Queensland Rainforests & Great Barrier Reef wildlife vacation

Planet

In Australia (as with everywhere we go) we carefully choose accommodation, supplies and transportation that either minimises its effect on the environment or helps to contribute to its sustainable development. By choosing small, privately owned accommodation where possible as we are always looking at ways to lower our ecological footprint and smaller companies are usually much better at this than larger ones. Where possible, we make sure that the lodges, camps and ranches that we use support local projects for the protection of the wildlife and local communities which rely on tourism as the principal source of income. We try and make sure that all the accommodation that we use is are ecologically responsible and use solar power electricity and water recycling pumps etc as well as making sure that all the food consumed is produced locally. We also contribute and participate in as many studies that the local researchers are conducting as possible.

Wildlife Promise:

By bringing people here with a professional zoologist as well as professional local guides we aim to showcase the environment in full but also to allow you to learn about the problems facing the ecosystems here and highlight the ways that continued development and human exploitation are affect the species and how cutting edge research is countering the problems as well as showing you examples of success stories. We also keep a record of all the great sightings we see on each tour and record the environmental factors, this data is used by ourselves but also given to the researchers who are working on many of these species. Such as contributing our pictures and videos to the local and global humpback whale identification programs. We also help contribute to ongoing research of the Lumholtz tree kangaroo populations in Atherton Tablelands.

People

As with any of our tours of Australian tours or elsewhere in the world we always employ local guides and experts where ever possible. They have a much better local knowledge and also helps to bring in revenue sources to the local community. All of the accommodations that we stay in make sure that all their resources such as food, drink and equipment is locally sourced. Some of these towns and villages are very remote and by using locally owned business and sourcing as many things from the local area we contribute to the benefit of the local economy. We also participate in locally run naturalist and cultural tours that showcase the local wildlife, ecosystems as well as Aboriginal cultures and histories, these tours are helping to keep alive some of the smaller traditional communities and ways of life. During our trips of the Atherton Tablelands we often travel on private land to find some of the animals and we make sure that the land owners are compensated for the use of their land. This helps to keep sustainable practises going and preserve the local ecosystems as well as providing a direct income from wildlife watching to the local land owners. We also encourage the purchasing of local handicrafts which are all created in a sustainable way and provide great unique souvenirs.