Rosalie Forest Eco Lodge is situated in an environment of outstanding natural beauty, and one of our most fundamental aims is to live in harmony with, and have as little harmful impact on, those surroundings as possible.
OUR ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY POLICY
At Rosalie Forest Eco Lodge we recognize that our ecotourism business has an important role to play in protecting and enhancing the environment for guests and the residents of the local community.
In keeping with this goal, every aspect of the project has the environment in mind. We espouse a sustainable lifestyle, minimizing our use of all resources, and monitoring all systems. We currently use the sun for much of our green electricity, for pumping our water from the river, and for heating our hot water. We also have a microhydro electricity system to supplement our green solar power on our main property we use a wind turbine to power our forest accommodations. We compost all kitchen and garden waste, and use that compost to help us grow as much organic food as we can at the eco lodge. We try to minimise our water consumption, grey water goes through grease traps to be used in the garden, and our campers use dry toilets. Whenever possible, we try to avoid purchasing packaged goods, shop locally, recycle and use biodegradable products, and we try to keep our waste products to a minimum.
An important aspect of this environment policy is to involve the local community in our ecotourism project. Our employees all come from local villages, and we train them in sustainable living. We offer a number of community based ectourism activities and are trying to showcase environmentally sound practices, hosting free school eco education visits and giving guided tours and workshops, to all interested parties, explaining renewable energy, organic farming, and the sustainable lifestyle in general, as well as being involved in various local community projects.
Our Commitments:
We are a full member of the International Eco Tourism Society. Accordingly, we aim to comply fully with, and go beyond, all environmental laws and regulations, and to communicate our policies and practices to all interested parties, from guests up to government officials. We hope we can help Dominica retain its still relatively unspoilt environment, and move into a green future.
SUMMARY OF OUR ENVIRONMENTAL WORK :
- The eco work began from the start, reclaiming spoilt land which had been destroyed by chemicals used by the banana farmer whom I bought the land from.
- Composting began on day 1 and continues today, with the use of a rotating four bin composting system.
- All soaps, washing liquids and cleaning products are eco friendly and biodegradable.
- We use no chemicals whatsoever on land or anywhere else.
- Much of our electricity is solar power.
- We use hydro power for our main property as well
- and have a wind turbine powering our forest accommodations
- We use solar hot water heating systems.
- We pump our water supply from one of the pristine rivers bordering our land, using a solar powered pump, which works in silence to avoid disturbing the surrounding natural habitats.
- We separate all garbage and compost everything, helping our young gardens flourish.
- We have recycled a damaged water tank for use as an eco shower unit.
- We employ 100% local people.
- We offer community based activities where guests get a true taste of village life ... and villagers earn a few dollars !
- We contribute to the village carnival.
- We sponsored the village cricket, basketball and rounders teams.
- We sponsor one of the local village bands and showcase them here, at 3 Rivers, occasionally.
- We bought a washing machine for a local lady and set her up in her own laundry business.
- We helped create a new village library using books donated by our guests, installed the electricity for them and donated all necessary supplies for that job.
- We sponsored the community internet cafe.
- We run environment education workshops for local people and tourists on solar hot water heating systems, organic farming, and general renewable energy usage, through our reegistered NGO The Sustainable Living Initiative, and offer loans graduates toi buy their own green renewable energy systems for their homes, and they run a workshop when they instal the system.
- We offer free eco educational tours of the lodge for all schools in Dominica and have already hosted a large number of schools.
- We have produced a basic ecotourism educational book on all of our eco systems for our guest in order to increase their environmental awareness.
- We have a package deal where all of the activities involve learning about local village life, and each activity is held in the village and is run by the villagers who receive a fair income for their efforts, and our guests get a true taste for village life. True ecotourism.
- As well as an eco learning package offering workshops in all forms of renewable energy
- Our grey water passes through grease traps, which are changed daily to help our compost system and protect our waste water leachfield soakaways.
- We monitor daily our water, electricity, gas, solid waste and paper consumption, and aim to continuously reduce our usage to protect the environment.
- Our camping facilities include a composting toilet.
One non-eco exception - do you have the answer for us?
One major problem we face is termites. Living in the tropics it is impossible to avoid them at all times. Bearing this in mind, a member of staff monitors every building daily, to check for wood ants and termites. Normally, we see them when they are on the concrete foundations, before they are inside the wood. By catching them before they eat the wood, we can pour vinegar on the foundations, and it scares them away and they run back to the soil.
However, occasionally, we miss them or they run too fast, and by the time we notice they are already in the wood. On these rare occasions, we have taken the decision to slightly bend our eco principles, and we have used chemical products to stop them. The choice is simple, lose a house, or use the chemical product; losing the house means using a lot more wood to build another one, and so the chemical seems the wiser choice. We are constantly researching to find an alternative method; if you know of one, please tell us!
