Environment, Culture & Ethics Drive Our Adventure Tours
ETHICAL & RESPONSIBLE SOURCED ADVENTURES
All Pioneer expeditions are organised and led with a commitment to maximising the benefits of our trips to the local community and minimising the negative impact associated with tourism. We employ local agents and staff, not just to benefit the local economy, but also to give you a real sense of the local culture. To greatly reduce our impact on the environment there is a maximum of 8-10 team members, which helps to minimise the damage associated with large scale tourism.
On our trips we do not leave anything behind where we camp, trek, raft, kayak or sail. We leave places like we found them, in fact we sometimes leave them in better condition. Most of our expeditions do involve some sort of environmentally friendly power such as trekking by foot, paddling a raft or sailing a boat. To support the local communities, we sleep and eat in locally-run establishments where possible, and interact sensibly with locals as we believe in positive cultural exchanges so as not to change their lives – this means trade not aid.
We are also part of the “Travelers Against Plastic” and encourage visitors to use water in containers provided by hotels and operators or devices and filters that eliminate various water bacteria as plastic bottles take 700 years to begin composting and 90% of the trash in the ocean is from plastic.
In addition to our general ethical approach to travel, in many of the countries we operate in we also have specific initiatives to help the local community. More information on these can be found on the itineraries for the trips, however below is an example of the initiatve that we are running in Madagascar to help both with Madgascar initiative.
MADAGASCAR COMMUNITY REFORESTATION PROJECT
Everyone who travels to Madagascar with Pioneer are contributing towards a unique community reforestation effort run by Pioneer Expeditions.
We fund a school tree nursery near Italavina. This is a long term project which aims to plant over 2000 trees every year, as well as provide fruit for the children in the local school. We invest 2% of every trip cost to help fund this and you can include a visit to this project as part of your Madagascan itinerary or even spend time ‘volunteering’ to help develop this project further.
