RESPONSIBLE SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

Sumatra Adventure Holidays is a trekking and tour company based at Bukit Lawang, the gateway to the World UNESCO Heritage Listed Gungung Leuser National Park in North Sumatra. Over 1 million hectares in size, the park is the last frontier for many endangered and critically endangered Sumatran species of flora and fauna, including the Sumatran orangutan, the Sumatran tiger, the Sumatran elephant and the Sumatran rhinoceros.

Sumatra Adventure Holidays is a locally owned Sustainable and Responsible Eco Tourism Travel Company. Our aim is to build community based sustainable tourism opportunities, where the benefits go back to the local communities. This is achieved by partnering with local communities and businesses, employing and training local guides, developing and supporting locally owned guesthouses, providing employment for local people with the aim to preserve their local heritage and culture and supporting local volunteer schemes.

Sumatra Adventure Holidays is seen as a model by the local community, by demonstrating that there are viable and sustainable alternative employment opportunities to palm oil plantations and logging for the local people. Our actions have improved their understanding of the importance of protecting and conserving the Gungung Leuser National Park, not only for the long term sustainability of this fragile ecosystem but for their own livelihood and future, as the park provides communities living around it with a regular stock of food, fresh water supply, local climate regulation and carbon fixing, natural beauty and ecotourism.

OUR COMMITMENT TO THE COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENT

Sumatra Adventure Holidays is proud to be involved with a number of locally run community education and environmental programs, where you can help teach English to the local children at the Jungle School, Dream Class and Sunshine Class free volunteer English lessons or you can make a positive contribution to protect the environment in the Batu Kapal Conservation Buffer Zone Program, by participating in environmental mapping and animal surveying or planting trees as part of a Orangutan and Wildlife Corridor Biolink Project. These can either be included in your tour or trek to Sumatra or you can stay and volunteer for an extended time to help with these very worthwhile programs.

Our Respect Jungle Guidelines are designed to help you understand and enjoy your time in the jungle in an environmentally  sensitive and respectful way. Lets help protect this fragile ecosystem so your children and grand children can  enjoy this natural wonder for many years to come!

There are a number of ways you can give back to the local communities and look after the Jungle when you visit Sumatra

Our Batu Kapal Conservation Buffer Zone Program. Come and make a positive contribution to protect this important buffer zone which is adjacent to the Gungung Leuser National Park, by participating in environmental mapping and animal surveying or helping to planting trees and bamboo wildlife corridors. This project aims to link important fragmented biodiversity islands of native vegetation to create wildlife corridors for the animals to move freely between the national park and these areas of high biodiversity, as part of our Orangutan and Wildlife Corridor Biolink Project. This buffer zone area is critical to the future survival of the wildlife occurring in the local area. It has its own wild population of wild orangutans and is rich with wildlife. you can either volunteer as part of your tour or trek to Sumatra or you can stay and volunteer for an extended time to help with these very worthwhile programs.

The ROAR Project - Zero Plastics project (ROAR - RECYCLE OR ACTIVELY REDUCE) . Sumatra Adventure Holidays is proud to be a founding member of the ROAR Project Zero Plastic Bottles – North Sumatra. We are pleased to actively support this project, with the provision of pumps for water bottles, information  and signage for the local community and offering our guest on tour free water refills. We are proud to be running zero plastic bottles tours, saving over 1000  plastic bottles on our tours  in the first month! We expect this to continue for all of our tours in the future, as our guests very keen to support and participate in the ROAR Project Zero Plastic Bottles in North Sumatra by bringing a steel bottle from home and using our free water refills during their tour.

Our Tree Planting and Reforestation Program at Batu Kapal. Do you love nature and the environment? You can donate and plant a tree as part of Batu Kapal's tree planting and reforestation project for 150.000 IDR per tree in this important buffer zone area which borders the Gungung Leuser National Park. All proceeds are reinvented back into the Batu Kapal Conservation Buffer Zone Project.

Our Volunteer English Programs. Sumatra Adventure Holidays are also partnering with the communities in 3 local villages, Selang Pangeran, Porli and Gotong Royong where you can volunteer to teach English to the local children in the afternoons for 2 hours. Sumatra Adventure Holidays also partners with a number of local primary schools  to secure the long term future of the people in North Sumatra through the education of our children, as we believe that our future lies in their hands.

Our Pack for a Purpose Program focuses on the provision of educational supplies to assist with our children’s learning at the primary schools in the local communities, including the Tualang Gepang and the Gotong Royong Primary Schools. The Gotong Royong Primary School serves 230 children from ages 7 through 12 years old.

Our School Visits, where you to help  distribute the Pack For A Purpose school supplies, speak with the teachers and children as part of your trip,  and volunteer for a few hours to teach our children some new skills, as part of your school visit.

Extended Volunteering Opportunities. We can offer you opportunities to  help teach English in the volunteer English programs or do Environmental Volunteering as part of the Batu Kapal Conservation Program, for either a few days, a week or a month. We are happy to  arrange this for you, for as long as you would like to stay. We can arrange food and accommodation for volunteers fo$rom45 a day Please contact us for more information on extended volunteering opportunities at the Batu Kapal Conservation Program, or at the Volunteer English Programs and we will be happy to assist.

Building an English School House and rebuilding the bridge at Selang Pangeran. We helped to raise funds to build a school house and rebuild the bridge that was washed away in recent heavy rains at Selang Pangeran, this remote village in North Sumatra. A group of volunteers teach English to 40 local children three afternoons every week. We are now raising funds for English-Indonesian dictionaries, school bags and school supplies for the children. Please contact us if you would like to donate school supplies to this volunteer English School.