Members of Ecotourism Kenya are expected to abide by the following charter: All members of Ecotourism Kenya accept responsibility for protecting and enhancing the natural and cultural environment of the areas in which they operate. They undertake to implement sound environmental practices in all their operations, the properties they manage and/or promote, the destinations they manage and/or sell, the natural areas they visit and the tours they package. And all this is done in collaboration with the communities they are part of. Overall, they seek: To be proactive and innovative in their environmental programs To minimize waste and pollution of natural resources like water, land, and air To minimize the amount of waste generated from their operations and to safely dispose of all wastes without injury to the environment To participate in management of the natural areas in which they operate To comply with all relevant environmental legislation To educate their visitors about their natural areas and local cultures To observe the Kenya Safari Code and Coast Code To actively participate in programs developed to promote sustainable tourism including voluntary certification To have clear environmental goals and to develop programs necessary to achieve these goals To develop linkages with local communities in the areas in which they operate

Karibu Kenya Mission Statement: Karibu Kenya is committed to preserving the environment, protecting local communities and conserving wildlife. Our goal is to offer sustainable travel by minimising the carbon footprint of those who travel with us. To this end, we offer community based activities and work with providers who are as dedicated as we are to the safeguarding the future of the planet. Karibu Kenya Procedures and Policies Statement: Karibu Kenya is committed to promoting sustainability. We are a travel company that works with stakeholders in tourism, including consumers, tour guides, travel agencies, hotels, transport companies, restaurants and attractions, and we understand our key role and influence in the sustainability development of tourism. We aim to follow, implement and promote good sustainability practices to maximise positive impacts and minimise any negative impacts on tourism of our operations and to influence our clients and partners to do the same. We commit to complying with all national legislation, regulations and codes of practice. Our sustainability policy is divided into 12 themes. Each theme consists of a set of principles and practical actions. • Sustainability management and legal compliance: We have an appointed employee who is responsible for sustainability coordinator tasks, and a sustainability mission statement on the Karibu Kenya website that aims for a reduction of the negative social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts of the company’s activities. We have an action plan with clear targets, actions, measures, responsibilities and time planning. Karibu Kenya is transparent in all our sustainability policies, and they can be read on our website. All our staff are aware of our sustainability policy. • Internal management, social policy and human rights: We commit to sustainable internal management. We grant employees the freedom of employment and contract termination with notice, our labour conditions comply with Kenyan labour laws, and we pay over the national legal wage. We provide medical and liability insurance according to the national law, and grant employees fixed paid yearly holiday and sick leave. Our health and safety policy for employees complies to national legal standards: we don’t hinder trade union membership, we don’t discriminate in our employment policies and we practise human rights. • Internal management, environment and community relations: We commit to practising environmental protection and enhancing community relations. We actively reduce the use of disposable goods by giving all our clients reusable water flasks and reusable bags made by single mothers from Nairobi’s Mathare slum, and we use environmentally-friendly sources including buying all our staff shirts and yoga tops from Wildlife Works' eco-factory. We use energy efficient electricity, reduce water consumption, recycle and compose, work from home, use internet meetings, and contribute to the protection and preservation of local historical, archaeological, culturally and spiritually important properties and sites. • Partner agencies: We have developed and implemented a policy to improve sustainability of our partner agencies. Our aim is to make sustainable development matter to all our partners. We show the sustainability practices of our partner accommodations and agents in the Karibu Kenya Accommodation Guide and on the Karibu Kenya website. We only work with organisations who are implementing sustainability in their tourism policy. • Employment: Karibu Kenya doesn’t employ anyone under 18. If we hear of any organisation in Kenya employing under 18s we would stop working with them immediately. Likewise, we would cease to work with any organisation that encourages or overlooks the sexual exploitation of children. • Transport: We know that transport is an important aspect of sustainable tourism, and we offset the carbon of all our clients’ domestic flights, local transfers and game drives through Stand for Trees. We offer camel safaris and horse safaris as an alternative to game drives, we offer walking tours of Nairobi's Central Business District, and we offer yacht trips and dhow cruises at the coast. We try to ensure that vehicles used on our safaris do not cause more than average pollution. • Accommodation: We use accommodation that is certified by Ecotourism Kenya, and we show the Ecotourism Kenya rating of each property on our website. We choose accommodation facilities that use local architecture and art, and promote and preserve our cultural heritage. We use accommodation facilities that do not jeopardise the provision or integrity of basic services such as food, water, energy, healthcare or soil to the neighbouring communities. We prefer to take our clients to accommodation facilities and restaurants that grow their own produce, with a farm to fork policy. We choose accommodation facilities that limit their negative impact on local and global biodiversity wherever feasible. • Excursions and activities: Karibu Kenya values animal and community welfare highly. Kenya’s wildlife code is on our website. We safeguard the authenticity of Kenya’s communities and natural environment, we are strongly against harming wildlife and polluting the environment, and we encourage biodiversity. We encourage clients to stay at authentic local villages, and locally owned and managed camps and resorts. We use guides who are certified by the Kenya Professional Safari Guide Association. We encourage the purchase of local crafts and goods, and take clients to local villages and markets where they can buy these. We offer walking tours of Nairobi led by former street children. • Tour leaders, local representatives and guides: Karibu Kenya complies with all Kenyan laws. The company involves as many locals as possible by employing them in the tourism industry, and we stand for a fair and safe working environment that supports and respects local communities. We work with locals, we pay over the national wage, and our KPSGA-certified guides are trained in sustainability issues, and talk to our clients about them. • Donations: Karibu Kenya financially supports initiatives that are helping Kenya’s communities, wildlife and ecosystems. The organisations that we currently support can be found on our website, with details of what they offer. • Destinations: Karibu Kenya maximises the positive impact of our chosen destinations to ensure sustainable development, we consider sustainability aspects in the selection process of new destinations, and we don’t offer destinations where tourism leads to negative local effects. We support biodiversity conservation, including protected areas and areas of high biodiversity through financial contribution, and we promote Kenya’s highly respected national parks, reserves and conservancies. We abide by Kenya’s laws against the use of products from wildlife. • Customer communication and protection: Our customers’ welfare is very important to us. We ensure that customer privacy is not compromised, and comply with relevant standards and voluntary codes of conduct in marketing and advertising messages. We make product and price information clear, and give destination information, including sustainability aspects, which is factually correct. We promote Ecotourism Kenya certified accommodation, excursions, packages and transport options. We provide information to consumers about the natural surroundings, local culture and cultural heritage, and inform customers about risks and precautions related to health and safety matters. We have a contact person whose telephone number is permanently available for emergency situations. We inform clients about applicable legislation concerning the purchasing, sales, import and export of historic or religious artefacts and articles containing materials of threatened flora and fauna. We encourage clients to use local restaurants and shops, and to donate to local charities and sustainable initiatives. We measure client satisfaction and take into account the results, for service and product improvements, and we have clear procedures in case of complaints from clients.

