Horizon Guides, the Sheffield-based travel guides and trip planning site, has joined forces with an international charity to plant 50 trees in Kenya for every trip booked through its website.
The ‘Trees For Trips’ partnership with the International Tree Foundation (ITF) means that travellers who book a trip via Horizon Guides will contribute to reforestation projects in Kenya, helping improve livelihoods for 50,000 rural households. As each tree planted will save an estimated 4kg of carbon each year, they will also be helping the country meet its targets under the Paris Climate Summit.
Horizon Guides publishes niche travel guides on special interest experiences and holidays and helps readers find and book trips with independent tour operators. The company’s guides are written and researched by professional travel writers and destination experts and aim to promote an alternative to unsustainable mass tourism.
Matthew Barker, Horizon Guides founder and CEO, said: “We in the travel industry depend on the natural world for our success, yet too many travel companies profit from mother nature without ever giving anything back. We believe that if the travel industry is going to benefit from the natural world, it should be leading the fight for its conservation and restoration. Planting trees doesn’t offset or neutralise the impact of tourism but it does allow our readers a meaningful way to give something back to mother nature.”
Agricultural expansion, timber harvesting and charcoal burning have all caused massive deforestation in Kenya. The country has just 7% tree cover, which equates to 67 trees per person compared to the global average of 420. The country’s remaining highland forests play a vital role in conserving rivers, lakes and drinking water but are in urgent need of protection. ITF’s “20 Million Trees for Kenya’s Forests” campaign seeks to restore the forests in partnership with community organisations and corporate donors such as Horizon Guides. Trees will be grown from seed in community tree nurseries and then planted during Kenya’s rainy seasons in April and November.
Andy Egan, chief executive of the ITF, added: “International Tree Foundation is delighted to form a new partnership with Horizon Guides to support our 20 Million Trees for Kenya’s Forests campaign. We hope that this will lead to thousands of trees being planted by local communities with the support of Horizon Guides’ customers.”
For more information see: https://horizonguides.com/trees-for-trips
