Sustainable tourism can help fight global warming

Reef and Rainforest Tours is a UK tour operator that champions nature and wildlife conservation, offering support to responsible, sustainable, ecotourism projects.

For over 17 years, ever since the company was created by managing director Alan Godwin, the ethos behind the tour operator has always been to provide the local people and landowners with a genuine and sustainable alternative to destructive practices, such as logging, ranching and hunting.

In the long term, they realise that their communities and businesses will thrive by supporting small scale, upmarket tourism.

For example, by visiting many of the areas selected by Reef and Rainforest for their outstanding natural beauty and wildlife, visitors are actively discouraging rainforest deforestation and, in many cases, encouraging the replanting of forest trees to create wildlife reserves and forest corridors. Additionally, they often serve to awaken a deep pride in the local populations for their natural heritage, thereby encouraging conservationist attitudes and changes in traditional destructive practices.

On a global scale, by curbing rainforest deforestation and encouraging the replanting of forests to enlarge reserves and create wildlife corridors, rainforest tourism helps to offset much of the CO2 produced by travel to these remote areas. Reef and Rainforest Tours also provides links to companies offering additional CO2 offsetting.

Conservation Collaborations
Madagascar – Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
Quentin Bloxam, Programme Director of the DWCT, leads a number of group tours for Reef and Rainforest Tours and has done so for over a decade. For each group member, Reef and Rainforest Tours continues to donate a substantial sum to support the Trust’s work in Madagascar, helping to preserve the mere 15% of forest cover remaining in that unique island.

Belize – Belize Audubon Society
Reef and Rainforest Tours are members of the Belize Audubon Society, Belize’s premier conservation organisation. In addition to publicising their sterling work, practically all Reef and Rainforest Tours’ clients to Belize will visit one or more of the Society’s reserves (most of which include rainforest), thereby directly benefiting their revenue.

UK – The Shark Trust
The Plymouth-based Shark Trust works to protect the much-maligned fish species at home and around the world. Reef and Rainforest Tours has donated considerable sums to the Trust and, in its current brochure, dedicated four pages to publicising their work.
Reef and Rainforest Tours’ 17-day “Aye Aye” itinerary to Madagascar starts from £3,176 per person, whilst their “Beautiful Belize on a Budget” tour starts from £1,668. Both prices are based on double occupancy.

For further information or to request a copy of a Reef and Rainforest Tours brochure, visit: Reefandrainforest.co.uk.