Kerala vacation, Malabar Adventure

Planet

This trip also focuses on forest people’s role as care takers of forest, its resources and wildlife and by doing so also assures them a decent livelihood with dignity. Sustainable income through responsible tourism ensures increasing interest amongst local community members, which in turn supports conservation of wildlife and forest resources.

On behalf of every single traveler who visits the region, we plant sapling(s) to promote traveler's forest, which is a community owned eco-restoration project.

For every person that travels with the company, it plants trees through The Travel Forest initiative. Depending on where they plant and the requirement of the specific area, they plant either indigenous trees or a mix of indigenous and non-native species. Planting non-native seedlings may seem counter-intuitive but doing this can often help any remaining indigenous forest from being cut down (e.g. for fuel) as some non-native trees grow much more quickly than indigenous types. They particularly aim to save ancient or older indigenous forest, through offering an alternative option for fuel requirements of local communities. In addition to this benefit, their Travel Forest initiative helps with such things as planting for water-course retention, soil erosion, shade and even food – all depending on what is planted and where. They have planted almost 100,000 trees to date in various degraded locations including the Andean mountains in Peru, northern Tanzania and Malawi. This has always been done in conjunction with the local communities who plant and then tend the seedlings. Trees are far more important to the health of this planet (and us) than many people imagine. This global Travel Forest initiative can and does make a big difference.

As part of our commitment to the environment we have a programme to plant trees in Tanzania, Malawi, Peru etc. through the company’s foundation. This was set up to help alleviate poverty, conserve endangered wildlife, and protect earth’s environmental diversity for the benefit of us all. All the projects have a link with tourism in some way, and many benefit the wider world as well as local people, through conserving areas of natural beauty. We don’t just look overseas when considering the environment, even at the office the team planted tress in the fields surrounding the buildings to celebrate the company’s 21st birthday in 2019.

As a company we think about our partners overseas carefully. The company ethos is to use properties around the globe that have a similar ethical stance to ourselves. If they can use local suppliers for their provisions, be it food or furnishings then they do, and all offer a variety of menus including vegetarian and vegan/plant-based options. Our partners support the use of solar/renewable energies, and many are looking at ways of switching their current supplies to more eco-friendly options in order to be more efficient. The use of solar, water and air are options in use or being explored, as well as grey water run offs. Energy efficient appliances and practices, card operated in room lighting, low energy bulbs, and a change in laundry practices, are all in operation, and show just a few of the initiatives used. Our partners also use local staff within their properties. Many live on-site in seasonal properties for example reducing the travel emissions of the company, many come from the local villages and communities surrounding the properties. This includes everyone from house keeping to management and the guides that are from the locale.

Due to the nature of the vacations provided by the company, it is impossible to eliminate all flights but where possible we use the minimum flight hours an itinerary can operate with. The packages we have on offer include rail portions in some areas, which keep emissions low, many walking options and shared transportation.

People

This vacation helps in a variety ways, mainly relating to helping back local people in terms of their traditions, cultures and livelihoods. Once practiced in several places in Kerala and especially on the banks of River Nila, featured art forms and rituals are no longer financially viable for people who practice it as there are less and less people who are showing interest in these rituals. This has affected the way of life of these ritualistic performers and they have been looking for other jobs based on daily wages. The Responsible tourism initiative has helped some of the community members to continue their lifestyle and earn from what they know for many generations. The boats we travel in were traditionally used for transporting fine sand and coconut husks to different locations. By hiring these boats we are giving them an alternative source of income.

Pottery and Bell metal workshops gives insight into the resilience of the artisans and how our vacations help them to make supplementary source of income. Promotion of such initatives have created new found interest amongst locals and new orders are regularly received by workers.

The traditional home stays that are part of the vacation accommodations were introduced as part of heritage revival and is providing a source of income for locals to maintain their age-old architectural marvels.