Ours is a tour company run by naturalists for naturalists. All of us have a passion for conservation, wildlife and wildlife tourism, and are committed to ensuring the long-term protection of species and habitats. We achieved AITO’s top (5-star) Sustainable Tourism accreditation, and operating our holidays in an environmentally responsible manner has always been at the heart of our business.
We centre our Sustainable Tourism Policy around three key commitments: Protecting Biodiversity, Reducing Carbon, and Travelling Responsibly. Below, you can read more about our 'carbon retention' initiative with Fundación EcoMinga in Ecuador, and our support for re-wildling and species conservation projects. We also detail our core aims, our suggestions for responsible travel, and our contributions to wildlife conservation and other causes over the years.
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In 2026, we published our first Impact Report, detailing our progress across our key commitments. Read it here.
Naturetrek Macchietelle Reserve
In late 2023, we purchased the 120-acre ‘Macchietelle estate’ in Italy's central Apennines, which we have passed by way of a 30-year stewardship agreement to the Italian conservation charities Salviamo L’Orso (Save the Bear) and IntraMontes. It is our hope that the Naturetrek Macchietelle Reserve will support Salviamo L’Orso’s goal of building protected corridors between the two national parks and three regional parks/reserves of the Apennines, and to extend all these protected areas for the benefit of the endangered Marsican Brown Bear, a distinctive subspecies of which just 60 individuals remain. Trail cameras, nesting boxes and static bat detectors have been installed within the reserve, and the important task of recording, monitoring, conserving and enhancing the biodiversity of the site, and rewilding, now underway. You can read more about the Naturetrek Macchietelle Reserve here.
It is now our wish that such nature restoration projects become the primary target for Naturetrek support and investment. In these fast-changing times, our support for nature and conservation is imperative, and we intend to use our profits to purchase land to be managed by wildlife and conservation charities for the benefit of our natural world.
Naturetrek Candelaria Reserve
For several years now, students visiting EcoMinga’s reserves have focused on herpetological monitoring in the Naturetrek Candelaria Reserve. This has led to a new understanding of the diversity of frogs within the reserve. The most exciting result of these investigations has been the discovery of two new species of frog.
In 2019, the Naturetrek Leaf Frog (Noblella naturetrekii) was described to science and named in recognition of our role in saving this species and its habitat. In 2022, another new frog species was described to science from the Naturetrek Viscaya Reserve. Maryanne’s Robber Frog (Pristimantis maryanneae) has been named in recognition of our co-founder and co-director, Maryanne Mills’ role in helping to shape the industry’s approach to sustainable tourism 30 years ago, way before carbon-offsetting and sustainability were on the mainstream agenda.
Naturetrek Viscaya Reserve
The Naturetrek Candelaria and Naturetrek Viscaya Reserves, our original reserves, have gradually grown in size since 2007 as new blocks of land became available for us to purchase. The Naturetrek Candelaria Reserve is a large block of forest within the main wildlife corridor connecting the two national parks, whilst the Naturetrek Viscaya Reserve connects the Llanganates National Park with a different kind of lower-elevation forest.
Because the Naturetrek Reserves connect higher altitude cloudforest to the vulnerable riparian forests along the valley floor, they not only provide vital river access for large mammals and other species but also extend protection to the more diverse lower elevations that are not protected by the highland national parks in this watershed. For example, a recently discovered and very rare tree, Blakea attenboroughii, is not known from any national park yet is present in the Naturetrek Reserve. The upper Río Pastaza watershed is home to nearly 200 additional species of plants found nowhere else in the world, and this number is steadily increasing due to botanical investigation. The birdlife here is also very special, with species such as the Andean Cock-of-the-rock, Giant Antpitta, and the endangered Black-and-chestnut Eagle, one of which has been spotted by EcoMinga staff carrying a capuchin monkey through the air!
Naturetrek El Encanto Reserve
Until now, our efforts have focused on building the Naturetrek Candelaria Reserve and Naturetrek Viscaya Reserve, which together have helped to form an important cloudforest wildlife corridor between the Llanganates and Sangay National Parks. With this long-held ambition now essentially complete, we have turned our attention to the neighbouring ‘El Encanto’ region.
Our donation, derived from the £15 / £5 sum that we set aside for every flight that we book on behalf of our clients, has enabled us to purchase two blocks in El Encanto, a combined 466 acres in size. This latest purchase increases the acreage of our Naturetrek Reserves in Ecuador to 2,181 acres in total.
Being at a slightly lower elevation than our existing reserves, El Encanto (meaning 'the enchanted' land) holds a wealth of mammals, including Jaguar, Puma, Ocelot, Giant Anteater, both Mountain and Brazilian Tapir, White-lipped Peccary and, of course, Spectacled Bear. Indeed, we have already captured images on a camera trap of a Jaguar that is present in our new reserve!
Reducing Carbon
We've measured the total carbon footprint of our business operation - including our headquarters, tour operations, customer flights and business travel - and we're now on a mission to reduce it year on year. We know this won't be easy, but this isn't a reason to delay starting our journey towards net zero emissions. Right now we don't have all the answers, nor are we claiming to be perfect, but each year we will strive to improve.
For now, we continue to make donations to build our Naturetrek Reserve in Ecuador in order to offset flight emissions, and we encourage our clients to do the same.
