region;
providing free office space for local NGOs in company premises;
assisting WWF-Germany undertake a wetland conservation project at Lake Lung, near the Danube.
