The Ultimate Travel Company | Responsibility | Madagascar Rainforest

The Ultimate Travel Company | Responsibility | Madagascar | Planting Mangrove Trees

TREADING LIGHTLY

Responsibility

Carbon neutrality – not just for ourselves but you as well.

RESPONSIBILITY

WE ARE CARBON NEUTRAL

Since 1st January 2020, The Ultimate Travel Company has been doing more than simply offsetting the carbon footprint created by its London office and staff. We are now offsetting the thousands of flights we arrange for our customers as well.

How? By planting three hundred acres of Mangrove trees in Madagascar. This area alone will absorb 37,000 tonnes of CO2, far in excess of the emissions from our own and our clients’ travels, over the ten year planting cycle. We are very excited by this initiative and hope you share some of our enthusiasm. It will not alone save our planet, but will hopefully help in a small way.

Your support will be greatly appreciated, should you decide to book a holiday with The Ultimate Travel Company.

Thank you. Nick Van Gruisen, Managing Director

RESPONSIBILITY

WHY MANGROVE TREES IN MADAGASCAR?

Madagascar has lost 80% of its forests in the last 100 years.

Mangroves grow quickly and can store up to four times as much carbon, per acre, than a tropical rainforest.

75% of all tropical fish lay their eggs in mangrove roots.

In these turbulent times of storms, tsunamis and rising water levels, mangrove forests are one of the best antidotes to coastline degradation and erosion.

The trees will also be planted by the local community, thereby creating employment. Our initiative alone will require 1,200 working days per annum.

RESPONSIBILITY

WHO ARE WE WORKING WITH?

We will be working closely with Offset Earth, a young, dynamic and resourceful group who manage the project. I am very confident that they will use our contributions wisely, and with a minimum of overhead to ensure that they go as far as possible. Offset Earth’s partners in Madagascar, Eden Reforestation Projects, are also one of the leaders in their field with more than 20 years of experience. So we are in safe hands.

The Ultimate Travel Company | Responsibility | Madagascar

OUR CHARITIES

THE ULTIMATE CHARITY INITIATIVE

Launched in 2005, the Ultimate Charity Initiative helps raise funds for less fortunate countries and communities around the world, many of which have given us and our guests such a warm welcome and endless enjoyment. The scheme involves us levying a small voluntary contribution on each tailor-made and escorted tour invoice which we then match before distributing the entire amount to our chosen project.

Over $800,000 has been raised and distributed to a wide variety of projects around the world. We and the recipients are deeply grateful for your amazing support. Thank You.

Here are some of the charities and projects that have benefited from your generosity over the years.

THE GALAPAGOS CONSERVATION TRUST – ECUADOR

The GCT is a UK registered charity that raises funds for a number of vital projects in the Galapagos Islands. It is also a primary source of information and comment in the UK on the islands’ myriad conservation issues.

TOFT – TRAVEL OPERATORS FOR TIGERS

To advocate, plan, support and fund the protection, conservation and rewilding of natural wilderness and their wild inhabitants, especially tiger habitat, through the clever and wise use of nature tourism, using better visitor guidance, more community involvement, targeted green investment and enhanced governance and monitoring.

THE LEWA WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY – KENYA

The Lewa Wildlife Conservancy operates over an area of more than 700,000 acres in northern Kenya and works as a catalyst for the conservation of wildlife and its habitat. It does this through the protection and management for endangered species, the initiation and support of community development programmes, and by promoting the value of wildlife conservation to local school and colleges.

FIMAFRICA – KENYA

FIMAFRICA (Foundation for Integrated Medicine in Africa), is a registered Canadian charity delivering integrated medical services to remote and impoverished communities living in Northern Kenya. The Ultimate Travel Company have sponsored FIMAFRICA’s mobile clinics for 2011. We will sponsor Christine from Il Polei to go to homeopathic school at Abha Light Foundation so that on her return she can provide much needed medical care in the form of homeopathy.

