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Imagine if every traveller and every business took responsibility for their carbon footprint. This is the vision of Paul Murray, founder of the Living In Peace Project in Karamea.
Paul was inspired by Douglas Tompkins, the founder of North Face and Esprit clothing businesses, who, on the sale of his companies for $120 million, purchased 900,000 ha of virgin forest in Chile to “preserve it from development.” Paul explains:
I wasn’t anywhere near as cashed up as Mr Tompkins, but loved the essence of what he was doing and his motivation for doing it. I had the opportunity to purchase a much smaller piece of forest and did so.
In 2001, Paul purchased and committed to maintaining a 80-acre (31 ha) forest bordering on the Kahurangi National Park. The Living in Peace Project is funded through his businesses including Rongo Backpackers & Gallery and Karamea Farm Baches. He wanted to capture carbon to mitigate the environmental impact of his businesses.
My accountant refers to the forest as a “non-performing asset,” but I don’t see it that way, it definitely performs a function and that is to enable us to take full environmental responsibility for the carbon cost of our business and that is important to me.
I want to be able to raise my hand and say that “I am an environmentally responsible business person” and that means I want to have a successful business, without damaging the environment in the process. I want to take full responsibility for every aspect of my business and always seek to minimise the environmental impact of my business activities.
Paul actively encourages people from all over the world to visit Karamea, which is possibly the most remote town on mainland New Zealand, which is also a country a long way from any other. There is a carbon cost for people to visit his business and he meets that by maintaining the forest, which absorbs CO2 and turns it into wood. There are also some incredible rata trees on the property that he estimates are over 1,200 years old.
To stand in the forest and be present is very inspiring for me. The forest provides everything it needs to grow and thrive and recycles all waste material in a way that sustains it. It requires no inputs other than freely available resources of water, sunshine and soil. It’s a perfect system and I believe the path to sustainable business is to strive to be like the forest…biomimicry.
Paul acknowledges that while tourism businesses have a responsibility to offset the impact of their businesses, travellers also need to do their part to minimise and offset their carbon footprint. He believes that although many people are becoming more aware about the carbon cost of their travel, others have not really considered it.
We take tour groups to the forest, go check out the big trees and discuss why we maintain the forest. The people who are already aware of the issue are very impressed with our efforts to address the carbon cost of travel on their behalf. Others, who are perhaps comprehending the information for the first time, go away thinking about the subject and perhaps in a small way, we are influencing their thinking on the subject of sustainable travel.
We asked Paul to share some Dos and Don'ts for GOOD travellers considering a trip to New Zealand. Here they are.