Charity and Responsibility
Responsible Travel
Responsible travel is about acting in the correct way at every level, not just supporting charities. For example we have always worked closely with local partners at every step, helping them build up from a grassroots level, and continue to use local staff and especially local guides at every stop. This is our way of ensuring we 'give as well as take' from the local communities, whereby we take the privacy in some part and definitely the natual beauty of the area, while helping to develop economic growth through Tourism.
Carbon Offsetting
Travel by Train, use less carbon!
Way back before Carbon Offsetting became a buzzword, all of our customers travelled in a responsible way purely by travelling by train. ".. train travel is one of the lowest impact ways to get from point to point, save using your own footpower" Of course as more people make the Transsiberian journey as a holiday 'destination', airline travel becomes more of an issue at either the start or end of the journey, but by travelling on 'working trains' you are already taking an efficient and responsible approach to travel. Feel guilty about all those flights you're taking, travel overland for your next trip! Calculate your flight emissions here.
Charity
Huge amounts of rural Mongolia and parts of China are undeveloped and there are many sectors who do not benefit directly or indirectly from the positive effects of tourism. We actively work with local charities and encourage all our local operators to be part of the local community and become involved with local charitable causes.
Bactrian Camel in the Wild
Wild Camels
In 2010, our chosen charity is Wild Camels Protection Foundation. This is a very hands on foundation set up in 1997 by John Hare who has an active role in the protection of the endangered Bactrian Camel of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and China. It is a small set-up, like ourselves and it is clear any support goes directly on aid work, rather than lost in the bureaucracy of larger NGO's. That's something we appreciate.
Read an interview with John Hare of the Wild Camel Protection Foundation.
Urgent Appeal
The Wild Camels Foundation has an urgent appeal following an especially cold winter in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia. Read more of their current plight at this site.
Adopt a camel, or make a donation at WildCamels.
Our Commitment
Any referrals (currently around 5%) from the sale of online books through our site are donated directly to charitable organisations.
