ECOTOURISM
Ecotourism.org
defines ecotourism as:"responsible travel to natural areas that conserves
the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves
interpretation and education"
The well-being of local people includes you spending your money directly
with local population instead of outside multi-national companies.
You can do this by BOOKING
DIRECT WITH ACCOMMODATION OWNERS instead of going
through a worldwide website that demands 12 to 30% commission.
The worldwide push to monopolize accommodation bookings takes income
away from hard working hotel owners and drives up the price of your
room everywhere.
Even for a small place commissions can reach $1000.- a month and instead
of the money going to another super yacht or holiday mansion for the
millionaire CEO of a multi national booking site it could be better
spent on improving the accommodation further or putting our daughter
through school.


Your host Shane
Eco Certification
What does it mean if someone displays the eco-certification logo of
Ecotourism Australia on their website or advertising?
It means they have paid their application fee, and they paid their annual
fee to Ecotourism Australia, and they have ticked the right boxes on
the form.
Early 2014 a monstrosity of a concrete house was completed in Cape Tribulation,
the amount of energy and resources gone in to this impractical structure
was staggering, but it was widely advertised in the media as green,
carbon-neutral and self-sufficient because it catches rainwater off
the roof, and because it has some solar panels to reduce the running
hours of the big generator. Total nonsense. Hypocritical greenwash.
Over the years I have known of eco-certified accommodation who run
air-conditioners on a diesel generator all year even through the winter,
eco-certified tour operators who lost their licence for speeding in
cassowary habitat areas, I have witnessed another eco-certified tour
operator blast through the Daintree at at least 100km/hour at night
when animals often cross the road, and when you talk to most of these
people in private they admit that they think it is all BS but they don't
mind paying just to have the eco logo on their site expecting it will
boost business.
Displaying their eco certification logo only means they have paid their
fees, not that they are genuinely interested in being as green as possible,
or are even doing much...
At Rainforest Hideaway we don't join in hypocritical games like this,
we do our own thing and consider ourself to be green enough to self-certify
as eco-friendly.
- A absolute minimum of forest has been cleared to fit Rainforest Hideaway
in to the jungle, not like some other places that are now somewhere
near the forest, no longer in it.
- Rainforest Hideaway has the smallest generator of all resorts and
only run this for a maximum of six hours a day on average to supplement
the solar panels which do not always work too well in a rainforest.
- We harvest the plentiful supply of rainwater that falls in Cape Tribulation.
We have a gravity feed line from the creek which requires no energy
at all, and a float valve on the tank so we don't waste water in overflow.
- We do not chlorinate the drinking water or treat it with any other
chemicals or treatments that require electricity, we use a dual cartridge
water filter of ceramic and carbon cartridge to deliver pure clean drinking
water, gravity fed from the tank.
- Every guest is encouraged to refill their plastic water bottles from
our water filter instead of disposing of bottles and then going to the
shop to buy new ones. Nothing more stupid than being in a rainforest
with plentiful supply of clean drinking water, and then buying water
that got trucked up all the way from Brisbane. Did you know that the
amount of energy that goes in to producing a plastic bottle of drinking
water and getting it to you equates to 30% of this bottle filled with
oil?
- We try to grow as much fruit as we can ourselves, on the property
we have pineapples, bananas, passionfruit, water cherries, and other
fruit trees include mango, jackfruit, lychee, mangosteen, durian, rambutan,
and chocolate pudding fruit.
- Our laundry is done in Cape Tribulation, and not in Cairns like many
resorts do, as we can't see the point of the sheets having to be driven
a 300 km. round trip while there is so much water in Cape Trib to wash
them.
- No air-conditioners, hair-dryers, microwaves, and other big power
guzzlers.
- All building are designed to let natural airflow do the cooling, and
skylights let the daylight in.
- Natural local materials are used where ever possible as building supplies.
- We recycle all recyclables and do a run to the dump only once every
two or three months.
- Frogs are an indicator of the state of environment, and they are very
happy around Rainforest Hideaway, people have even complained on Tripadvisor
about the sound of the numerous frogs at night. Further proof of how
well Rainforest Hideaway blends in to the natural environment without
disturbance comes from the cassowaries who feel very much at around
Rainforest Hideaway, so much they mated on the back door step in 2012!