Clean-up initiative in Danakil Depression
Many of our destinations facing more severe waste problems due to a lack of awareness of local service providers and careless travelers and tour companies that leave behind their non-composable waste. However, it could be so easy to reduce waste while traveling by training drivers and guides accordingly and making guests aware of the problem and offer them plastic-free alternatives. SimienEcoTours strives towards greener tours. Ever since it has been one of our principles with concrete measures and initiatives we support. Another great achievement these days is the support of the clean-up in Danakil Depression that we support.
On April 27, 2021, Nick Crane, owner of the Simien Lodge, showed his great commitment for a clean Ethiopia and handed over 1,200 USD to Afar Tourism for the clean up of Erta Ale and other places in the Danakil Depression.
The money was collected from the following environmentally concerned tour operators:
1 Simien Park Lodges PLC - Nick Crane
2 Lake Tana Tours - Elizabetta Gabbarini
3 Medir Tour - Anna Dias
4 Simien Eco Tours - Marco Degasper
5 Welcome Tours Ethiopia - Nik Pappato
6 Agape Tours - Daniel Longai Dieraert
7 Ava Tours - Pascal Leduc
8 Yared Tour and Travel - Getinet Seyoum
9 Global Nomad - Fred Giraud
10 Abyssinia Ballooning - Bram van Loosbroek
11 Tesfa Tours - Mark Chapman
12 Boundless Ethiopia Tour PLC - Hans van de Haar
Afar tourism have decided to ban the use of single use plastics in their tourism areas. It is hope that the idea will spread to other parts of Ethiopia as well.
For us as SimienEcoTours it is great to be part of this initiative as we see with sad eyes how some of our destinations end up with waste management problems not only because of tourism but also. Since 2020 we made it our policy to ban plastic bottles on our tours and thrive towards greener tours. But as usual fighting against windmills as a single tour operator is quite a challenge.
Therefore, we are happy to see that more and more tour operators get involved in environmentally friendlier ideas. In the end it is for the better of all.
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