Of Tourism and Green Investment
Tree planting by one of Orbis’s Community partner; YODEP
It has become normal to see big corporates in Malawi come out and join the tree planting season, with millions of Kwacha invested in these initiatives. High resolution and storytelling pictures are taken and social media is awash with them. Local press goes to town talking about the CSR programmes for these corporate giants. A year later, like clockwork, the cycle is repeated. Nobody is talking about how the trees from the previous planting season did not survive. They either naturally died from the lack of care or their fate was sealed by wild fire. I think these resources are being wasted and we are choosing to look the other way, so long as the corporate image stands solid.
The 2023 theme for the World Tourism Day is ‘Tourism & Green Investment’ and it comes at a time when we all must pay serious attention to our carbon footprint. We are in a climate crisis of our own making and in our own way, we must begin to off-set such, with the little we have. The imagine of tourism must now become that which is sustainable and can be maintained for future generations; socially, economically and environmentally. Very soon, tourism companies that have not embraced sustainable tourism will become obsolete.
Being a social enterprise, like Orbis DMC, is not easy as one must strike a balance between running a profitable business and putting the interest of the people and the planet at heart. Once the scales are tipped heavily on one end, the business ends abruptly. Orbis has balanced the two since 2008 and we are proud of what we have made of it. We have made so many mistakes, learnt from them and improved our approach. These lessons led to the creation of The Orbis Foundation; a non-profit set up to manage our sustainability. Through the foundation, we created the Payment for EcoSystems (PES) Fund where 1.5% of our revenue goes to help manage and offset our carbon footprint.
The Orbis Foundation donates money to Zomba Treez
We have chosen to primarily work with established conservation projects and invest in conservation through them. We could have also chosen to independently plant trees and repeat it annually, but we realise this is not sustainable. Working with full time conservation projects means our efforts will be guarded and protected, long after we have walked away with our cameras at the planting sessions. This is a call to Malawi corporate companies to start worrying about the survival rate of the thousands of seedlings they plant. Zomba TREEZ is one such conservation project we are in partnership with and there are many like them out there. Green Investment is encouraged, but it must be done sustainably if mankind is to manage the climate crisis at hand.
On an individual level, there is a lot that can be done, plant one tree in your backyard every year. You could also choose to travel with Orbis DMC and be sure you have contributed to the conservation efforts.