Environmental and Social Responsibility
The Himalayan Humanity mission is to set a positive example
for Nepali trekking companies. Our aim is to maintain an economically
competitive company
that takes
a smaller
margin
of profit in order to provide excellent working conditions and
benefits for staff, socially progressive services for clients, and environmentally
sustainable business practices.
Himalayan Humanity Treks has developed the following guidelines to provide environmentally sustainable treks:
- Protective equipment
and shelter will be provided for all staff so will not be dependent
on fire wood to save from cold.
- Himalayan Humanity Treks will encourage all
trekkers to use purified water instead of bottled water. Iodine for
water purification will be
provided to trekkers at a small cost.
- We will recommend staying only in lodges
and hotels that use kerosene for cooking purposes.
- We will not allow use
of camp fires by our trekkers or staff.
- We recommend that our clients
choose foods that are made from local products to save fuel and transportation,
and encourage everyone in the group
to order the same items.
- We will practice ‘carry in carry out’ low
impact trekking and will take out all garbage that we produce.
- Toilet
tents will be provided on camping treks for clients, porters and
field staffs.
A man is not hero because he is braver than anyone else. But because he is brave for ten minutes longer. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Better working conditions and basic human rights of the porters and field staff are the cornerstone of the Himalayan Humanity social justice initiative. Himalayan Humanity Treks will not differ radically from any other company in fulfilling its social justice aims, but it will be different in providing more facilities for staff and improving its staff's working conditions.
Himalayan Humanity follows these guidelines and encourages all stakeholders to follow them also:
- Porters will be hired through formal
contracts, with clear terms and conditions for insurance, wages,
load limits, accident/disability treatment provisions
and other facilities. Before hiring porters and other staff, health checkups
will be provided.
- Required equipment will be provided to porters and other
field staff, for example; sleeping tents, protective clothing, carrying
equipment and kerosene
for their
own use.
- Porters and other field staff will be provided the same
standard of medical care as the client will be provided. Porters
and other field
staff will not
be paid off because of illness and the staff leader will have authority
to use the medical expenses for porters while they are sick.
- Porters will not
be allowed to carry more than 30 kg loads in low altitude and 25
kg in high altitude, including personal allowance.
- Porters and other field staff
will be provided at least 500 to 700 Rs per day in Tea-house trek
and 300 to 400 Rs per day and food in camping trek.
- Porters will be provided
training in First Aid, health and safety issues, altitude sickness,
management of emergency situations, general health and hygiene,
reproductive
health education (HIV/AIDS/STI) English language, local flora and fauna
and history. Focus will be given to those porters who are interested
in career
and personal development.
- Membership of porter unions and associations will
be encouraged and supported, allowing porters to voice their own
needs and concerns.
- Himalayan Humanity Treks will empower women by providing
jobs and training as porter, porter/guide and guide
- We will not exploit child labour
Selection of Clients
- We will welcome all those who are happy to support and follow the
Guidelines of Himalayan Humanity Treks.
- We hope to work with clients who appreciate that a reasonable budget, a little higher than the daily rate charged by some companies, is necessary to ensure that they are contributing to the provision of sustainable trekking services.
- Licensed by HMG Ministry of Tourism
- Knowledgeable about Nepal's culture and terrain
- Enthusiastic communicators
- Well trained to use trekking & rafting equipment
- Experienced in guiding a diverse range of trekkers
- Committed to customer happiness
- Licensed by HMG Ministry of Tourism
- Experienced, efficient, and creative
- Accurate, timely, clear, and cheerful
- Committed to customer happiness
Community Development
The major goal of Himalayan
Humanity Treks is to support the initiatives of those organizations
that are working in the human rights and community
development areas. We focus on supporting these initiatives by directly
establishing relationships between our interested clients and these organizations
through volunteer work and financial support. We select an appropriate
local charity and every year we will operate a charity trek for them. Our primary
focus is for education, health, clean drinking water and the specific devolpment and empowerment to the porters’ community.
The minimum wage for porters and other trek staff will be 500 Nepali Rs per day on easy and moderate tea house trekking routes, such as Annapurna region, Lang tang Gosaikunda and 600 Nepali Rs in the Everest region.
This is between double the basic wage set by the government of 250 Rs per day.
Ratio of Lowest Wage to local cost of living.
On
average the living cost for trek staff is 200-250 Rs per day while
working in the Annapurna and Langtang region and 300-350 Rs per
day working in
the Everest region.
For the health of the staff, all employees will be provided the medical insurance of 70000 Rs. In order to provide staff economic security, an account will be operated in the name of Himalayan Humanity Treks Staff Welfare Fund. Staff will be required to place 10% of their wages in the fund, and all contributions will be matched 100% by the company. In case of emergency or essential need, up to 50% of total saving of each particular staff will be provided on the loan basis.
The collected fund will be provided to staff
as severance pay when the member of staff decides to leave Himalayan Humanity
Treks - because of retirement, illness or change of career. This therefore provides support in the form of a one off bulk payment to ensure the welfare of the porter once he has left the company.
Discrimination by caste is a major social challenge in Nepal. Himalayan Humanity Treks is highly dedicated to avoiding discrimination, not only based on caste but on power, money and education. We wish to avoid discrimination between trekkers and Nepali staff, between guides and porters and between staff and business owners and managers.
Discrimination between trekkers and Nepali staff is a significant problem in the trekking industry. This discrimination is often economically-based, a problem that occurs often where people from developed countries choose to travel in less-developed countries.
As paying guests, Himalayan Humanity Treks provides its best services to its clients. In return, we ask that our clients do not assume that Nepali staffs have the strength of Superman, or that their relatively low wages mean that they can be “treated as slaves”. We request that all participants in the business of trekking – clients and staff alike – be treated as equal partners. Clients pay the money, to achieve their dream; our management and field crew supports the clients to achieve their dream and to look after their life.
No trekkers mean no trekking,
No trek staff and porters means no trekking,
Our motto here is: “Equal, Equal and Equal."
Diversity and gender equality (how to include women and minorities)
Himalayan Humanity
Treks is highly aware for the unfair distribution
of resources available in the country. In the tourism sector, some people
earn more than one thousand dollars per day, but some earn just enough
for the food in the morning and evening. Tourism is having both positive
and negative impacts on Nepal and its people.
Positive economic impacts are not equal for all. Himalayan Humanity Treks
will work towards the vision of making economic and other impacts positive
for all Nepali people, by providing jobs with fair wages and basic human
rights standards to people from all parts of the country.
Himalayan Humanity
Treks will make a focused effort to involve the women in the trekking
sector. By the first year of operation, Himalayan Humanity
Treks had established a women’s group to support those who are interested
in working in the trekking industry.
We will give high consideration to children’s rights in our work. No children (under 18) will be used as porters in our trekking operation. When selecting porters for our company, priority is given to the parents of child porters and the child will be offered the opportunity for further education. In setting wages, we will give high consideration to survival and education needs for the porters’ families, so that their children will not be forced to work as porters. We support child porters and children at risk of being forced to work as porters in three ways:
- Directly supporting the child porters either for their education or any vocational training that might help them to find alternative and more appropriate work.
- Supporting the parents of child porters by providing jobs with standard wages and facilities by which porters can earn a sustainable income and can educate their children.
- Through our management and trekking staff,
advocating on trekking routes and with trekking companies for an
end to the use
of child labor
Women-specific treks (with female staff when available)
Himalayan Humanity Treks will provide female porters and guides for the women trekkers on request.