What is Rainforest Alliance and what do they stand for?
The Rainforest Alliance is a growing network of farmers, foresters, communities, scientists, governments, environmentalists, and businesses dedicated to conserving biodiversity and ensuring sustainable livelihoods. Their mission is to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices, and consumer behavior.
Watch the video to know more about following the frog, the Rainforest Alliance campaign to raise awareness in responsible consumption.
How we began to be part of Rainforest Alliance and the requirements we completed:
As part of our plan to improve sustainability in all of our processes, in 2013 we decided to become part of the Rainforest Alliance. This decision represents our constant commitment with everyone involved in our services, from the travelers who decide to travel with us to the communities where we operate and our staff. As part of its philosophy and work methodology, Rainforest Alliance evaluates each of its partners under 3 main areas: business, culture and environment. From this, it generates a report of the various points evaluated within each area and generates an action and improvement plan for the points that were considered to be only partially fulfilled or unfulfilled.
Thanks to the results obtained in these annual evaluations, we have been able to improve our efforts in the areas where it was most needed and have been able to measure with greater precision the improvement in the reduction of negative impacts and increase in the positive results that these generate. Sharing and analyzing the results with our team helps them have something concrete and tangible to show the impact of their effort. It helps them feel more commited to our mission.
Our achievements
Putting ourselves a main goal to be more sustainable in our processes has allowed us to improve them substantially and this has been reflected in the excellent reviews of our travelers and staff. A clear example are our porters, who not only benefit from receiving salaries 50% higher than the average, but also have the opportunity to make their family businesses more sustainable by receiving training and being part of our supply chain of ingredients for cooking, always obtaining fresh products of excellent quality, and decreasing our carbon footprint when buying local production.
Regarding the environment, we have seen how many of the routes where we operate have been affected by the excess of tourists and the little control that many agencies have over the negative impacts they generate. This is why we are highly conscious and committed not only to operate our routes in a sustainable manner, but also to look for alternatives to avoid the overcrowding of classic routes and give our travelers the opportunity to experience a trip where they can have the necessary space to fully enjoy nature, avoiding the hassle of being in line to visit the attractions and having little time to take good photos.
As we can see, really being sustainable means improving processes in many aspects of the company and it is not just about philanthropy, it is also benefiting from the promoted sustainability. It is this that allows us to continue operating the routes we love so much and always improve our services to customers and our relationship with our workers and the surrounding communities where we operate.
Thanks to all of our partners and workers for strongly believing in responsible tourism and following the frog with us! These results are as much yours, as it’s ours.
Loading...
