Responsible Tourism Award

Doug Scott’s Community Action Treks Receives Responsible Tourism Award

The pioneering work undertaken by British mountaineer Doug Scott, through the trekking cooperative he founded, has recently been recognised through the prestigious Virgin Holiday’s Responsible Tourism Awards.  He first set up Community Action Treks to improve the lot of the porters working in the Nepalese trekking industry. Doug had been horrified by the way the porters were routinely treated by many of the local trekking agencies – they were invariably left to fend for themselves at night,  were seldom properly equipped and all too often they weren’t actually paid – and sought to do something about this through a system of fair working conditions.

Doug’s initiative has been hugely successful in a number of ways. Because they are treated fairly, the moral of Community Action Trek’s porters is notably high and they are renowned for giving trekkers a more enjoyable trip. The surpluses from the operation have been ploughed back into the local mountain communities – usually in the impoverished Middle Hill region - through CAT’s associated charity, Community Action Nepal.

Projects are wide ranging, but always grass root and local led and include schools, health posts and clean water provision. Recently Doug’s charity has been working with the International Porter Protection group to open up a series of Porter Shelters in the Khumbu Valley on the high approach to Everest Base Camp including a shelter at Gorak Shep, just below Everest – it’s believed this is the highest permanently inhabited building on the planet. To find out more about treks with Community Action Treks visit www.catreks.com

Community Action Treks was set up in the late 1980s by Doug Scott, with the support of many of his mountaineering friends. To further support the mountain communities of Nepal, Doug set up Community Action Treks (registered charity 1067772) in 1994. It has used both the surpluses generated by Community Action Treks and funds it has raised itself to set up a wide range of projects (over 40) in the Middle Hills of Nepal.