Steppes Travel: Positive Impact Travel

Positive Impact TRAVEL CAN BE A FORCE FOR GOOD

Travel

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.

- JANE GOODALL

A force for good.

At Steppes we believe in the power of travel as a force for good. This is fuelled by our continuously unwavering mission to inspire, guide, and enable you as a traveller to have deeper, richer, and more connected experiences on your journeys with us.

We are firm believers in the idea that as a traveller, once you are able to explore our world you will have the privilege of being an ambassador for differing species, their environment and global communities.

It is our responsibility at Steppes to showcase how best to connect worlds and help you leave a positive impact for generations to come.

Justin Wateridge

MANAGING DIRECTOR | STEPPES TRAVEL

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Solid Foundation Building on over three decades of commitment to the positive influence of travel, in 2019 we launched the Steppes Fund for Change. The fund created a forest regeneration scheme in Brigg, supported vital research into nuclear fusion energy and partnered with 20 projects across the globe to show how travel can be a force for good.

With the arrival of COVID-19 and global travel being put on pause, we took the time to redefine what Positive Impact Travel means.

We started by working with e-collective, the travel industry’s carbon calculating experts, and began to measure the footprint of our holidays.

Addressing CO We fully acknowledge that travelling around the world creates harmful greenhouse emissions, however, we believe the benefits of positive impact travel are far-reaching. With careful curation, the sum of a holiday’s parts can outweigh the negative impact of its carbon footprint.

We have aligned our positive impact travel approach with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and use their framework as a guide when creating our holidays, seeking to benefit both people and the planet.

Our focus on continually measuring, improving and adapting is applied to all areas of our business, from reducing the footprint of our office right up to assessing hotels in our portfolio. Have a read of our ‘net positive’ approach over the next few pages.

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Net Positive Travel In 2021, we began working with ecollective to help us develop a calculator that measures the carbon footprint of flights and hotels, which we then asked our hotel partners to use to establish their own individual carbon emissions.

What became apparent was that these calculations were ignoring the profound benefits particular properties have on their local communities, through their conservation work, connection to local initiatives and contribution to the surrounding economy.

This led us to create a scoring system that measures the positive impact that a hotel has at a social, environmental and economic level.

By starting with a property’s CO2e emissions as their negative score and then adding the score assigned to the hotel for its positive impact, we are able to come up with a net impact score for individual travel itineraries.

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We're Offsetting Your flights In August 2021 we launched our flight carbon emissions calculator which allows us to continuously measure and reduce the impact of our holidays in detail. This means that our team can work with you to create and refine your itinerary in a way that makes reducing greenhouse emissions easy and unobtrusive.

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all of our holidays, whether or not you book your flights through us.

We’ll be calculating and offsetting these emissions based on economy class flights, whilst giving you the option to pay the difference if travelling in a higher class.

Offsets are carried out through the World Land Trust. Their landmark reforestation projects began over 30 years ago. Their reputation in simultaneously capturing excess carbon and helping regenerate threatened ecosystems proceeds them, which is why Sir David Attenborough has served as their patron for almost 20 years.

For People & Planet

The 17 SDGs and the corresponding 169 SDG targets offer the world a new direction. Tourism can and must play a significant role in delivering sustainable solutions for people, the planet, prosperity and peace and has the potential to contribute directly or indirectly to all of the goals.

With travel touching the lives of so many, it is only right that the industry takes brave, bold steps towards creating a brighter future in which places, biodiversity and people thrive.

UN Sustainable Development Goals We have chosen to align our vision for Positive Impact Travel with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They offer a comprehensive guide to solving the challenges facing our planet and also act as a focal point around which to rally and support.

Tourism is an economic powerhouse, the sector generated the world’s thirdhighest export earnings in 2015, representing 10% of world GDP, 30% of services exports and 1 in every 10 jobs.

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Even before Steppes Travel opted to embrace these goals, many of the projects and partners that have been a part of our network for decades have created significant change in these areas and we look forward to continuing to support their courageous work.

