Please notice this is a draft document.

Real people, real dreams, a vision of an alternative tourism that benefit the community.

Think globally, act locally in the everyday life.

Actions and activities for a better society than the one offered by the consumption world.

Fair for travelers:

Cheap camping and rooms.

Free access to communal area, kitchen, fruit trees and WIFI. (free Internet, a free media)

No massive tourism structures and neither services.

Public bar and restaurant bring opportunities to meet the people of Sarteneja.

The first and only cheap place for backpackers in the area.

Fair for the host community: Local staff with good salaries and social security.

Social Security

We want to participate to a fair Belizean society: we pay fair salaries and social security for the people working with us. For more information about Social Security in Belize visit the official web site of the Social Security Board: www.socialsecurity.org.bz .

Cash flow back by purchasing restaurants’ groceries in the village.

Donations to local associations.

Encourage local own businesses.

Display Sarteneja artists work at Backpackers Paradise.

Give priority to local products.

Collaboration with the tour guide association and Shipstern Nature Reserve for tourism activities.

Fair for mother nature:

Sailboat, horses, bicycles and machete, no car, no landmore, zero emission.

Buildings integrated in the natural environment.

Recycling and composting as much as possible.

Organic farm.

Variety of vegetarian meals at the restaurant.

Tree planting side project.

A warning about volunteering in Belize :

Volunteering for a non-profit organization is brining something positive to Belize.

Volunteering for a business is exploitation and bring negative impact to local people, a new kind of neo-colonization, exploitation of the country by strangers without benefit for local people.

Be aware of the difference to be a responsible traveler !

We encourage volunteers to find a place where your free work will benefit the nature, or social projects with communities and where your special skills bring extra benefit to the country, and all for a non profit organization.

But some tourists businesses welcome volunteers illegally and give them the jobs that local people in great needs for employment are seeking: gardening, cooking, etc… Finally those places make lots of money by saving on local salaries.

No cash flow back to the community, only for their own pockets.

So we please ask you to respect the Belize laws, that have been made to protect jobs for local people.

Don’t make the country poorer than it is by doing for free what one should hired local people for.

According the Belize law : your tourist visa says : ” permitted to remain on condition the holder does not enter into employment PAID OR UNPAID does not engage in any business or profession without the consent of the director of immigration. “

So please don’t put yourself illegal and make sure you don’t come to steal jobs from local people.

Belize is a poor country and salaries are low, so be a responsible traveler and boycott the tourist businesses that don’t respect the laws by hiring “volunteers” to save on salaries.

A part of our benefits is going back to the  community through donations to support local groups and associations and through responsible way of life.

We also give priority to local products.

We finance as well our project of local reforestation with the benefits of Backpackers Paradise, no grants ! Big money is trouble !

We use horses and bicycles instead of a car, giving up the bad western societies habits (check the video).

At Backpackers Paradise we are not just painting all in green…

Key role in our society

Vision in 3D by Edward

This graphic is a representation of Edward’s idea and project in Sarteneja. As a positive cycle, it shows most of the components involved in a local sustainable economy. This is subject to evolution and modification. The most important facts are:

- an open mind able to self-criticism.
- avoid the basic ”business” practice which is running our civilization: take natural resources (available for free) to make money for your own.  More bad you are, more egoist you are, more money you make.

The world is our world now. We are the generation for a change. We are THE Revolution !

Positive cycle from the seed to the boat….

This design is currently copyrighted by Edward M. R. for the Compagnie de la Liberté – more information to come on the CL web site.

This other representation in 3D was made for a friend from France and represent the positive cycle for a brewery:

- Waste (used grains) from the brewery is used as a fertilizer for mushrooms.
- Cows feed on the  grains resulting from the mushrooms.

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All graphics made with open source softwares by Edward ( some cliparts are royalties free from clker.com)

More to come: Illich, Chomsky, Diamond and more…

While people is watching TV they are not reading and trying to understand our world.

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Sarteneja; tradition is alive !
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Activism

We practice and promote organic farming. Those links can help.

Support Via Campesina, an international peasant movement.

more to come…

Belize is not for sale !