Our eco-tourism vision
Vision
Our Eco-Tourism Vision
GENERAL THOUGHTS
I grew up on the countryside in northeaster part of Slovenia, close to forest and fields, I played there, hide and seek an adventure as a child. My family produced our own food and vegetable every year, and I participated in that gardening a lot. This was one of the biggest gift, they learn me – to respect nature and our home. With Stane we stablished our home on the village, too. We love waking up listening to the sounds of birds, hearing wolf howling and deer rutting in the autumn, going for a walk with our dog Luna and seeing bear tracks. This is place, we call our home. And couldn’t be more grateful for this. We have our own garden and we produce our vegetable by our selves, make sourodough bread and our own jams. I feel this is the quilty of life, making me rich with experience and gratitute.
We love spending time in nature, observing, listening, admiring, photographing or just be. Our moto is EXPLORE – INSPIRE – CARE. And we love sharing this love with you. We want to show you our most loved places, but plase respect them with the same care as we do. Only this way we can continue our work on and share this to our future guest – friends.
NATURE FIRST
We strongly believe that we can work on preserving nature every day, including on our tours. It is part of our life. Putting nature first doesn’t mean we do not care about human. We do. That’s way we learn about them, we care about Nature and we respect that. In many case we contribute to the local awareness of special plants and animals.
RESPONSIBLE TOURISM
Environmental advocacy and responsible tourism have been core values since the early founding. We believe that responsible eco-tourism is a way of creation of holidays for travelers who care about local communities and local customs. These travelers wish to help to protect the environment and we strive to assist them in achieving that goal as they explore. Along with protecting nature, we aim to add value to all communities we visit and to minimize the negative effects of tourism on the environment. We believe that small group reduces our impact on the environment and the local communities we might visit.
We strive to minimize our environmental impact and offer our guests reusable alternatives to common single-use plastics like carry bags and water bottles.
We are avoiding the use of wild animals for the purpose of human entertainment. On our tours we might encounter wildlife, but do understand they are wild animals with their own will, so we cannot forced them to be there on time where we want them. This is not a coffee-shop. It is wild nature. At the same time we are respecting wild growing plants and admire them in nature.
Accommodations are provided by locals, so is the dining experiences based around locally produced and prepared food. We want you to feel like at home.
SUPPORTING LOCAL COMMUNITIES
We strive to offer trips and tours that enable our customers not only to feel the magnificent nature, to respect it and learn about it but also to engage with local people. This is something that our customers enjoy because it gives them an opportunity to learn more about local customs and culture. We are committed to supporting local businesses, as well buying locally sourced food.
ENVIRONMENTAL FUND
As passionate nature lovers and environmental advocates, we strongly believe in protecting our natural environment through conservation and sustainability practices. We have established a so called “Environmental fund”, where part of our income is dedicated to different nature conservation projects, free learnings or education. Additionally, all our customers who either take a day tour or a multi day tour with us, contribute to preserving our nature. A fixed amount of their tour cost is put toward supporting the Environmental Fund.
Our Tour agency ARS NATURAE Petra Draškovič Pelc s.p. is registred at Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia
Licence 2303 for Tour Organiser
Licence 2304 for Tour Agent
Licence TV1232 for Tourist Guide
I am very proud to have completed the Rewilding Europe‘s Rewilding Training Tourism programme, which is focusedon developing and upskilling the guiding and hospitality segment of Europe’s nature tourism sector. Set up by Rewilding Europe, it aims to professionalise and scale up nature-based tourism in Europe. It is designed for guides, hospitality and tourism entrepreneurs, and other local partners in rewilding areas and enables them to act as ambassadors for rewilding. Providing comprehensive rewilding and tourism training, it incorporates Rewilding Europe’s best practices.
Interpreting our heritage is crucial for all of us. To understand the world around us, to appreciate it and to safe it.
I feel very grateful to be part of this community.
Even more, my work on large carnivore interpretation has been recognised by Interpret Europe as one of the best leading examples in Europe!
I am very proud to be a member of NATURE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHY ALLIANCE and actively promote NATURE. It is very important to recognize our responsibility.
Protecting wild places and animals begins with prioritizing the well-being of nature above my photography.
We should reflect on the possible impact of our actions, not only when taking photos but also what we do with them!
We are proud BEAR FRIENDLY AMBASSADORS and actively promote bear conservation in the local area as well as good co-existing practice with large carnivore. In our tours we strive for being responsible and also educate about this our guests. We were awarded with BEAR FRIENDLY certificate in the framework of LIFE DINALP BEAR project. Our work (products and tours) were recognized as an example of good conservation and tourism practice. It is not only confirmation of our efforts but a huge responsibility for the future.