Our commitment

We at Birding Holland firmly believe in taking responsibility. We love the nature, the birds and the wildlife and our aim is to make our customers enjoy the birds and the beauty of The Netherlands and abroad; both now and in the future!

We are aware that our business has an impact on people as well as the environment. Therefore we take our responsibility and try to minimize our impact. The way we do this is by making conscious choices during our trips and in the way we do business. Sustainability is an intrinsic value at Birding Holland, we truly believe that without attention for sustainability any travel is potentially harmful, which we want to prevent at any cost. Our aim for sustainability is a continuous process and we are always looking for ways to get this to the next level. We are open for your ideas and suggestions!

Sustainability as seen by Birding Holland:

Giving the example.

The importance of the nature areas visited by us is paramount and the welfare of the birds and the wildlife always comes first. Our guides will never enter a protected area or deliberately disturb birds or wildlife. Our guides will never use tapes or call playback to lure in the birds. Not only is this highly disturbing to the birds, especially during breeding season, it is also not necessary. Our guides know where the birds are and usually have several day time roosts and back-up sites available for hard-to-get birds.

Among the hard-to-get birds we have shown our customers in the past without using tapes or call playback are e.g. Great Bittern, Baillon’s Crake, Spotted Crake, Water Rail and every species of owl and woodpecker in The Netherlands.

This is the way we give the example!

We use local guides. Always.

For all our trips, both in The Netherlands and abroad, we use local guides. By using local guides the nature and wildlife become valuable in the local economy and the interest and importance of protecting grows locally. By using local guides we develop local knowledge and awareness, the best protection possible. The added benefit for our clients is that they are always sure to have the best and most up to date information about the birds and where to see them.

Training our guides.

By using local guides local awareness that nature and wild life is more than just a quick cash crop grows. To help this awareness take root with the local community, Birding Holland for example helps training bird guides in Ecuador and Gambia by making books and optical equipment available to them.

No mass tourisme. Ever.

Birding Holland mostly has private, tailor made birding tours. For our group tours we have small groups, usually no larger than only 8 people. By using this number as the maximum, the impact on the areas we visit, but also on the surrounding ecosystem (e.g. use of water in dry areas) is as little as possible. As an added bonus for our customers, they get more attention from our guides compared to travelling in larger groups. A pure win-win for everybody.

CO2 compensation.

Birding Holland has a cooperation with Dutch company Green Seats. Through Green Seats people can (voluntarily) compensate the CO2 emissions of their trip.

As much electronic documentation as possible.

We minimize the use of promotion materials and paper documentation as much as possible. We send all information electronically by e-mail, avoiding unnessecary use of paper and the postal system.

By sending our information electronically, we are also able to cut costs, resulting in lower prices for our customers!

We support charities – in The Netherlands.

Apart from taking our responsibility by using local guides, Birding Holland supports several charities related to birds and wildlife. Birding Holland is the only Dutch tour operator who cooperates with the Dutch Birdlife partner, the Dutch Mammal society and the Belgian nature conservancy agency Natuurpunt! 

And abroad!

In Ecuador our sister organisation Inezia Tours supports the Rio Pucuno Foundation. We actively contribute to preserving one of the most beautiful and vulnerable areas in South America, by giving a set amount of money from every trip we do to this non-profit organisation. The Rio Pucuno Foundation uses this money solely for buying pristine forests that otherwise would have been sold to the lumber industry. The people who own the forest – usually poor local farmers – are paid a fair price for their forest, considerably more than they would have been paid by the lumber industry.

By paying the farmers more money, the Rio Pucuno Foundation provides them with a better and more lucrative alternative, saving the forests for the birds and wildlife!

More information on the charities we support can be seen by clicking the links below: