SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICE
At Tranquilo Bay, eco tourism isn’t just a catchy marketing phrase used to attract guests; it’s a way of life. We want to preserve the natural resources around us in order to maintain our eco adventure lodge for the long term and to pass on our legacy to our children – our guests come to Tranquilo Bay to see the natural resources that Bocas del Toro and Panama have to offer if we do not work to preserve them our business and our children’s future has a limited life span.
We painstakingly developed our secluded get-away for five years. During that time, we lived primitively in the jungle at the future site of the lodge, as we conducted research that would help us create an eco-friendly destination that protects and regenerates the environment, while offering guests unparalleled access to nature at its natural best.
AT TRANQUILO BAY
Tranquilo Bay will always be small, leaving the smallest footprint on our lush environment. We currently have nine units with plans in the future for up to five more buildings.
Food: we bring raw materials into Tranquilo Bay in the largest quantity feasible and then make as much of our food as possible onsite. We source large amounts of our foodstuff from within Panama. We bake our breads and desserts on site each day. We grow a fair amount of our fruit and herbs on site. We have planted trees that will increase our self-sufficiency in the future.
Use of plastics: we try to use the smallest amount of plastic possible when we send our guests off on excursions. We pack lunches in reusable containers rather than in plastic bags for each guest.
We used eco-friendly renewable, reusable, or recyclable materials (wood, steel, and concrete) to construct our buildings. These buildings do not require extensive maintenance nor replacement on a regular basis.
We limit our use of local hardwoods to combat de-forestation.
Chemical usage: we use the smallest amount (and the least harmful option) of chemicals possible to for cleaning and insect management.
Water usage: we practice responsible water usage. We educate our employees and our guests in such practices.
Water treatment: we capture natural rainwater then purify it using state-of-the-art filtration and UV light sterilization technique.
We are preserving more than 80 acres of the over 200+ acres we have acquired.
Tranquilo Bay educates employees and guests on the protection and preservation of our native marine and wild life. We are working to expand this program.
Our employees who are not from within a short boat ride's distance live onsite. Those that do not live onsite boatpool to work.
We attempt to limit our use of fossil fuels where possible by maintaining travel days to and from Isla Colon, monitoring alternatives for our power generation, and working on our fuel efficiency for our transportation.
Waste management: kitchen and garden waste are composted or fed to the local animals.
IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD
Tranquilo Bay supports the Panamanian economy by employing local personnel and purchasing locally made goods. We are working to educate our employees to help them grow into positions of greater responsibility.
We volunteer as the Vigilantes de Bastimentos in order to help the Panamanian government agencies enforce the various environmental laws and we provide gasoline or transportation for these agencies to make their inspections.
We do not purchase bottled water. We use our rainwater we collect here onsite for all of our water consumption. Our rainwater is purified and sterilized onsite. We use refillable water bottles rather than purchasing commercial bottled water.
We do not support over-fishing lobsters, conch and octopus, and we will not purchase or serve these locally endangered species in our lodge.
Our recreational activities tread lightly on the land and the ocean.
We worked with the Salt Creek indigenous community to create a reserve (including a management plan) adjacent to Bastimentos National Marine Park. This reserve will protect the trees, which provide roofing to this indigenous community and keeps the area from ever being developed.
We volunteer in the Bastimentos National Marine Park in various ways.
AROUND BOCAS AND PANAMA
We work with several indigenous communities. These communities provide us guides on our excursions and prepare trails for tourist use to get a feel for indigenous life in Bocas del Toro.
We have been members of Adesbo, a local NGO, and serve on the Environmental Subcommittee to help preserve the natural resources of Bocas del Toro.
Renee H. Kimball has served on the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Tourism of Bocas del Toro since 2013.
Renee H. Kimball was President of the Bocas Sustainable Tourism Alliance, which was a destination management organization for Bocas del Toro, for about four years from 2009 - 2012.
We are members of APTSO. We work with APTSO’s board of directors to increase the reach of APTSO.
We support various local organizations that support the children of Bocas del Toro, by providing excursions during low season at Tranquilo Bay, which are auctioned off by these charities.
AROUND THE WORLD
We work with various international and national agencies, which are working to preserve the flora and fauna of Bocas del Toro. We are also working to identify new species of insects we find here at Tranquilo Bay with the appropriate experts.
We do what we can to educate the public at large about what Panama and Bocas del Toro have to offer through a variety of websites, articles, etc. which are updated on a regular basis.
We are a founding member of Regenerative Travel and serve on its Hotel Advisory Board.
We work with scientists as they study the wildlife here in Bocas del Toro. We sponsored a Fulbright Scholar who studied the monkeys on Bastimentos. We are working with a professor who is studying the red frogs of Bastimentos. We welcome scientists and student scientists onsite for various studies through the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the School for Field Studies.
We limit printing of marketing materials. All of our marketing materials are available for download off of our website.
Field Notes
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OUR PLEDGE
We are a business that:
- believes in stewardship;
- champions a fair and equitable economy;
- participates in our local community;
- respects our neighbors;
- documents & shares our learning journey; and
- works to replenish and repair to create abundance.
All are welcome in our space.
Our business evolves because as we know better, we can do better.
We are never finished.
- TRANQUILO BAY ECO ADVENTURE LODGE