Karibu Kenya is proud to have sponsored Kenya Connect’s recent Running to Read campaign. The annual event is a 5km fun run through the hills of Wamunyu in aid of literacy; the project aims to build a culture of reading, and the event finishes with the crowning of the King and Queen Reader of the Reading Challenge. Kenya Connect supports education in rural Kenya. The organisation keeps students healthy through a number of projects. They provide clean water, and install water tanks in schools. Kenya Connect runs a deworming campaign, with the assistance of local health professionals, in combination with providing hand washing stations; deworming in underdeveloped countries has been shown to be one of the most cost-effective ways to keep children healthy and in school. Wings Poa, Kenya Connect’s reusable sanitary pad programme helps girls stay in school throughout the month. Their girl power programme works with child protection officers, public health officials, parents, teachers, police and others to provide accurate sexual reproduction information; their media campaign on reducing teen pregnancy works through local radio and whatsapp. Kenya Connect has partnered with Global Vision 2020 to provide low-cost eye screening and glasses. And in collaboration with GiveLove, they are providing composting loos at schools; the nutrient filled compost can be used on school gardens and homestead farms.

Every client who travels with Karibu Kenya receives a reusable heart bag stitched by young single mothers; each bag directly contributes to improving the lives of vulnerable women in Mathare slum. Mathare Children’s Fund Panairobi Teenage Mother’s Empowerment programme offers six months’ training in different skills including cosmetology and garment making, as well as life skills training. Graduates from the programme get help finding work, often in clothes manufacturing companies, local salons and beauty shops. Nairobi Walking Tours’ take visitors around Nairobi’s Central Business District, which comes alive with fascinating stories about colonial times, Kenya’s fight for independence and the Nairobi of modern days. The guides, graduates of MCFpanairobi’s sponsorship programme, have been trained on the history of Nairobi in collaboration with National Museums of Kenya. The tour has won Luxury Travel Guide’s ‘Sustainable Tour Operator of the Year Award’. Karibu Kenya recommends this tour and loves booking it for our clients; every tour helps a former street child become independent. MCFpanairobi has recently partnered with an organisation to establish a community library. With a study room, volunteer supervisors, books and basic amenities, this is a space conducive to learning where children can spend time after school. Other projects include the school sponsorship programme, holiday programmes, educational trips, tutoring and mentorship, children’s parliaments in schools, reusable sanitary pads, and programmes in sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Karibu Kenya offsets the carbon footprint of everyone who travels with us through Stand for Trees. Every trip with us safeguards Kenya’s Kasigau Wildlife Sanctuary, a vital migration corridor between Tsavo East and West National Parks. Stand for Trees protects forests around the world, stopping carbon emissions in those areas. These projects, assessed by independent auditors to verify their success, are funded by the sale of carbon credits. Through Stand for Trees, companies, organisations and individuals can buy credits to offset their carbon footprint, or the carbon footprint of their clients. Using the Stand for Trees’ footprint calculator, travellers can calculate the carbon produced by their trip, business or even lifestyle, buy carbon credits, and live secure in the knowledge that they’re contributing to the protection of tropical forests. Since carbon is stored in tree trunks, leaves, branches and soils, forests are crucial to the life of the planet. Certain trees and plants also have medicinal value, enhancing their significance. In addition, forests are home to thousands of endangered species, including orangutans, leopards, pangolins and anteaters, making them essential to whole ecosystems. Stand for Trees’ projects don’t just help fight climate change, they provide benefits for communities. Their projects, from ecotourism to producing sustainable clothing, provide employment to local communities, and provide access to schools, medicine and water.

Wildlife Works’ eco-factory makes all the Karibu Kenya staff shirts, t-shirts and yoga tops. Located in an impoverished part of Tsavo, the world’s only carbon-neutral, fair-trade factory protecting wildlife produces quality clothes while providing employment. REDD+ – Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation – is a climate change mitigation strategy, introduced by the UN to help stop the destruction of the world’s forests which is contributing hugely to climate change. The protected area is 500,00 acres, which will offset a million tons of CO2 emissions each year for the next 30 years. Wildlife Works, the world’s leading REDD+ programme development and management company, has initiated innovative market-based solutions to the conservation of biodiversity. The organisation provides jobs in education, making eco-friendly products, protecting wildlife, helping farmers and growing trees. Wildlife Works helps the women’s groups that make handicrafts and clothes find global sales. Other projects include student scholarships, eco-charcoal and improving access to water. Karibu Kenya supports the Wildlife Works Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project by offsetting all our clients carbon footprints through Stand for Trees.