Sustainable travel, ethical tours, and low-impact trips… Different ways of saying what you highly value: the overall sustainable travel experience. You probably already (sort of) know why, but let us explain why sustainable travel is the key to our future:
According to Earth Day Network, humans have impacted 83 percent of Earth’s land surface. As you can see, it’s essential for you to implement a sustainable travel lifestyle if we want our future generations to experience the world we have today. While you gain a massive result when you adopt an overall sustainable travel lifestyle, the type of wildlife tour you book can make a great difference as well.
And you might have guessed it: today’s blog shares 3 guidelines for your unforgettable wildlife tour. Our zone of genius, so sit tight!
You might know that The Green Stamp offers a platform with features from ethical and sustainable wildlife tours. The Green Stamp audits a wildlife tour on different elements before the wildlife tour is featured on their website. The wildlife project is audited on financial credibility towards claimed donations, and credibility checks towards their ethical & sustainable procedures. So, when you feel a little lazy and don’t feel like finding a sustainable wildlife tour yourself? Awesome, we’ve got you covered. Through The Green Stamp, you can make your booking with a sustainable wildlife tour in different places of the world.
However, because we know that the notorious travel preparations are so much fun, this blog is here to help you. Help you book a sustainable wildlife tour by sharing 3 essential guidelines:
Guideline #1 / Find your sustainable wildlife tour
A wildlife tour gets to be an unforgettable experience when all the wildlife you see are living in the wild. This sounds rather easy, right? But give this some thought for a moment. Walking around in a zoo and seeing elephants, is quite amazing. Now, imagine riding your bike through the savanna, spotting a wild herd of elephants. I mean: it truly doesn’t get any better than that, right?
This visualization brings us right to our first guideline: you want the wildlife tour you book to make you spot wildlife in the wild. When you enjoy the sights of seeing wildlife, you want your host to apply a few rules. The host should never touch wildlife, not feed them, and not take selfies with them. You might wonder, “how can I make sure the wildlife tour I book works with a hands-off policy?”
A quick tip: Look at their posted photos on their website. Pictures say it all!
For more tips, keep reading because we finish this blog with 3 valuable tips!
Guideline #2 / Find your sustainable wildlife tour
You’ve found a wildlife tour that takes you to see “WILD-life”. And since you want to experience a sustainable wildlife tour, this second guideline is a game changer.
You want your wildlife tour to work sustainably. A sustainable mindset results in practices such as offering organic foods, avoiding the use of plastic, or taking you on a canoe trip instead of a motorboat. You will learn that organic foods are usually the most tasteful. That plastic replacements teach just how creative local communities are. How much you appreciate nature when you float on a river with a canoe instead of a motorboat. Firsthand experiencing how sustainability is implemented for wildlife tours in different places of the world opened our minds (and hearts). When you take this guideline seriously, we’re confident you feel the same.
As mentioned before: we end this blog by sharing tips that help you find the wildlife tour that works in the most sustainable way.
Guideline #3 / Find your sustainable wildlife tour
The third guideline is our million-dollar secret that amazes everyone. Only a select amount of wildlife tours work by this policy: a donation policy. It basically comes down to the fact that for each tour the wildlife project sells, they donate a specific amount to a local charity. Some of these wildlife projects still earn profits alongside, whereas some others are non-profit tour agencies.
Why does this guideline add up to an unforgettable wildlife tour? Let us share an example of one of our partners. When you book a tour with Bukit Lawang Jungle Trekking, they donate 5% of its profits to the “Care Now Project”. The foundation of this project lays in the wish to reduce or recycle rubbish or plastic trash. This wish led them towards Ecobricks. While actively working with Ecobricks, Bukit Lawang Jungle Trekking hires locals to pick up trash from the jungle and the village. With this trash, they fill up Ecobricks to build houses and bathrooms for the local families.
Let’s recap: with your booked tour, you help pay locals to clean up trash from the jungle, which is then used to build houses and bathrooms. Now, tell us this guideline doesn’t (1000%) add up to an unforgettable wildlife tour?!
The 3 above-mentioned guidelines to find your sustainable wildlife tour have probably given you new information. Though, as mentioned before, let’s finish this blog with 3 extra bonus tips!
Find your sustainable wildlife tour tip #1: Check the wording
The first tip to clarify whether you’re dealing with a sustainable wildlife tour lays in the words they use. AIMS the wildlife tour to work sustainably, or WORKS the wildlife tour sustainably? Though there’s only a slight difference in wording, it’s an important one. Greenwashing happens more often than you think. We advise you to carefully read the about page from the wildlife project. Notice which words they use. Are they actually doing something sustainably, or are they only promising to work sustainably?
Find your sustainable wildlife tour tip #2: Social Stalking
Just kidding, you don’t have to stalk the wildlife tour. However, we most definitely advise you to check out their Instagram page. Do them claim to not touch wildlife, however still post a picture feeding an orangutan? That’s a clear sign something is off.
Find your sustainable wildlife tour tip #3: Lowest rate investigation
The final tip is one we use ourselves literally ALL THE TIME. We carefully read the lowest given reviews on TripAdvisor. We don’t say that all low rated reviews are fair ones, however low(est) rated reviews tell a lot. Visitors who picked up on practices that are harmful for wildlife, most likely left a review. Therefore, the lowest rated reviews on TripAdvisor are massively valuable when finding your sustainable wildlife tour.
That’s that! 3 guidelines so you can find your sustainable wildlife tour, and 3 tips to find your next wildlife tour. We hope this blog gave you some new information, and we would love for you to share which guideline stood out the most to you!
Written by: Carmen Castricum
