Our commitment to sustainability

Working with the community

We consider that real support to the native communities, local and close to the places where we operate, does not consist of buying some products or hiring local labor, for us the commitment must be much deeper because of what the Rainforest Expeditions has done in one of its lodges (Posada Amazonas) an association in participation with the Eseeja de Infierno Native Community, with which the Community receives directly from the ecotourism business 75% of the profits that the business generates and the Company keeps 25%, Obviously, labor from the community and local members is used, having professionally trained not only positions such as barracks, waiters, but also personnel such as bakers, kitchen technicians, chefs, motorists, maintenance technicians, and some professional lines even having members of the community working across the chain of operations, human resources, projects, sales, and accounting.

The community in these 20 years that the project has received income in the amount of more than 30 million soles and has trained more than 200 people. It also hires local or community personnel, with all its benefits and obligations that the law mandates within the formality, and an effort is made to always buy local products and raw materials from the members of the Local Community.

We are currently developing 2 interesting projects in the midst of the pandemic:

1. Install 30 mini-farms of 20 laying hens each and reproducing, to distribute in the 30 most vulnerable families of the native Community, such as the elderly, the sick and people with difficulties to develop the normal functions that are carried out in a farm.

2. The second project has been to supply the main medicines and equipment that the medical post requires for the treatment of COVID19, as well as to enable in the school two special environments for the elderly and vulnerable people, supplied with oxygen balloons and the main needs, this because due to the remoteness of these communities, there is no support from the central or regional government.

Local materials

The menu offered in our hostel was developed by the Peruvian chef: Dennys Yupanqui, a renowned chef who traveled and worked for 2 years in this project, Dennys managed to show in his menu a little more of the rich biodiversity of Peru, in his three regions, show a responsible Amazon, seasonal products, make the local input and local suppliers the protagonist of this adventure.

We worked for two years looking for the balance of the Menus, incorporating nutritional standards with a more inclusive and balanced menu. We managed to meet and connect with local and community producers and people who know the products better than anyone, integrating them into this value chain.

The success of Dennys in this project as a brand chef Peru was to show you healthy gastronomy and hand in hand with conservation, having a responsible menu in seasonal inputs, knowing that there is a small farmer in the surroundings of the shelters, having a greater pantry and above all respect for the product.

In this menu, we show you diversity, from some signature dishes to some Amazonian classics and others that always support us of Peruvian Cuisine in the world.

 

Reusing Energy and Recicling

The shelters use as their main source of energy a combination of solar energy with a first-generation generator, the generator, and the main power generation equipment are in specially insulated houses to avoid any disturbance or sound, it is measured annually with the sound level meter to guarantee that there is no undesirable effect with this equipment. This system allows us to have 24 hours of power, although we are not allowed to use hair dryers, irons, or other high consumption that can affect the system.

The hot water is obtained by means of gas hot springs.

The internet is satellite.

The refrigerators are a combination of gas refrigerators with the power supply of the central generator that is combined with solar panels. The kitchen is also gas.

Regarding recycling, the shelters have bins for the responsible segregation of garbage, plastics, paper, biodegradable, glass, and metal in the main environments. Everything is entirely lowered in boats to the city. Only biodegradable kitchen waste is dumped in wood-lined septic tanks that last approximately 2 years each. Each shelter has 7 of these wells, rotating between them since after 7 years the well can be used again since all the biodegradable material has degraded.

Single-use plastics are totally prohibited, so much so that only glass water bottles are sold or the corresponding refill is carried out to the portable bottles of water. In each environment, you will find where to refill with purified water with ceramic and ozone filters.

The effluents are totally separated for gray water and black water, these have a special and professional treatment ending in a biodigester and a settler, which allows keeping any effluent free of contamination, periodically the water and effluents are tested in Sedapal to know the quality of the water.

The water we use is extracted by means of electric pumps more than 25 meters deep in the subsoil, then going through a chlorine treatment, 3 filters of different materials and finally, an ozone machine ends up guaranteeing the quality of the water.

Carbon Neutral Operations

Here at Rainforest Expeditions, we are deeply committed to sustainability. Sustainability is at the core of our company and we try to reduce our footprint wherever we can:

• We use water and energy efficiency systems
• We use local building materials
• We work and partner with the local community
• We protect and conserve the forest in the Tambopata National Reserve through various initiatives and our eco-tourism company

However, generating some carbon emissions is inevitable, so what we can’t reduce, we offset.

We are proud to announce that our three lodges are the first carbon-neutral lodges in the Tambopata National Reserve. Our operations are now 100% carbon neutral. This includes:

• Day to day operations at all three lodges
• Our offices in Puerto Maldonado
• Transportation of all permanent staff

This is thanks to our partnership with Regenera.  Regenera is an innovative footprint management service that measures our carbon footprint and offsets it through local carbon sequestration and avoided deforestation actions, and transfers 60% of revenues to local communities who have agreed to protect forests.

We are currently working with Nature Services Peru (the folks that created Regenera) to create an option for our guests to offset their own travel emissions.

We know that climate change threatens the natural environment and we want to do everything we can to protect it.  Together – we believe we can safeguard our beautiful rainforest for many generations to come.

Read Nature Services Peru Blog on our partnership

Making Science Happen

We love science and our particular brand of scientists: tropical field biologists. Our job is to make it easy and inexpensive to gather data for their goals and to communicate their groundbreaking discoveries to the world. From National Geographic covers to Youtube virals and the Wired Amazon, science has been a central part of our story.