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.
 

Environmental Sustainability

Himalayan Humanity Treks has developed the following guidelines to provide environmentally sustainable treks:

Social Justice

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:


Selection of Clients Selection of Guides Selection of Cooks Selection of Office Staff
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.

Ratio of Lowest Wage to National Legal Minimum

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.

Health and Economic Benefits for Employees

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.

No Discrimination

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.

Child Labor

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:

  1. Directly supporting the child porters either for their education or any vocational training that might help them to find alternative and more appropriate work.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.