Responsible Tourism

Responsible tourism only means something with specifics attached. Here is what we actually do, and what we are honest about still working on.

Porter welfare

We cap porter loads in line with responsible-trekking practice, and the cap holds on every departure — if a group's baggage exceeds it, we add a porter rather than add weight. Crew are paid at or above local sector rates and issued with cold- and wet-weather gear rated for the conditions they work in, which on this mountain is not a small thing.

Local hiring

Our guides and porters come from the villages around the Nyakalengija and Kilembe trailheads. Guiding here is largely Bakonzo work and we intend to keep it that way.

Local purchasing

We buy food and consumables in Kasese wherever we can rather than trucking supplies from Kampala — cheaper, fresher, and it keeps more of what a trek costs in the district where the trek happens.

Waste

What goes up the mountain comes back down it. The Rwenzori's huts sit in a UNESCO World Heritage site with no waste infrastructure, and the only workable answer is to carry it out.

Park fees fund the park

Every day you spend inside the boundary, you pay a conservation fee to Uganda Wildlife Authority. It is a direct input to the park's operations, and it is one reason we show it as a separate line on your quote rather than burying it.

Community-run accommodation

Where we can put business through community-owned enterprises — Ruboni Community Camp among them — we do, and we name them rather than gesturing at "community benefit" in general terms.

What we are still working on

Publishing named guide profiles with their own consent, and reporting our porter load cap and pay rates as published figures rather than described practice. Both are in progress. We would rather list them as unfinished here than imply a standard we cannot yet evidence.