Reading Time: 3 minutes

Travel as a way to give back

_ Story _

Adventure travel is travelling to more adventurous places, places that are often less visited, and especially in 2020, will experience economic fallbacks. By planning our leisure activities in less travelled-to areas, we actually have an ability to give back in a direct and impactful way, by bringing income to places mostly ignored by (mass) tourism.

Small-scale adventure travel has a very light footprint compared to mass tourism.

Small-scale adventure travel has a very light footprint compared to mass tourism. By looking into how travel can be more sustainable, we can contribute even further by setting good examples. And in return giving a unique experience.

One company that understands this synergy well is Untamed Borders. Eastern Ridge worked with them on their sustainability approach in the communities they visit.

Untamed Borders already has a sustainable approach ingrained into the philosophy of its trips. In addition to safety and adventure, Untamed Borders directly contributes to community empowerment and environmental awareness. By organising international sport events, they leave a lasting tourism infrastructure that brings much-needed income to the regions.

By choosing off-the-beaten-track destinations over mass tourism hotspots, they bring smiles to the local community, rather than long-lasting negative impacts like the destruction of nature or increase in waste.

The first thing we looked into is to further reduce the waste in the regions visited.

Water filters

When travelling with multiple people this can result in whatever the group size is X 4 plastic bottles a day (to ensure everyone has drinking water that’s safe).

We decided to investigate a more sustainable approach by using more local and natural resources. We set up a system where we use 1-litre water filters that can be used by individuals in the group for their personal water supply. But also by providing enough water sources for the entire group in a camp by having a stationary 10-litre water filter available.

We acknowledge that if we want to continue living on and using our planet in all these ways, we should also find a way of returning that gift to our planet.

Sustainable return for what we use

We know travel has an impact on the environment.

With every geographic movement we make, we have an impact on our environment.

Besides the often unavoidable air travel, using motorised transport at our destination causes carbon emissions.

And just like in our daily lives at home we also have an impact on forestation, animal produce, agriculture and energy production. We use buildings build of wood, use dairy and meat, eat grains and charge our phone.

Together with Untamed Borders, we acknowledge that if we want to continue living on and using our planet in all these ways, we should also find a way of returning that gift to our planet.

To go about doing that, we created a sustainable solution. For every trip Untamed Borders makes, they contribute to a lasting return to the Earth, by funding tree planting. For every traveller on a trip with Untamed Borders, they invest 2% in trees . Even better, these funds are used to grow and maintain forests by locals in the countries that Untamed Borders travels to; by supporting tree planting in the region of Bamyan, Afghanistan.

How we see the future

We hope other companies will follow this example and are already excited to see that companies, like ecosia.org have really started thinking about how they can contribute to this global problem. And, like Untamed Borders, invest in local communities with their activities.

This contributes to our goal at Eastern Ridge – sustainable development starting from the local community, with Western business input for knowledge and funds.