Ecotourism
Nature Travels is a member of the Swedish Ecotourism Society.
For 2008, Nature Travels has chosen to support SEFALO - the Swedish-Finnish-Norwegian Arctic Fox project.
The arctic, or polar, fox is critically endangered throughout the European Union. With a population of less than 150 individuals in mainland Europe, the species is extremely vulnerable since arctic foxes are highly dependent on the regular population cycles of small rodents.
SEFALO monitors arctic fox population and through conservation measures and supplmentary feeding aims to increase reproductive output and decrease mortality.
For more information see their website.
Image: Bo Lind
For just £4.15 you can offset the emissions from your flight from the UK to Sweden. Climate Care uses this sum to reduce the impact of your trip by investing in climate change mitigation projects such as tree planting and renewable energy research.
By choosing to make a contribution you can effectively make your trip "climate neutral" and travel with a much clearer conscience! If you do not wish to purchase an offset, please indicate this on your booking form.
Image: Bo Lind
At Nature Travels we believe strongly in the protection and conservation of the natural world. We also believe that properly managed tourism can bring direct and lasting benefit to both the culture and environment of the area visited.
We work hard to ensure that your trip to Sweden is as environmentally and culturally sensitive as possible, as well as to make sure that you receive the highest standards of customer service while you are there. For these reasons, all our providers in Sweden are local, small-scale operations who meet a stringent set of criteria for responsible tourism.
Closer to home, we are continually trying to reduce our environmental footprint as a company. We use low energy lighting in our office, use recycled and recyclable materials where possible and aim to keep our use of paper resources to a minimum.
Photo: Sofia Carter
Photo: Sofia Carter
Sweden is a large and beautiful country, and contains many unique areas of outstanding natural beauty. Because we aim to support and protect the Swedish environment and Swedish biodiversity, we donate 2% of our profits each year to support Swedish environmental conservation.
Climate change is one of the most serious environmental problems we face, but through Nature Travels you have an opportunity to reduce the impact of your trip. Since Sweden is a short-haul destination from the UK, the damage caused by your flight will be less serious than if you chose to holiday in a destination further afield. Of course, all foreign travel has an environmental impact. For this reason, we include a small offset in the price of your holiday which is forwarded to Climate Care on your behalf (see www.climatecare.org). However, you may opt out of this offset if you wish.
Climate Care uses this sum to offset the impact of your trip by investing in climate change mitigation projects such as tree planting and renewable energy research. By choosing to make a contribution you can effectively make your trip "climate neutral" and travel with a much clearer conscience! The offset for travel to Sweden costs just £4.15 per person. If you do not wish to purchase an offset, please indicate this on your booking form.
Photos on this page: www.imagebank.sweden.se©Bo Lind/Swedish Travel & Tourism Council
ECOTOURISM POLICY FOR NATURE TRAVELS LTD
Definition of Ecotourism by The International Ecotourism Society:
"Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people."
Tourism is often described as the "world's biggest industry" on the basis of its contribution to global GDP, the number of jobs it generates and the number of clients it serves. The rate at which tourism continues to grow presents both opportunities and threats for the conservation of biodiversity and local culture.
Tourism in key biodiversity areas can be both an opportunity for conservation and a threat to biodiversity. Nature Travels believes that carefully planned and implemented tourism can be a sustainable economic opportunity for local communities as well as a successful conservation strategy. Ecotourism can provide income to local people and, by its reliance on healthy ecosystems, offer a powerful incentive to conserve and protect biodiversity. People who earn their living from ecotourism are more likely to protect their natural resources and support conservation efforts.
Our commitment is to offer experiences that have minimum impact on the local environment, culture and resources. We are also committed to ensuring that local communities benefit from our business. All providers of Nature Travels experiences are small-scale local businesses owned and managed by local people. Our customers contribute directly to the economy of the areas they visit.
Nature Travels is deeply committed to the conservation of our natural world and each year we donate 2% of our pre-tax profits to support conservation work in Sweden. For 2007 the project we have chosen is SEFALO: the Swedish-Finnish-Norwegian Arctic Fox project.
Through co-operation with Climate Care, we offer our customers an opportunity to reduce the impact of their trip on climate change by selling offsets. These balance out the carbon dioxide produced by reducing an equivalent quantity of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making the holiday effectively "climate neutral".
There is a clear need for all of us working in the travel industry to ensure that the positive aspects of tourism are developed and that negative aspects are reduced or avoided by developing a responsible approach to tourism. In this way, tourism can make a real contribution to the long-term future of a country's wildlife, people, culture and heritage.