Our Sustainability Commitment

At our core, we hope to inspire travelers to discover and cherish the earth and its people with every journey they embark on. Among our key guiding principles is the commitment to positively impact the areas we explore and work. To this end, we donate 50% of our profits to support projects at the global, regional, and local levels.

We also aim to protect the last wild places in the world, support innovative local projects, and facilitate conservation, research, education, and community development projects in the places we explore. You can learn more about which projects we support here.

We also have a carbon-offsetting program where the negative environmental impact of air, land, and water transportation is estimated and a donation is made to Sustainable Travel International (STI) to fund their Alto Mayo Conservation Initiative as a way of offsetting the environmental impacts of the trip. This project is protecting and restoring 450,000 acres of the Alto Mayo Protected Forest in the San Martín region of northern Peru – an area twice the size of New York City – and protecting the 240,000 inhabitants of the Alto Mayo Basin. STI also offers training in organic coffee production as a sustainable alternative to logging for coffee farmers within the community.

When you travel with Native Tours, Everyone Wins

• First and foremost, you, the traveler, win because you have an authentic, unforgettable experience of a lifetime and a rich cultural exchange that will make for life-long memories and tales.
• The environment wins, through responsible use of natural resources, traveler appreciation for conservation, and organizational contributions to support biodiversity protection.
• Our local indigenous communities win because they are paid a fair price to share their cultural activities, thus cultivating pride in their cultural identity and the means to preserve their cultural heritage.
• The local workforce wins, through WFTO (World Fair Trade Organization) fair wages, safe working conditions, and capacity-building programs that increase their social and economic empowerment.
• Our partner non-profits win, through our funding of community and environmental projects to improve their standard of living.
• Our organization wins, through sustainable management, organizational stability, safety standards, customer satisfaction, and environmental and socio-cultural policies we can feel proud of.

It is our vision that Native Tours will be a model for the Latin American tourism industry by increasing the visibility of sustainable eco-tourism and raising the standards for other tour operators in the region. By supporting certified sustainable tour operators such as Native Tours, travelers can maximize social and economic benefits to the local communities while preserving the culture and environment of the places they visit. They can make their vacation count!

Karen Vergara
Founder, Native Tours

March 2022

NOTE: This policy is a public document available for download. The organization invites staff, guests, partners, and the community to suggest ways to further achieve best practices for environmental and social sustainability. This policy is reviewed annually.