Our impact

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Fair Travel™ uses revenues from tourism for the benefit of local staff, economy, community and environment. This is the impact we are most proud of so far:

Social impact – human and labor rights:
We are very proud of our impact in this field as we are contributing to strengthen human and labor rights in Tanzania. It is a human right to earn fair wages, have good working conditions and not depend on tips from travelers who have no idea about life here in Tanzania. None of our staff is tip dependent and we are officially recognized by independent third party reviews for our positive impact in the lives of our staff, specially Kilimanjaro porters, and their extended families, who benefit from the highest salary levels ever paid consistently throughout the history of Mount Kilimanjaro expeditions:

Kilimanjaro porter salary comparison

The source of data is available here.
You can also verify these numbers with KPAP (Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project) who also monitor our climbs as an independent third party under the umbrella of IMEC.

Watch this video where Fair Travel™ Founder & CEO, Benjamin Taghavi-Awal, climbs Kilimanjaro as a porter to raise awareness.

This video reveals more of the exploitation and injustices on Kilimanjaro.

Besides Kilimanjaro porters, all other staff working for you enjoy fair salaries too. This is to ensure they are not dependent on tips from you, which puts them on an un-equal position from start. We promote equality and as travelers we all know that the best traveling experiences happen when we feel connected and on equal terms with the people we visit. Stopping tip dependency in the traveling industry ensures human rights for staff and quality of experience as you avoid feeling like a wandering ATM-machine. This is the innovative social impact Fair Travel™ is part of in Tanzanian tourism and we know it makes sense to visit any other destination in the same way.

Environmental protection
Sustainability is key and for this reason we have chosen to channel profits from your adventures to Carbon Tanzania. The specific project is called: ‘Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in the Yaeda Valley, Northern Tanzania’.

Here are some highlight of the impact of that project from different perspectives:

Environment
+ Avoided deforestation and degradation of 20,790ha Acacia-Commiphora woodland.
+ Prevent poaching of wildlife.
+ Protection of native bio-diversity, flora and fauna.

Community
+ Direct income for villagers who guard, measure and monitor the project area.
+ Protection of land rights for the Wahadza people, one of the last remaining hunterers and gatherers tribes in Africa.
+ To educate communities on the ecological and livelihood benefits of conservation.
+ Improved land use planning and management.
+ Training in improved agricultural techniques to avoid slash and burn agriculture.

Guests
+ Your money benefits local communities and help them realize the value of our environment.
+ All CO2 footprints from your adventures are off-set locally at no extra charge.

Staff
+ Our people are proud to work for a company that benefit themselves, local communities and the environment.

For more information on the project, please use these resources:

Project Design Yaeda Valley – REDD
Tech Specs Yaeda Valley REDD

Other community benefits
FAIR TRAVEL™ partnered with Mambo Steun Punt, a Dutch NGO, to provide fresh water in Tema village. The water well is maintained and still providing full service to the community.

Tema village, fresh water access to the villagers.

+ Benefits ~150 villagers with fresh water and saves them 2-3 hours of walk on a daily basis.

Local economy
How tourism money is spent

The 1% of our revenues that did not stay locally the year we installed the water well was used:
1. To purchase the Waterpump installed in the project mentioned above. It was the most sustainable water pump on the market with very low maintenance and a guaranteed operation time of at least 15 years.
2. Costs related to IT, specifically our website, email and web servers.

As we grow Fair Travel™ we will be able to choose more social and environmental projects that increase our positive impact for people and planet. If you have any suggestions or questions about our projects, send us an email.

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