Environmental Commitment

Life’s an Adventure’s commitment to sustainability ensures our guests enjoy, appreciate and learn the importance of preserving and protecting the landscapes we visit.

The ethos of our walking holidays is to minimise our ecological footprint, working towards a leave no trace outcome and embedding conservation in all elements of operations across the business.

We are firmly against land managers and businesses that disturb our national parks by the construction of commercial buildings and structures. On all tours we utlilise existing accommodation close to the trails, which not only support these local providers, but also minimises our impact on the environment.

We also support local communities by buying local produce, working closely with local cruise companies, chefs, wineries and cafes with the same environmental ethos as us. We hire local guides not only to support the local community but as they are often the ones with a strong connection to place and the skills to impart this onto our guests.

We also choose products and partners that minimise single-use plastics and maximise ethical produce.

Company Director Mark Norek is a strong critic of the growing trend in commercialising and privatising national parks across the country. He states:

I am firmly against such developments, as I believe they are neither eco-friendly nor sustainable, and they go against the principles of environmental conservation.  

Developing private infrastructure in these protected areas feels like an exploitation of our natural resources, and I strongly believe we should not support tour operators that engage in practices that harm the integrity of our world-renowned parks estate. These spaces should remain accessible and preserved for everyone to enjoy, not exploited for commercial gain.  

Eco Tourism Accreditation

We have held Eco-Tourism Accreditation with EcoTourism Australia since 2011. This accreditation is given to ecologically sustainable tourism companies with a primary focus on experiencing natural areas that foster environmental and cultural understanding, appreciation and conservations – as we do.

Check out this incredible article discussing how Life’s an Adventure is contributing to eco-initiatives, HERE.

Commitment to Climate Action

Life’s An Adventure supports strong action on climate change. Climate change and other ecological stressors are causing irreversible damage to the wild places we love and will make it progressively harder for Australians to access the outdoors. We strongly advocate for meaningful, ambitious, and rapid political and business leadership on climate change in Australia. It is time for Australians to come together, listen to the science, act, promote solutions and support positive change for people, the planet, and the outdoors. It’s clear: when nature thrives, people thrive.

Actions We Take

Conservation Custodians – Get Involved!

Conservation Custodians is a sustainable tourism initiative established by Life’s An Adventure providing guests on our guided walks the opportunity to improve the natural and/or cultural values of the places they are walking in via simple yet meaningful conservation tasks. The projects are determined in collaboration with the land manager and/or subject matter experts, scientists and/or traditional owners. The projects chosen must make a tangible positive difference to the places they occur and are delivered within the existing tour framework.

Along with the practical tasks, guides share stories, interpret the relevant heritage values and outline how each guest participating is making a real difference for future generations and biodiversity conservation outcomes. There is a growing demand from travellers to participate in meaningful projects whilst on tour and to give back to the places they are experiences. This project increases the guest experience and is an excellent example of why we have held Eco-tourism Australia’s Eco Certified Accreditation since 2011.

In 2024, we will pilot our first project on selected Tarkine tours in north-west Tasmania in partnership with a Tasmanian not-for-profit conservation leader the Bookend Trust and NatureTrackers’s Claws on the Line initiative.

Claws on the Line aims is to monitor Tasmania’s burrowing crayfish. Tasmania has an incredibly rich freshwater crayfish fauna with 37 species in 4 genera. They range from the world’s largest freshwater crayfish, the Giant Freshwater Lobster weighing up to 6kg, to the tiny burrowing crayfish with a maximum length of 10cm. Most of the 37 species live nowhere but Tasmania, and a number of them are currently Endangered on the state and federal lists, and Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List).

Not only are these unique animals threatened but little is known about them. Our work supporting Claws on the Line will change this by providing vital data through iNaturalist to leading scientists’ conservation efforts.

What you can do at home to help not only freshwater crayfish but all life that depends on healthy freshwater environments:

• If you are planning excavation works near steams or wetlands, seek advice from your local or state environmental department first
• Protect streamsides from livestock by fencing
• Where streamside vegetation is degraded, carry out revegetation work
• Ensure no pollutants enter the waterways
• Use iNaturalist to record your observations of nature
  • iNaturalist is a very rewarding, incredibly powerful app and website used around the world to record observations of nature. If you have locations and photographs from which others can confirm identifications, it’s a great way to share information widely: Tasmanian, Australian and international databases use confirmed iNaturalist data. Even without photos your data has the potential to be of use, as long as you have a location.

larapuna Community Weekend

We are  proud supporters and are regularly involved in the annual larapuna Community Weekend. Since 2014 this three-day event sees more than 100 volunteers from Ansons Bay to Denmark walk the beaches, learn about the land and sea, their past and future, and care for the larapuna / Eddystone Point coastline by collecting rubbish and pulling sea spurge: binding nature, culture and community together. larapuna is the Tasmanian Aboriginal name for an area between Eddystone Point and Grants Point south of Binalong Bay, also known as Bay of Fires. It is an ‘unbounded’ place, taking in adjacent sea and land.

A community of volunteers happily weeding.

Conservation of the Environment

These wonderful natural areas you are about to visit will be there for future generations to enjoy if we are considerate and follow a few simple principles to minimise environmental and cultural damage.

When Walking…

• Stay on the track, even if it’s rough or muddy. Walking on the track edges and cutting corners on steep, zigzagging tracks increases erosion and visual scarring
• Tread softly, choosing your footwear for the terrain. Often you will only need to wear lightweight walking boots or even running shoes
• If there are no tracks, spread out rather than follow each other’s footsteps. A plant will be more likely to recover if walked on once than if stomped on by the whole party
• Appreciate and respect the local wildlife
• Walk as quietly as possible. This reduces the likelihood of disturbing wildlife and increases the chances of seeing it
• Carry all rubbish with you. Even discarded organic litter such as apple cores or orange skin adds nutrients to the soil which can aid the spread of weeds
• Avoid walking on sensitive vegetation by staying on rocks and hard ground wherever possible. Swamp and bog plants, mosses and other soft vegetation are easily destroyed by trampling
• Only use toothpaste and soap if you’re at least 50m from any waterways, to prevent harm to fish and other wildlife
• Please don’t feed native animals – it can damage their health and make them dependent on campers for food. The wrong food can cause birds to lay eggs with weak shells that break before the young can develop. Find out more about how feeding native animals can affect them, their behaviour and you
• No damage or removal of native plant species
• No removal of shells from beaches, coastal areas or inland middens
• Leave everything as you found it. Don’t disturb historic places, Aboriginal sites, plants, animals or rocks