IMPACT – INDIA

The Impact Foundation is an international charity taking practical action today to prevent needless ill health and disability tomorrow. Specific grants cover the foundation’s administrative costs, so every penny donated can be translated directly into action. We have concentrated soley on their innovative Lifeline Express, a fully equiped hospital train that travels through India restoring sight, hearing and mobility. To date approximately 1000 individuals have benefited from your help.

AMANTANI

Amantani’s mission is to help the children of Peru keep their smiles. Since 2008, they have been working to bridge the gap between home and school for children living in Ccorca; a small Quechua district high in the Andes Peru. Their Boarding Houses help over sixty children who used to walk up to four hours to get to school.

DURRELL WILDLIFE CONSERVATION TRUST – UK

The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has a worldwide reputation for its pioneering conservation techniques having made a significant difference to over 30 endangered species worldwide. We have been supporting the trust since 2008 arranging two Expeditions on board the MS Island Sky to projects within the Indian Ocean and the East Coast of Africa. This has resulted in their members seeing first hand some of the Trust’s projects as well as donating over £29,000 to the Durrell Trust. It is hoped to run another Expedition in 2012 from Costa Rica to Barbados including the Panama Canal.

THE HENRY VAN STRAUBENZEE MEMORIAL FUND – UGANDA

This small charity was set up to alleviate poverty in rural Uganda through investing in buildings and educational resources in schools. They form partnerships with schools to assist them to become centres for excellence and to ensure that even the poorest children have access to high quality education – they are currently helping over 10,000 children across 16 schools. Thanks to the The Ultimate Travel Company donations we were able to build three classrooms, plus an Ultimate dedication plaque, and provide a 10,000 litre water tank at Busuuli primary school, in south east Uganda.

LIVELY MINDS

Lively Minds work in the poorest and most remote rural villages in Ghana and Uganda to improve the quality of life for deprived children. They do this through creative education programmes that enliven minds and empower communities to use their own skills and resources to change theirs and their children’s lives for the better.

TUSK TRUST

Tusk supports more than 50 field projects in 18 African countries that not only work to protect wildlife, but also help to alleviate poverty through sustainable development and education amongst rural communities who live alongside the wildlife.

EXOTISSIMO – CAMBODIA

Cambodia may have finally emerged as a politically stable and developing nation, but the scars from three decades of war, genocide and internal struggle will take a long time to heal. Exotissimo, a local dynamic charity is addressing these facts and has helped eliminate much of the poverty in Cambodia at a community level. Your donations alone enabled a new classroom for 150 children to be built and supplied with equipment. Your help also enabled 20 wells to be sunk providing fresh drinking water to 850 families. The Ultimate Travel Company is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

“BEAUTIFULLY ORGANISED AND PERFECT RECOMMENDATIONS. ”

“What a fantastic trip organised by Ultimate. They listened to what we wanted and set up perfect destinations for us. Everyone was friendly and professional from the office in London through to on-the-ground support. The organisation of pick-ups, connecting flights and so on, went like clockwork.”

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

“MY FIRST PORT OF CALL FROM NOW ON. ”

“Efficient, friendly and helpful throughout. made everything a million times easier, Ultimate Travel Company will by my first port of call from now on.”

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

“FANTASTIC!”

“Sophie went above and beyond to ensure we had a fantastic honeymoon. We had 0 stress relating to planning and everything was taken care of from the moment we stepped off the plane. Sophie anticipated what we wanted when we didn’t even know ourselves. We will certainly be booking with Ultimate again.”

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

“PROBLEM FREE EXCELLENCE.”

“Efficiently organised, everything went like clockwork. This is all the more remarkable since the tour involved considerable complexity.”

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

“AN EFFICIENT AND RELIABLE COMPANY.”

“We have continued to ask Ultimate Travel to make our distant overseas travel arrangements for many years and they have always given us great service.”

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