Llama Travel recognises that tourism to countries like Ecuador and Peru has a significant impact both on the lives of local people and on the natural environment. When carried out sensitively, the impact can be very positive, providing employment and income as well as encouraging the preservation of local resources and culture. The economic benefit comes more directly than most other forms of export, e.g. through restaurants, shops and other services supplied by locals.
Ecuador and Peru are poor countries, and to make a living, natural resources have always been exploited by locals, e.g. through logging in the Amazon rainforest. However, as tourism has become more important economically, there is a growing recognition of the need to preserve natural resources. This can be seen through the increasing number of eco-lodges in the jungle, where many locals who once would have been involved in hunting or destruction of the forest are now involved in preservation.
Llama Travel works with local companies and organisations in Ecuador and Peru to try to ensure that our holidays are beneficial for the people of the destinations we visit.
Caring for the environment and local culture
We are very privileged today to be able to visit some of the most beautiful places on earth and experience local cultures unchanged for centuries. We have a responsibility to preserve these for future visitors and residents alike. Llama Travel takes this responsibility seriously and we ask you to help.
- Support the local economy by buying local produce and services.
- Respect local people and culture, especially when taking photographs.
- Respect the behaviour and habitat of wildlife.
- Do not buy products made from endangered species or tropical hardwoods.
- Support local environmental projects and those designed to preserve local heritage.
- Please do not litter. “Take only photographs, leave only footprints”.
All Llama Travel excursions are taken with knowledgeable local guides who are fluent in Spanish and English, and often in other local languages, such as Quechua. Some trips include sections without guides; in these cases drivers may have only rudimentary English. We feel that the use of local guides aids the traveller in a better understanding of their destination, as well as working to better the lives of people living in the local community.
Llama Travel does all it can to ensure that all local staff we work with are treated and paid well. However, some of the local companies we work with may not always share these concerns. If you come across anyone on your holiday that you think is being exploited, please bring this to our attention.
Practical Action
Llama Travel is proud to support the work in Peru of Practical Action, a UK-based development charity. Practical Action was founded in the UK in 1965 by Fritz Schumacher, who coined the phrase ‘small is beautiful’ to describe the need to apply small-scale technology to reduce poverty. The charity, initially called Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG), opened its Peru office in 1985, and now employs over 100 people in 9 regions of the country.
The Sicuani office, close to Cusco, is focused on helping local communities to increase their incomes through improving their agricultural production. This is done through irrigation projects, improving crop yields, as well as through Kamayok projects. Kamayoks are members of rural communities, trained by Practical Action to become farm extension workers who, through education, improve techniques in organic farming, dairy processing, bee keeping, cattle fattening and guinea pig raising. They then share this knowledge with their communities, allowing locals to produce more to sell in markets, greatly increasing incomes.
Llama Travel is particularly impressed with the way Practical Action operates, employing local people (the Sicuani office is run by people from in and around Sicuani), carrying out relatively short-term projects (3-5 years) that have a long-term impact on people’s lives.
Having supported Practical Action’s work in Peru financially, Llama Travel has now developed a visit to some of the projects Practical Action carries out close to Cusco for our customers who visit Peru. You visit local communities and meet ‘campesinos’ (small scale farmers), giving an incredible opportunity to see and experience a part of Peru that virtually no other visitor to Peru has. This visit has been developed to bring some of the benefits of tourism to people who usually have no contact with the many visitors to Peru.
Click here for information about our Campesino excursion.
Carbon emissions
Flying, like other forms of transport and many other activities, produces greenhouse gases. Many people are looking to find ways to reduce their impact on the environment and in particular to offset their carbon emissions in some way.
There are a number of organisations which you can buy ‘carbon offsets’ from. The going rate for a long haul flight to Ecuador or Peru is currently about £20. Whilst this is a valid option and many operators specifically suggest that holidaymakers do this, we are less comfortable with this approach. Most of these organisations are commercial enterprises. In addition, a lot of the activity they undertake is planting trees, the environmental benefits of which are much disputed. We prefer the support of organisations involved in introducing renewable energy sources in developing countries, so that these countries are able to advance economically and socially without developing a ‘carbon habit’.
Llama Travel supports the work in Peru of Practical Action, a UK-based development charity. One of the Practical Action projects we are supporting is the development of renewable energy sources in rural communities. This allows the communities to develop without having to burn resources or use other polluting forms of energy generation.
If you would like to contribute your £20 carbon offset amount to this Practical Action activity, please let us know. We will match your £20, so that Practical Action will receive double your contribution to developing renewable energy projects in Peru.