Lots of talk about sustainability and responsibility on this website, but how does RESPONS itself work towards maximizing its positive impacts and minimizing its negative impacts?

RESPONS will strive towards employing as many local people as possible. By educating locals (and preferably real campesinos) on-the-job we will create our local workforce, and thanks to our above-market wages and legal way of operating, we want to be an example for the local tourism sector (which does not mean that the local tourism sector pays low, illegal salaries!). At our office, we hope to have at least five local employees after the first two years of operation. Click here to get to know the RESPONS team.

Apart from direct employment at RESPONS, lots of local families will be employed thanks to the sustainable tourism we stimulate. In Vicos, Humacchuco and along the Inka Naani only, there are 120 families directly involved in the tourism projects, and thousands of them gain an indirect income from the tourism activities. Think about artisans, musicians, transporters, donkey or lama drivers and farmers, who all earn an income from each tourist visit. The more RESPONS grows and its zone of influence expands, the more local families will gain an income thanks to our activities. We are continuously seeking new opportunities to expand our offer, and always seeking the perfect balance between development and conservation. RESPONS will never impose tourism on communities, and will make sure that communities make wise and just use of their new income.

In the past, RESPONS owner Guido van Es has seen the strength of volunteer work in communities, and the great, very positive impacts that volunteer or visitor donations can have in communities, as long as good care is being taken of how donation money is spent. For example, many foreign visitors developed a special relationship with their local hostfamily, which has in some occasions lead to the visitors “adopting” the university course for one of their hostfamily’s children, giving them an opportunity for education that would otherwise have been out of reach. Also, many individuals or groups have come to the community with donations for the communal schools or college. Within its short span of life, RESPONS has already organized over €7.000 Euros in donations for several communities, to be spent on education projects in 2009. Of course RESPONS supports these mostly private initiatives with coordination, advice, volunteers, presentation material and logistical arrangements at no charge, and we hope that we continue to be able to do that. If you are looking for a direct way to donate money to a local cause, please contact us.

RESPONS seeks maximized sustainability in all its operations. There are different ways of achieving this, and two important areas of sustainability are environmental and cultural sustainability. (Click to learn more about sustainable tourism or responsible travelling.) Throughout the year, RESPONS works hand-in-hand with local communities showing them how conservation of their cultural and natural resources, thanks to tourism visits, is becoming economically interesting (whereas before, their destruction was what brought money in), and will work towards hands-on, concrete conservation activities in the future. You can think about reforestation activities, cultural recuperation projects, and so on.