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Established in 1997, the initiative was led by village youth from four nearby villages who volunteered their time to plan and establish community owned ecotourism activities. Among other things these pioneer volunteers documented traditional indigenous knowledge and aural history and began detailed studies of the seven different types of rainforest which surround the community.
The aim of this community initiative is to create sustainable and alternative sources of income for the local indigenous people of the four villages of the Batu Puteh Community of the Lower Kinabatangan.
In 1998, volunteers spearheaded forest fire fighting in the nearby forests, saving orang-utans and allowing numerous other wildlife species to escape to safety. Since that time our partners have wholeheartedly adopted the second key objective to immediately intervene to restore degraded rainforest habitat and wetland ecosystems. By 1999 the group had secured funds to start forest habitat restoration, the work of which has been ongoing since that time.
The initiative has been developing community based eco-tourism ventures that will provide income from eco-tourists who will come to experience the amazing diversity of wildlife and rainforest types surrounding the community. At the same time as providing an income for the local people of the area, the initiative works to protect the rainforests of the region. With one clear focus (develop eco-tourism in the region) this initiative accomplishes two goals, conservation and sustainable development.
Most volunteers will assist with forest habitat restoration and wetland lake restoration which provides critical habitat, food and nesting areas for rare and threatened wildlife species, such as orang-utans, gibbons, proboscis monkeys, elephants and otters, amongst others. Other roles may include developing nature interpretation trails, building work at the Eco-Camp and conducting basic wildlife surveys. It is also hoped that volunteers might prove useful with IT skills and teaching the local community English.
There will be times volunteers will be required to help the core team with the general maintenance of facilities and equipment (helping with the boat repair, for example), and at other times volunteers will be required to support community social work (helping with rubbish clean-ups, for example). As the infrastructure of the area improves and more facilities are built, there will be new challenges to undertake. The core project work involves supporting and developing the ecotourism products, which includes trail building, signage, interpretation displays, construction work, landscaping work and hauling construction materials.
Though a small and independent community-based organisation, it is very impressive and the product rivals bigger commercial operators, proving that community projects are not only viable but are also competitive at the highest level. Tasks could also include tree planting in degraded forest or other direct hands-on conservation work, and while this is tough work it provides the opportunity to get volunteers out into the rainforest and amongst the very wildlife that they are working towards saving.
We are dedicated to responsible tourism, and all of the projects that we support directly benefit the environment, the local community, or both. All projects are carefully chosen to offer our volunteers sustainable and responsible travel, with specific attention being paid to their involvement in the sustainability of all their practices / project goals.
All of our projects and expeditions issue the participants with clear guidelines on responsible tourism and ecotourism, all specific to the particular environment / region. These cover a number of issues, ranging from waste disposal in remote areas, recycling
The owner of this company did a gap year trip in the early 90s which involved building a bandstand for a small village in Patagonia. While he was there, he realised the project was only helpful in developing the Western traveler as the village didn’t want a bandstand and only argued about who owned it. And so he set up a volunteer organisation which is useful to communities and provides them with resources and help with funding. Today, his projects offer travelers an opportunity to fully integrate into communities and to make a real long-term difference to the local people’s lifestyles.
We invite every traveler who books a vacation via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the vacations they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same vacation can have different views!