LOOK OUT FOR OUR NEW UNSDG BOXES ON OUR WEBSITE HOLIDAY IDEAS

We have made a commitment, as part of our Positive Impact Travel vision, to ensure that every single holiday takes strides forward in supporting at least three of these goals. When you book with us, our Travel Experts will be able to outline exactly how and why your itinerary is creating positive change.

Working under the umbrella of this initiative lets you assess how your holiday will help the world and sets a benchmark for those around us in the travel industry.

Take a closer look at each of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in detail over the next few pages and keep an eye out for the logos on our holiday ideas and hotel pages on our website to get an understanding of how your holiday can contribute to a better planet.

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Impact Of Tourism On SDGs GOAL 1: NO POVERTY Prior to the pandemic, tourism accounted for 1 in 4 new jobs created worldwide. Travel supports sustainable social and economic development by working to employ local people from surrounding communities.

GOAL 2: ZERO HUNGER Tourism can bolster local agricultural productivity by integrating communities and farming methods. Our partnerships that promote this offer a very real path to eradicating hunger and poverty across the planet.

GOAL 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING Supporting destinations and projects that operate through a lens of sustainability, where access to education and basic health services are a priority, reducing the impact of malnutrition and disease.

GOAL 4: QUALITY EDUCATION Around 6 out of 10 children and young adults worldwide lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. Economic benefits provided by travel increases exposure to quality education for young people.

GOAL 5: GENDER EQUALITY Increasing girls’ education has boosted economies by 25% in countries that are a part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development over the past 50 years. Working with projects that promote gender equality is a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.

GOAL 6: CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION New water management technologies align with the needs of tourism and create a knock-on effect that trickles throughout local infrastructure and benefits the surrounding area and its people.

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GOAL 7: AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY When tourism and energy work side by side through a focus on carefully measuring and reducing carbon emissions of partners and air travel, holidays can create a net positive impact on the environment.

GOAL 8: DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH In 2020, 62 million tourism jobs were lost due to the COVID pandemic.

Sustainable economic growth is built on a foundation of giving local communities access to the kind of prosperous, meaningful jobs that the projects and hotels we work with create.

GOAL 9: INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE Tourism ventures deeper into destinations than most. Spreading access to jobs and technology strengthens infrastructure in places that would typically remain unseen by governments.

GOAL 10: REDUCED INEQUALITIES Income inequality is at some of its highest levels, with the poorest 10% of the world’s population earning as little as 2% of its total income. Authentic, considered travel is driven by nurturing those who work on the ground through economic fairness.

GOAL 11: SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES Urban spaces account for 3% of the world’s land but 75% of its carbon emissions. Choosing destinations that are not over-visited, or employ strict limitations on travel frequency, reduces this strain in these hotspots.

GOAL 12: RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION Consumption and construction with sustainability at its core, an ethos that all of our partners share, which reduces the impact of carbon emissions, preserves delicate natural spaces and strengthens communities.

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GOAL 13: CLIMATE ACTION The heart of everything we do at Steppes Travel. Operating and collaborating with a focus on halting climate change and working to reduce the incidence of habitat loss, conflicts, natural disasters and disease.

GOAL 14: LIFE BELOW WATER Ecotourism provides income that encourages locals to protect the waterways and oceans that tourists come to visit. It has supported the recovery of whale populations over the last few decades and as we know whales are a significant store of carbon and magnificent creature that can help fight climate change.

GOAL 15: LIFE ON LAND Tourism funds protect habitats, maintaining biodiversity, helping reforestation and providing financial support to preserve endangered species. Tourism can also play an important role in deterring poachers and provide income to local residents who go on to help protect their ecosystems.

GOAL 16: PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS Travel is a great way to break down the misplaced fear of the unknown and different, leading to greater tolerance and peace. The cultural exchange during our travels can contribute to a more equal world, providing it engages with local communities and makes them part of the tourism experience.

GOAL 17: PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS Tourism reaches every corner of the world and by forming connections with charities and partners it can contribute to the development of the poorest countries and enhance species conservation.

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The Goals In Motion These UN Sustainable Development Goals create an effective structure for tackling climate change. Each of our holiday ideas, partners and hotels have been chosen because they align with these goals.

