We try to ensure that nothing which our company does abroad or at home compromises the environment or wildlife, nor exploits the local people.
There are simply hundreds of people throughout the world who are helping those less fortunate in the developing world and promoting good environmental conservation within the tourism industry. It is these people and their products which Tribes champions, and we aim to do it in as positive a way as we can –both for them and for you, and for the environment.
We believe that most travellers want to travel with knowledge and sensitivity, so we offer you relevant, useful information about your trip.
We believe that a knowledgeable traveller is a respectful traveller, so we back you with a range of information related to your holiday, such as how it might be helping the environment or local community, and about the traditions and culture of local people. We feel that this in turn allows you to get more enjoyment from your holiday.
“"The holiday went beyond our expectations! Such a trip is for someone that doesn’t just want to be sold a holiday. It is for someone who wants to understand the hardship and how tourism can help and hinder a country"”. M. Larasi & N. Dawkins.
“"Our holiday more than surpassed our expectations. The range and depth of our experience was magical - the number of unique situations we found ourselves in was amazing. [Tribes is for] anyone interested in more than just skimming the surface of their holiday destinations”."
G & J Mason.
Where appropriate, we aim to bring the benefits of tourism to local communities and conservation areas.
Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries. It has huge potential power to help those destinations involved with it. Tribes aims to direct as many of these benefits to the people and places most directly involved, so we prefer to promote locally-owned lodges and encourage visits to reserves and parks doing great conservation work.
We try very hard to make sure that we are true to the policies written below. We don’t get everything right all the time, but we learn from any mistakes and improve all the time. We also ask for your cooperation in helping us see where anything might not be as it should be.
Tribes Environmental & Fair Trade Policy
RESPECT FOR LOCAL PEOPLE & THEIR CULTURES
- We work in cooperation with local communities as far as possible. Promoting community-based tourism initiatives harnesses the tourism pound for development projects and empowers local people in host destinations to control their own destinies.
- We offer fairly-traded revenue and, where possible, use locally-owned and run services such as hotels.
- We try to ensure that the local people are happy to receive tourists in their home region, and are informed of the possible impact. We will avoid travelling to any areas where we know tourism is not welcome.
- We encourage learning about local cultures as opposed to a voyeuristic manner of relating to different cultures.
- We hope to help maintain and encourage the practice and revival of local skills and traditions.
- We promote a respect for local communities and their environment. Our guides will help you to understand and respect the areas and people you are visiting, which will help you to feel more comfortable and enjoy your experiences all the more.
ENVIRONMENTAL & WILDLIFE CONSERVATION
- We automatically carbon offset the flights of all of our clients and staff.
- We hope to help conserve biodiversity and cultural diversity through tourism.
- Our in-country partners were chosen for their commitment to high quality services and responsible ethics. We vet the operating policy of every ground handler we work with.
- Our preferred lodges, camps and hotels have successfully completed our Responsible Tourism questionnaire.
- Almost all of our guides are local people who know their country well, and are usually specialists in some relevant field, such as wildlife, botany or archeology. We also often use the services of indigenous guides when in their lands. Good local guides have an excellent knowledge of their area which foreign guides struggle to match.
- On group trips, group sizes are kept to a maximum of about 12 (less on some trips, more a very few) to minimise our impact. Small groups tend to have much better dynamics, and allow you to get closer to the people, wildlife and places you are visiting.
- We have an office environmental policy of using ecofriendly goods and paper, plus we reduce, reuse and recycle where possible. We also buy fair trade tea, coffee and sugar.
- We back the registered charity The Tribes Foundation.
- Through our shop, we encourage the sale of fair trade, ethical and ecofriendly goods.
Tribes Office Environmental Policy
The directors and staff of Tribes are committed to work in ways which are as environmentally friendly as possible. In the UK office the following guidelines are followed.
- Rubbish:
- Desk bins are for paper only and are emptied into the paper recycling bin on site.
- John is in charge of the recycling of plastic, glass and tins –which should be put in the relevant bin.
- Other rubbish to be put in general bins –one in each room.
- Encourage suppliers (such as Neat Ideas) not to use so much packaging for deliveries. Consider using someone else if they don’t change.
- Paper:
- Print and photocopy on both sides of paper.
- Re-use paper only used on one side, eg as scrap notepaper, or to print on.
- Trip Planner Information and price sheets are printed only as needed, in house.
- Our Trip Planner system hugely reduces paper wastage in four ways –1) by not having any date or price specific information included so that the Planners have a long shelf life. 2) Since we can give clients only the Planners of the countries they are interested in. 3) We can do very small print runs so there are absolutely no left overs.
- Use of recycled or sustainable source paper products, eg booking pack folders hand made from lokta paper in Nepal, and environmentally friendly paper for the enquiry folders; printing paper (Popset oyster) and photocopy paper (Panda); recycled envelopes (from Paperback)
- Using our website as our main source of client information also reduces paper usage dramatically.
- Keeping documents down to the minimum if possible eg if document goes on to a thrid page, consider reducing typeface to keep on 2 pages.
- No printing of documents which can be proofed just as well on screen as on paper.
- Email memos and requests rather than print.
- Natural Resources and Energy:
- Turn off lights and use natural light only when possible (most of the time in summer months due to naturally well-lit office).
- Turn off heaters when not needed. Keep heat down to a reasonable level.
- Turn off computers at night if not needed.
- Don’t overfill kettle - these are hugely energy wasteful items.
- Use environmentally friendly products to reduce pollution, eg Ecover washing up liquid.
