'Most of us have walked so far an average of 5600 miles/9000km in the mountains of Cusco...'

Our Vision

The main goals are established to maximize the positive benefits of tourism to biodiversity, ecosystems, and economic and social development, and of biodiversity to tourism, while minimizing negative social and environmental impacts from tourism, and can cover, inter alia:

• Conservation of biological diversity; the sustainable use of its components; and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources thus reducing environmental degradation as well as reducing indignity and indecency occasioned by poverty.

• Represent and safeguard the legal rights of our members before public and private entities. In the same way, we encourage our members to fulfill their obligations and professional duties.

• Protect and promote respect for the cultural and natural heritage.

• Ensure fair and reasonable treatment of all those who use the services of guides and with colleagues working in all aspects of tourism.

• Provide a skilled presentation of knowledge, interpret and call attention to surrounding and inform and maintain objectivity and enthusiasm in a pleasant manner.

• Encourage all tourists and travel agencies worldwide to use local staff (Guides, Porters, Horsemen etc.) and services and, in this way, protect the economy of the local communities

• Minimize accidents. Knowing that despite all our due care and experience, we are unable to prevent events that our beyond our control, we strive to reduce the possible risks by giving appropriate information about the routes, weather, geography, environmental policies etc.

Suggest alternative routes, providing maps which show camping areas and their rules.
Organize conferences and workshops on subjects that could prove useful during our jobs (first aid, sustainable tourism, biodiversity, trekking, climbing, rock climbing etc.)
Study and analyze general tourism problems and those that could effect our members.
Establish national and international links with organizations with similar sustainable tourism visions.
Other ideas related to the environment, community and us.

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

Produce Less Waste by Practicing the 3 Rs:

Reduce the amount and toxicity of trash you discard.
Reuse containers and products; repair what is broken or give it to someone who can repair it.
Recycle as much as possible, which includes buying products with recycled content.

REDUCE

Waste prevention, or "source reduction," means consuming and throwing away less. It includes:

purchasing durable, long-lasting goods;

seeking products and packaging that are as free of toxics as possible;

redesigning products to use less raw material in production, have a longer life, or be used again after its original use.

Source reduction actually prevents the generation of waste in the first place, so it is the most preferred method of waste management and goes a long way toward protecting the environment.

REUSE

Reusing items -- by repairing them, donating them to charity and community groups, or selling them -- also reduces waste. Reusing products, when possible, is even better than recycling because the item does not need to be reprocessed before it can be used again.

Recycle

Recycling turns materials that would otherwise become waste into valuable resources. In addition, it generates a host of environmental, financial, and social benefits. Materials like glass, metal, plastics, and paper are collected, separated and sent to facilities that can process them into new materials or products.

Recycling is one of the best environmental success stories of the late 20th century. Recycling, including composting, diverted 82 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2006, up from 34 million tons in 1990. By 2006, almost 8,660 curbside collection programs served roughly half of the American population. Curbside programs, along with drop-off and buy-back centers, resulted in a diversion of about 32 percent of the nation's solid waste in 2005.

The Guides , October 2007