Explore the key holiday ideas and hotels found across the Steppes Travel website and you will find UN Sustainable Development Goals icons that outline the positive change being supported.

Napo Wildlife Centre is a community-owned lodge located deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon that uses an eco-tourism model where profits are reinvested into renewable energy, education and health care.

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UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS:

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Cottar’s 1920s Camp sits on the edge of Kenya’s Masai Mara and has built an innovative land lease model that works with over 6,000 independent, local landowners to preserve the surrounding natural spaces.

UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS:

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Misool Eco Resort, a beautiful private island in Indonesia, has created its own marine reserve alongside local communities to ensure the protection of endangered species in some of the most heavily fished waters in the world.

UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS:

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When travelling to the Galapagos with Steppes Travel, you will be given membership to the Galapagos Conservation Trust, which funds essential conservation on the islands while providing girls and young women in the Galapagos with essential access to education.

UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS:

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Our Core Goals While our commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals is allencompassing, we believe sustainable travel can have the biggest impact through the promotion of biodiversity, female education and renewable energy.

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Promoting biodiversity

Focussing on female education

Supporting green energy

Each booking that you make with us goes on to support a chosen partner that is working with passion and commitment towards these goals.

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Promoting biodiversity

Our collective impact on the planet is straining the world’s natural spaces and we are in a race against time to reverse much of the damage we have created. Scientists estimate we will lose 18% of the world’s plant species and 22% of mammals by 2100 if the average global temperature continues to increase.

In an attempt to promote biodiversity in our backyard, in 2019, we began to create a reforestation project in Brigg that is home to 40 acres of new saplings. The location was pertinent – the surrounding area is home to some of the worst levels of air pollution in the UK, but will now be a space for nature to thrive and for locals to enjoy.

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Focusing on female education

Female education is key in addressing population growth in developing countries and its knock-on impact on the climate. It is estimated that a focus on girls’ education and sexual health could reduce carbon emissions by over 85 gigatons by 2050.

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Supporting green energy

With aviation accounting for 2.5% of the world’s annual CO2 emissions and 3.5% of the planet’s increase in temperature, the travel industry will continuously owe a debt to the planet unless something changes.

From 2021 we will be supporting Room to Read as one of our positive impact travel charities. Their innovative model focuses on deep, systemic transformation within schools in low-income countries during the two most critical time periods in a child’s schooling: early primary school for literacy acquisition and secondary school for girls’ education.

We remain painfully aware that our contribution will only ever be limited unless we move to clean energy sources. Previously, we supported Oxford University Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE). Nuclear fusion energy represents one of the most promising sources of sustainable energy.

From 2021 we will be supporting Practical Action, an international organisation that brings together rural communities, displaced people, energy providers and decision-makers to put sustainable, clean energy solutions to work for the people who need them most.

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Projects around the world Over the years one of the most rewarding aspects of what we do has been connecting you to incredible organisations around the world, whilst on your travels.

In destination you have experienced their work firsthand and back at home you have become advocates for them.

Read on to see examples of the kinds of projects we can put you in touch with and include in your itineraries with us.

Rhinos Without Borders, Botswana Formed as a charitable partnership between two luxury camp operators, this pioneering initiative was set up with the aim of translocating 100 rhinos from South Africa to Botswana.

Since its inception in 2015, 87 rhinos having been moved from high-risk areas. The ultimate litmus test of success for this programme is the birth of numerous calves, taking the population to over a total of 130 rhinos which can now be seen on safari in Botswana.

GET INVOLVED: Meet the rangers responsible for looking after rhino in Botswana or join a team responsible for darting and notching rhino in South Africa.

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Save the Elephants in Samburu - Kenya A staggering 100,000 elephants were killed for their ivory in Africa between 2010 and 2012. However, elephant populations are beginning to stabilise partly thanks to organisations like Save the Elephants.

The founder of the charity, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, is a worldrenowned expert on elephants and for over 40 years has been at the forefront of the fight against poachers in the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya. Elephant Watch Camp, now run by his daughter Saba alongside her family and members of the local Samburu community, is at the heart of the charity.

GET INVOLVED: Nowhere else in Africa offers such an intimate connection with elephants while gaining a privileged insight into elephant behaviour and conservation, courtesy of the researchers from Save The Elephants.

Oscar Foundation, India OSCAR Foundation provides football and life skills training to children from low-income backgrounds, mainly in Mumbai but also in other Indian cities. The condition on which they provide training is simple; ‘No School, No Football’.

While incentivising education in deprived areas, OSCAR’s coaches also talk to the children about leadership, conflict resolution and teamwork while raising awareness on social issues such as child marriage, gender discrimination and hygiene issues.

GET INVOLVED: Visit the Ambedkar Nagar community in Mumbai, meet with the Oscar Foundation community leaders and witness their life-changing work first-hand.

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Orangutan Foundation, Indonesian Borneo Tanjung Puting National Park is home to 800 species of plants, over 230 bird species and holds the world's largest population of orangutans. But this biodiversity is under threat from deforestation, palm oil and poaching so the work of organisations like the Orangutan Foundation has never been more vital. They actively conserve over 1M acres of orangutan habitat with guard posts and ongoing monitoring of key conservation areas such as Lamandau Reserve an essential part of their work.

GET INVOLVED: A face-to-face encounter with an orangutan is a humbling and profound experience. Travel to Borneo with us, under the auspices of Orangutan Foundation, for behind-the-scenes access to Lamandau Reserve where orphaned and rehabilitated orangutans visit feeding sites. Many of our clients become life-long supporters of orangutan conservation as a result.

Fauna & Flora International, Nicaragua Nicaragua hosts globally important populations of five marine turtle species. However, illegal harvesting of eggs and killing of hawksbills for their shells has presented a serious threat to nesting leatherback, hawksbill and olive ridley turtles on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast.

FFI has been working to help increase the populations of marine turtle species. They work in collaboration with coastal communities and local governments to conduct beach patrols throughout the nesting season, build and manage turtle hatcheries, train community patrol teams in monitoring techniques for data collection and rally national support for these marine reptiles through turtle festivals and awareness campaigns.

GET INVOLVED: We support FFI on several projects and can organise trips for our clients to see sea turtles make the annual pilgrimage to nesting sites under the auspices of the FFI Nicaragua team.

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Community experiences in South Africa The townships are overlooked by visitors to Cape Town as the lure of the bright lights along the V&A Waterfront are for many, irresistible. Join one of our tours that shine a light on the many unsung community heroes and heroines that live in the east of the city, known as Cape Flats.

Meet the figures behind Uthando, for example, an awardwinning business drawing on a network of partnerships in tourism and community development.

GET INVOLVED: In the space of a morning, you’ll meet with inspirational community leaders in charge of projects ranging from music and art clubs for young people to urban agricultural schemes designed to help rehabilitate prisoners.

Jaguar reintroduction - Argentina Often referred to as the 'Argentine Pantanal', Ibera wetlands comprises of 1.3 million hectares of grasslands and marsh in the northeast of Argentina. Following extensive research by Conservation Land Trust (founded by Doug Tompkins), four jaguars - two males and two females, were relocated to a protected area of Ibera between 2015 - 2016, in the hope that their offspring will launch the jaguar re-wilding project in the next few years.

GET INVOLVED: Once a working cattle ranch, Rincon del Socorro is now 12,000 hectares of conservation land owned

by Conservation Land Trust. We work with a lodge in this wildlife-rich habitat that enables our clients to visit the lagoon, see caimans, capybaras, deer and monkeys and also possibly meet with some of the researchers working on the Ibera re-wilding project.

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Our work to create a positive impact on travel continues, and we would like you to be a part of our journey.

We are committed to transparently sharing our progress and learnings, and invite feedback at any time to help us improve.

INSPIRE@STEPPESTRAVEL.COM

In our hands now lies not only our own future but that of all other living creatures with whom we share the earth.

- SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH

TRAVEL CAN BE A FORCE FOR GOOD