Charities We Support
The nature of our adventures takes us to some of the most beautiful, pristine and remote locations on the planet. But they are also some of the most fragile and the people who live in these places, some of the most vulnerable. $20 from every booking will be donated to a relevant charity in the location you are travelling to. While this $20 won’t change the world, combined with other generous people and organisations, these small amounts build into something that protects the environment and the people from these regions.
No Roads Expeditions Foundation
Country (ies): Papua New Guinea and Indonesia
The No Roads Expeditions Foundation is a charity that has been operating since 2014.
They approach their work by improving the lives of disadvantaged people in Papua New Guinea, Myanmar and Indonesia, through building community capacity. Helping individuals and communities to become self-sufficient is fundamental to their service delivery. Assistance is of no long-term value unless it can empower communities to become independently sustainable.
They specialise in remote and rural areas, where other organisations cannot and/or do not wish to service, due to the remoteness of the area. Their expertise in trekking and working in difficult terrain, has allowed them to service over 270 kilometres of isolated area and support over 34,500 people in health, education and infrastructure projects. The combined expertise of the Board notes over 64 years of trekking experience and the completion of approximately 155 expeditions.
Country (ies): Nepal
Sagarmatha Next is situated just above Namche Bazaar on the trail toward Everest Base Camp. Their mission is to keep the Solu Khumbu clean of human rubbish by not only collecting it but repurposing it into art or recycling it. They are building awareness around the problem of waste management and are working with the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee SPCC to reduce waste in the region and to keep the area pristine. Every Everest Base Camp trek will now ask each participant to help carry 1kg of waste off the trail. 1 kg bags can be picked up at Namche Bazaar and carried back to Lukla for sorting. No Roads also sponsors 1 bag per trekker in the region, helping to ensure the trail remains clean. Every trek that travels through Namche Bazaar will also visit Sagarmatha Next, to see first-hand what they are doing.
Country (ies): Peru
ECOAN is a non-profit NGO dedicated to the conservation of endangered species and threatened Andean ecosystems. They work as a team with local communities to protect the habitat of these species, improve the use and exploitation of natural resources and restore degraded areas. Their work began 19 years ago in Cusco, and currently they direct conservation and development projects in other regions of Peru, and are the coordinators of a large initiative for the protection of high Andean forests in 6 countries of South America.
Country (ies): Indonesia
The Orangutan Project was established in 1998 by founder and world-renowned orangutan expert, Leif Cocks, as a result of his 25+ year career working with orangutans – including establishing the most successful breeding colony of orangutans in the world. The Orangutan Project was formed with a key mission; to ensure that endangered wild orangutan species would be protected against extinction, and would continue to live in secure populations for generations to come.
Today, The Orangutan Project is a dynamic, fast-growing and successful not-for-profit organisation that supports a wide range of critical projects that address the holistic problem facing remaining fragmented orangutan populations – including fighting deforestation and habitat loss at the highest level.
Christchurch Helicopters and the Department of Conservation
Country (ies): New Zealand
The Orange-Fronted Parakeet/Kākāriki is the rarest parakeet in New Zealand with only 200-400 left in the wild, located within the Arthur’s Pass National Park and Lake Sumner Forest Park. There are four known remaining populations all within a 30km radius of each other.
In 2018, Christchurch Helicopters partnered with the Department of Conservation (DOC) to help conserve these small birds. Their programme involves fundraising with local businesses to raise the funds for pest control, captive breeding and population monitoring as well as transporting DOC’s operations staff throughout the region using their fleet of helicopters.
Christchurch Helicopters is partnering with the Foundation to ensure all funds raised are held in an independent charitable trust then directly applied to the conservation effort.
Torres del Paine (TdP) Legacy Fund
Country (ies): Chile
Created in the hopes of establishing a sustainable (tourism) future for the “8th Wonder of the World” Torres del Paine and its surrounding communities.
Since 2015, the Legacy Fund has carried out dozens of projects in conjunction with tourism businesses, CONAF (The Chilean Government’s National Forestry Corporation), and most importantly, volunteers.
This volunteer model gives people from all over Chile the opportunity to visit Torres del Paine and spend 7-10 days carrying out conservation and/or infrastructure projects. Besides travel costs to the region, the Legacy Fund covers all costs for volunteers to spend several days in the park, camp, eat, and give back to Torres del Paine. This model allows the focus to be on environmental education, building future protected areas in Chile, and scale work to meet the many challenges that Patagonia’s protected areas face.
