Snow leopard and wildlife holiday in China

Planet

In China (as with everywhere we go) we carefully choose accommodation, suppliers and transportation that either minimise their effect on the environment or that help to contribute to its sustainable development. By choosing small, privately owned accommodation where possible we also look to only stay in true eco-lodges that abide by basic and also pioneering methods of ecological sustainability.

Where possible, we make sure that the lodges and hotels that we use support local projects for the protection of the wildlife and local communities which rely on tourism as the principal source of income. We try and make sure that all the accommodation that we use is are ecologically responsible and use solar power electricity and water recycling pumps etc, on this trip we visit local community reserves which depend on their careful management of the ecosystem for sustainable use into the future. We hope to provide small scale eco tourism into these reserves so that local people can benefit from keeping their forests and wilderness areas pristine. We also make sure that all the food consumed is produced locally.

We also contribute and participate in as many studies that the local researchers and scientists are conducting as possible. In China this is largely facilitated by hiring guides and or rangers who work for the national park.

Wildlife Promise:

By bringing people here with a professional zoologist/naturalist as well as professional local guides we aim to showcase the environment in full but also to allow you to learn about the problems facing the ecosystems here and highlight the ways that continued development and human exploitation are affect the species and how cutting edge research is countering the problems as well as showing you examples of success stories. We also keep a record of all the great sightings we see on each tour and record the environmental factors, this data is used by ourselves but also given to the researchers who are working on many of these species. All the information collected in invaluable as the knowledge of some of the animals that live here are little understood. We also donate our pictures to the researchers to aid in their photo identification studies.

Throughout this trip we use as many locally produced and sourced foods as possible, by doing so we minimize waste as most of these locally produced products have less packaging that mass produced products. All waste we do create during the trip and when camping is taken back with us to the towns and cities so they can be recycled effectively. In fact nearly everything we consume along the way is locally produced in the villages that we pass through. Leaving next to no waste from packaging.

For water conservation we reduce washing of bedding and towels by encouraging our clients to use the same towel for the duration of their trip, so to reduce water usage in cleaning them regularly. .

As we stay often in the eco camps and small independent guest houses we are well off the power grid and so solar power is crucial for our trips. All of the camps and guest houses we visit use solar power as their primary source of energy and water heating.

We only use one vehicle on this trip, we minimize the amount of driving on the trip, most of the movement on the trip is walking when in the reserve or national park, the vehicle is only used for transport to and from locations which are too far to walk.

All of our local suppliers in China are pioneers in establishing eco tourism, they work hard to introduce eco friendly practices such as employing local people, using local products and also saving water and energy as well as being as sustainable as possible.

People

As with any of our tours throughout Asia or elsewhere in the world we always employ local guides and drivers. We also do our best to employ as many local guides as possible, so that we can share the money from tourism around more than one regularly used guide. They have a much better local knowledge and also helps to bring in revenue sources to the local community.

All of the hotels and lodges that we stay in make sure that all our resources such as food, drink and equipment is locally sourced. We also try and make sure that all the local guides that we hire and who work for the lodges, camps and guesthouses that we visit are from the local area. When in Qinghai we hire local guides from their community reserves and so are directly showing the benefit of having ecotourism here. We think that by employing local guides we have encouraging a future generation to follow this career.

Many of the accommodations that we use are involved in community based projects and schools in particular. Many of the projects that are funded by people staying here are geared towards helping children in townships get better education and enhance their career opportunities in the future. We also encourage the purchasing of local handicrafts which are all created in a sustainable way and provide great unique souvenirs.