- We provide a large water purifier so that bottled water need not necessarily be bought (reducing plastic waste).
- Fair Trade and people friendliness:
- Buy fair trade tea, coffee, sugar.
- Try to let local people know about fair trade travel –eg talks to local school.
- Provide Tribes office staff with a pleasant place to work and a space to get away from their desks (the ‘Boma’).
- Improvements:
- Everyone at Tribes is encouraged to suggest any improvements we could make as regards office environmental policy or the wider RT policy. Suggestions to be given to Amanda Marks for follow up.
Travelling with Respect - A Guide for Travellers
We have compiled a short guide to responsible travel which we recommend that you read before your holiday. A copy is given to all clients in the booking pack, or you can read it here.
Tribes Porter Policy
Tribes does not directly employ any guides or porters, but some of the ground operators that we work with do. We are doing our best to ensure that the staff that host our guests on treks around the world are looked after properly and enjoy the rights that they deserve. We are one of 40 tour operators in the UK with an agreed policy on porters rights. Working together with Tourism Concern and other tour operators, the following guidelines have been put together as a basis for our policy on guides/porters rights:
1. Our relationship with the destination countries.
The ground agents that we use have been issued with detailed questionnaires on their policies regarding the porters and guides that they employ. A summary of the answers provided is given to all of our guests, who can then see for themselves how these policies come in to action on the ground.
As a company we also make regular visits to the destinations we offer to see for ourselves that the appropriate guidelines are being adhered to.
2. Our relationship with the porters and guides.
A majority of the guides and head porters that host our clients are permanently employed by the ground agents we use, as opposed to being hired whenever they are needed. This provides them with job security and basic employment rights according to their contract.
3. Wages.
Minimum wages are often set by the government or National Park authorities. Our ground agents always pay the standard rate, and often more.
4. Training.
We only use local guides in the destinations that we offer. Guides receive proper training in first aid, mountain skills and in their attitudes toward the environment.
5. Equipment.
We try to ensure that guides and porters are provided with the appropriate equipment for them to do their job effectively and safely, such as proper footwear, waterproof clothing and tents to sleep in. This is an ongoing effort, beset by problems of porters selling the kit they are given but we are constantly trying to work round such issues to ensure that they are never placed in unnecessarily dangerous situations.
6. Loads.
Maximum loads are often set by the government or National Park Authority. Porters will not carry loads exceeding these limits. Clients are advised the maximum weights that porters will carry for them.
7. Client awareness and behaviour.
All of our clients are provided with detailed pre-trip information upon booking with us. This includes the responsible travel questionnaire that has been completed by the ground agent that will be hosting them. We also have a set of guidelines for general responsible travel. Advice on issues such as recommended/compulsory tipping is given before travel.
8. Monitoring
All of our clients are issued with a feedback form to complete after their trip. Any comments pertaining to porters/guides are immediately followed up and sorted out. Our UK staff also visit our destinations on a regular basis for first hand observation.
Policy for Gorilla Visits
On the way to the gorillas
A maximum number of 6 visitors may visit a group of habituated gorillas in a day. This minimizes behavioural disturbance to the gorillas and the risk of their exposure to human-bone diseases. Always wash your hands before you head out to the gorillas. DO NOT leave rubbish in the park. Whatever you bring into the forest should be carried back with you. You will be taken to where the guides left the gorillas the day before. From there you will follow the gorillas trail to find them. Look out for the gorillas nesting sites along the way. When you approach the gorillas, the guides will inform you when to get your cameras ready. Please always keep your voices low. You will also then be able to observe the great bird life and other wildlife in the forest.
When you are with the Gorillas
Keep a minimum of 5 metres (15 feet) from the gorillas. This is to protect them from catching human diseases.
You must stay in a tight group when you are near the gorillas.
Keep your voices low at all times. However, it is okay to ask the guide questions.
DO NOT eat or drink while you are near the gorillas. Eating or drinking inevitably will increase the risk of food/drink morsels/ droplets falling, which could increase the risk of transmission of diseases.
Sometimes the gorillas charge. Follow the guides example- crouch down slowly, DO NOT look at the gorillas directly in the eyes, wait for the animals to pass. DO NOT attempt to run away. Running away will increase the risk.
Flash photography is NOT permitted! When taking pictures, move slowly and carefully.
DO NOT touch the gorillas. They are wild animals.
The maximum time you can spend with the gorillas is one hour. However, if the gorillas become agitated or nervous, the guide will end the visit early.
After the visit, keep your voices down until you are 200 metres from the gorillas.
General Health Rules
REMEMBER gorillas are very susceptible to human diseases. The following ways to minimize the risk your visit may pose to them.
Respect the limits imposed on the number of visitors allowed with gorillas each day. This minimizes the risk of disease transmission stress to the group.
If you are feeling ill, or having a contagious disease, volunteer to stay back. An alternative visit will be arranged for you if possible, or you may be refunded money if this happened when already in the park (neither option can be guaranteed, as it is at the discretion of the park authorities).
If you feel the urge to cough and sneeze when you are near the gorillas, please turn your head away and cover your nose and mouth in order to minimize the spread of bacteria or viruses.
Always stay 5 metres (15 feet) away from the gorillas. The further back you are, the more relaxed the group will be.
DO NOT leave any rubbish (e g. food wrappers) in the park; Foreign items can harbour diseases or other contaminants.
If you need to defecate whilst in the forest, please ask the guide to dig for you a hole with his panga. Make sure the hole is 30cms deep and fill it when you have finished.