Primate World Safaris

How the minimum criteria of the responsible travel standard was met...

Economic responsibility

Eagle detours also makes an effort to take our guests for a walk around communities giving an opportunities to local people to interact with their visitors for example; In Bwindi forest, the communities like Buhoma, Rubuguri and Nkuringo have various projects like village schools which operate using donation from tourists, local dance groups which entertain guests and local craft shops with many locally handmade gifts for our guests. Therefore we take village walks with local guide around the community and get to interact with the locals and support the livelihood. While in these local communities we encourage our guests to feel free and use local transport like motorcycles (boda-boda) around the hills and see the beautiful hills and volcanic mountains at the border of Uganda. At Eagle detour we also take part in a corporate- social responsibility giving back to the community. 5% of the company’s earnings from every safari is used to support local school and or clinics/ drug shops for example in Rubuguri Village, near the Nkuringo Gorilla groups of Bwindi Forest, we make an effort to buy school books for their curriculum and build or repair classrooms as a way of supporting the children to improve their education.

Environmental responsibility

For our operations at Eagle detours we strictly use paper which is biodegradable and recycled plastic bottles for drinking water. During the safaris, we provide guests with water packed in plastic recyclable bottles which are collected every after used and returned to recycling plants in various collection centers. Food is also packed in paper bags for example packed lunches which sometimes has to be carried en-route to some distant tourism sites. Also in some areas like the south western Uganda where we find gorillas, it is so hilly or mountainous and so piped water does not reach every rural place. Some of our camping sites and lodges are located in these places where there is scarcity of fresh water and so the little or available water is used sparingly depending on the season. Information about the state of water supply is availed from local people who fetch the water from the valley or streams. During gorilla tracking and village walks, there are designated paths through the forest and villages and with the guidance of the local park rangers and village guides, they ensure that the nature surrounding the path is preserved and keep all our guests on tracks. All rubbish and disposable items are collected either by guests for example if we have picnics or by the locals and collected in particular places for sorting and disposal accordingly.

Social responsibility

At Eagle detours, we take the initiative to provide information about the relevant and appropriate cultural behaviour and practices like dress code especially while visiting up-country communities, cultural centres or sites and religious places where they are very strict and conservative about their cultures. Our guides also teach the guests basic local phrases like greetings, thank you, and good bye so that they easily have something to communicate with the locals and feel at home. Other cultural practices like greeting by shaking hands, hugs and other body languages are also explained for every local community the guests are likely to meet. This is always done by the guides or drivers before the safari begins. Our guides also brief the guests about the corporate social responsibility activity they will get involved in according to their safari and region they will be visiting. This is because portion of that cost of the safari paid by every group contributes towards helping a community project and also creates an opportunity to our guests for close interaction with the local people. This we do in order to make sure the communities visited benefits from the tourism activities taking place around them.