Jambay Lakhang festival holiday in Bhutan

Planet

The natural landscapes we explore on our cultural holiday to Bhutan are some of the richest, often most challenging, yet at the same time some of the most fragile environments on earth. With education, experienced leadership and appropriate equipment and techniques, it is possible to travel responsibly through these regions. For us, it is critically important that such wilderness travel experiences do not diminish the natural values of the environment.

Our environmental sustainable principles: True sustainability is a guiding aspect in all aspects of our business planning and operations. Specifically our tour operations should be managed in a way where the natural and cultural values of the host region are undiminished in the long-term.

Where possible, we engage in partnerships with local environmental groups and/or land managers to actively campaign for conservation or promote environmental protection and/or rehabilitation.

Our Responsible Travel Guidebook: Our philosophy since 1975 has been to leave only footprints and take only photographs. To reiterate this, every customer who travels with us receives a copy of our award-winning Responsible Travel guidebook. This detailed book outlines our environmentally sustainable principles, and outlines how each customer can minimize their impact while travelling.

Global Warming and Carbon Balancing: The root cause of Global Warming is society's dependence on emission creating fossil fuel. Planting trees is not going to reverse this trend or cancel our carbon emissions very quickly or effectively. We believe the way to reduce these dependencies is to create clean energy production. Therefore, we support renewable energy projects like wind and solar power, and we are aligned with Climate Friendly, the gold standard setter in effective, meaningful action addressing climate change. So, while we believe that tree planting can play a small role in greenhouse gas abatement, we have gone the extra mile in promoting a longer term solution. Is this cheap? No. Is it responsible? Absolutely!

People

Our local employment policy and high standards of training in first aid, leadership, communication and high altitude trekking ensure that you receive the best possible care during the trip but also has many benefits to your hosts and their communities. There is no better person to teach you about the landscape and culture than a local person which is why we have local guides on all our trips. Employing local people ensures that you receive credible knowledge and local intelligence underpins our ability to operate genuine 'off the beaten track' experiences away from commercial travel routes.

Employing local people ensures a good proportion of your trek fees remain with the people who are custodians of the places and cultures visited.

English language, leaderships and communication skills are fundamentals in our training process. We provide opportunities for personal advancement, industry-leading conditions and inspiration in communities where employment conditions can be very harsh.

The International Mountain Explorer's Connection (IMEC) is a not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to promote responsible and sustainable connections between travellers and the people of developing mountain regions of the world. We are a member of IMEC's Partnership for Responsible Travel Program which recognises those tour operators committed to promoting proper porter treatment and cultural and environmental sensitivity among their travellers.