Our Legacy
Naturetrek Contributions to Sustainable Tourism Over the Years
We are intimately involved in wildlife tourism and dependent on it as a business, making us acutely aware of the need to ensure the long-term protection of species and habitats. Our financial contribution to conservation causes has increased over the years with the growth of our business, and now stands at over £1.2 million. Some examples of our own projects and contributions include:
Supporting Butterfly Conservation
Our longstanding support of Butterfly Conservation between 2002 and 2024, as a Gold Corporate Sponsor and through our donation of 10% of the income generated from each of our butterfly-focused holidays annually, saw us raise over £266,700 to help protect the habitats of these endearing insects. Our donations have funded a wide variety of initiatives, including an 18-month project maintain and improve a discrete area of suitable habitat for the Duke of Burgundy in the southern Chilterns.
Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve
One of the finest and most important wetland wildlife reserves in Asia, Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, was created largely to protect Nepal's last remaining population of wild Water Buffaloes, but is of even greater importance to migratory birds and endangered grassland birds and mammals. In the early 1990s, it was neglected by the tourism it deserved and not regarded nationally as a tourism destination of any note. This situation changed dramatically after we conceived and funded the creation of Koshi Tappu's first luxury tented camp: Koshi Camp. Our single-handed marketing of Koshi Camp, and the attractions of the Reserve, have – nearly 30 years later – put it firmly on the map of the must-go-to destinations of naturalists and birdwatchers worldwide. The encouragement and training of local staff and expert naturalist guides has been extended to include school and village visits, emphasising the benefits of birds, wildlife, conservation and tourism for all. We were delighted to gift a 50% shareholding in Koshi Camp to the local naturalists and conservationists who assisted in establishing this popular tourist wildlife camp, and in whose hands the future of the conservation of Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve lies.
Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve
Such was the success of our initiative at Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve that, in 2008, we established a second tented camp at Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in far western Nepal. This remote and little-visited reserve protects the world’s largest population of the nominate race of the Swamp Deer, as well as many other mammals, including healthy populations of both Tiger and Leopard. However, it is for rare grassland birds that Suklaphanta is particularly special, amongst them the endangered Bengal Florican. It is our hope that, by encouraging tourists to this park, we will persuade both local people and the government of Nepal of the value of this important wildlife reserve. The encouragement and training given to local staff and naturalist guides has again been at the forefront of our work here.
Travelling Responsibly
Naturetrek’s founders, staff and tour leaders are naturalists and conservationists turned tour operators, and sustainable tourism has been a key part of Naturetrek’s ethos since the company began in 1986. We are, of course, utterly dependent on the well-being of the world’s wildlife for the success of our business… and the habitats, reserves and national parks that protect it. Thus, our core aims are, and always have been:
- To focus on visiting national parks, wildlife reserves and wilderness areas which do not benefit from the rewards of mass market tourism.
- To minimise our environmental impact by exploring in small groups and, as much as possible, on foot.
- To use local guides wherever possible… and to train them to the highest standards expected by today’s wildlife tourists.
- To involve local communities wherever possible in our operations, and to ensure that they receive a fair share of the benefits of wildlife tourism.
- To use small, locally owned, family-run accommodation, and similarly owned and operated specialist in-country partners with a wildlife/conservation bias and sympathy.
- To purchase local produce over imported goods.
- To fund and develop partnerships with local communities and naturalists in order to develop low-impact and environmentally friendly tourist facilities in exceptional wildlife areas. Koshi Camp and Suklaphanta Wildlife Camp are examples of such partnerships.
- To run our UK office (a beautiful barn conversion set amongst a 12-acre grassland site in the village of Chawton) in as energy-efficient a manner as possible.
- To encourage and develop a passion for wildlife and wild places amongst our customers (many of whom are novices, trying this form of holiday for the first time).
Protecting Biodiversity
The Naturetrek Reserves in Ecuador - Reducing the Carbon Emissions from our Flights
Naturetrek was one of the very first British tour operators to encourage its clients to contribute towards offsetting their carbon emissions and has done so since 2000. Since 2007, we have additionally been making contributions, at our own expense, for every flight that we book. We set aside £15 for every person booking a long-haul holiday with us, and £5 on behalf of each of our short-haul travellers, which to date has raised over £625,000 and funded our very own ‘carbon retention’ project.
In collaboration the Ecuadorian NGO, Fundación EcoMinga, we use these funds to build up our own ‘Naturetrek Reserves’, helping to link together the Llanganates and Sangay National Parks on the eastern slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes – an area of threatened primary cloud forest that has been classified by WWF as one of the 200 most important wildlife corridors in the world due to its high levels of biodiversity. This Naturetrek project has not only saved a valuable habitat and its endangered wildlife from deforestation, but it has also enabled us to prevent the release of an estimated 105,000 – 210,000 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, which instead remains held within its forests and soils. Our Naturetrek Reserves now cover 2,181 acres, creating an invaluable wildlife corridor between the national parks. It is rich in Andean species such as Spectacled Bear and Cock-of-the-Rock, together with a very rich flora and a wealth of rare amphibians and reptiles, amongst the latter several orchid and frog species new to science. Read more on the Naturetrek Reserves in Ecuador here.
We also encourage our clients to match our donation when they book their holiday, in order to further reduce the environmental impact of their trip. By matching our donation, you can help us to grow our ‘Naturetrek Reserve’, both locking up carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere and preventing the National Parks from becoming isolated cloudforest islands, thereby protecting this valuable, extremely biodiverse habitat and its endangered wildlife. We are delighted that our clients have raised an additional £41,000 since 2019 by choosing to make their own donation when booking a Naturetrek holiday.
