The Kathmandu Environmental Education Project aims to help minimize the negative influences of tourism by advocating and promoting "minimum impact trekking", and through presentations and lectures to travellers and trekking industry professionals. These presentations sensitize visitors and Nepalese to issues of conservation and culture.

In the field, KEEP spreads its message to local Nepalese by offering training and courses on nature conservation, on basic and intermediate English for trekking guides and lodge owners, as well as first aid training, eco-trekking workshops, and courses on ecological thinking, Positive Impact Tourism, and regenerative handicraft skills, among others. Recently KEEP has become involved in programmes aimed at poverty alleviation and the empowerment of women.

"If conservation and local welfare are not both enhanced by tourist presence, then eco-tourism becomes a fancy word for selling nature."

—Karen Ziffer, Advisory Board
The Ecotourism Society

Every year over 450,000 tourists visit the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal. Many of these visitors are not well informed about Nepalese cultural values or how vulnerable the natural environment is to tourism. They do not realise that their actions can adversely affect the country and its people. KEEP's original goal was to inform travellers about how they can minimize the negative effects of their tourism on Nepal.

A related aim of KEEP is to further its environmental goals by encouraging visitors to support responsible trekking agencies and lodge owners. Here the main point is to encourage visitors to contribute to organisations working for the long-term welfare of Nepal, rather than handing out rupees, sweet and pens to begging children.

KEEP has adopted a two-tiered approach to achieving its goals — working with visitors to Nepal, and working with the Nepalese themselves.

Working with Visitors to Nepal
To reach visitors in Nepal, KEEP first created the Travellers' Information Centre at its headquarters in Thamel, Kathmandu. In a relaxed atmosphere, visitors can get advice: practical conservation tips, trekking and mountain safety, causes of deforestation, ecotourism, and the do's and don'ts of Nepalese society. The centre also helps national and international students conduct environmental, forestry, and tourism research in Nepal.

There are slide shows about ecotourism, trekking health issues, specific trail information, and travel advice. In addition to a modest library, logbooks written by trekkers themselves provide a useful source of information. Eco-friendly trekkers' items and handicrafts are on sale, as are tasty refreshments in the Green Café. A practical water refill scheme helps minimise the pollution from non-returnable, non-recyclable plastic bottles.

KEEP has followed up the success of the Kathmandu Centre with Visitors' Information Centres in Salleri (Solu Khumbu), Sermathang (Langtang/ Helambu), Royal Bardia National Park, and Sikkim (India). Future plans include similar centres in the Annapurna area and in the border village of Kakarbhitta.

Working with Nepalese
KEEP is committed to training local travel professionals to do their jobs more effectively. KEEP offers courses in mountain safety and first aid, English language, mountaineering and rock climbing, and safety-oriented eco-trekking workshops. These training activities have proved valuable for trekking staff, national park rangers, and others working in the tourist service industry. Other KEEP programmes involve workshops in leadership training, lodge management, sanitation and eco-tourism.

KEEP has made a strong effort to assist other conservation organisations in Nepal. KEEP has provided technical support for the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee's Travellers' Information Centres in Namche Bazaar and Lukla. Similarly, KEEP has helped locally-based, non-governmental organisations to open travellers' information centres at trekking trailheads in the Annapurna, Arun Valley, and Makalu regions.