How to tell whether your Kilimanjaro tour operator is ethical

Kilimanjaro porters are the dedicated men and women whose job it is to help tourists carry their gear to the summit. Most of the porters are local men between the ages of 18 and 40. They are hired alongside a team of trained professionals. They make it possible for tourists to navigate their way up the mountain.

Women are a smaller number of porters. They face the same challenges as the men, but with the added problem of sexual harassment. Unfortunately, this is still a reality for female porters.

Without the dedication and strength of these crew members, climbing Kilimanjaro would be a mere dream for many.

Although there is a minimum wage for Kilimanjaro porters, TZS 20,000 (ca. US $9), operators usually pay much less than that. Some porters do not get paid at all for their work.

As a result, porters rely on tourists to get a tip to feed their family. With budget operators, tourists may find that they are hassled to give a bigger tip than they ordinarily would. Many tourists pay these tips in the belief that it will help the porters.

However, what they may not realise is that all too often, porters may then be cheated out of any tips they earn by guides who instead of distributing the tips to the porters, will sometimes keep it for themselves.

Porters employed in tourism climbs on Mount Kilimanjaro may often suffer the tragic consequences of unsafe working environments and low pay.

To understand the situation that many of these Kilimanjaro porters face, it is important to be aware of the hierarchy that exists. Unfortunately, as the situation currently stands, porters are at the bottom of the pecking order.

With so many tourism companies competing to offer the lowest prices, budget operators often try to take shortcuts to save money and this impacts porters the most, who may get low wages and poor working conditions as a result.

Most porters work on a freelance basis and many Tanzanians relocate to the Kilimanjaro region in the search for jobs. Unfortunately, however, they may even have to bribe one of the tour guides and pay an upfront ‘fee’ to get a job in the first place.

However, even those who do get a job are only slightly better off. Budget operators take advantage of the desperation of these workers and pay them the bare minimum they can get away with.

We believe that responsible tour operators who treat your porters fairly are also more likely to offer you, as a client, higher quality standards, and that porters who are treated fairly by their companies are also more likely to have your best interests in mind. That means first and foremost not your summit success, but your health and safety.

Amongst others, you rely on your porters for your water and food to be treated properly. In the worst case, you might have to rely on them for a safe descent. Will your porters be able to do a good job if they are hungry, cold and get paid significantly less than their colleagues camping right next to your group?

While there is no guarantee, we believe that booking your climb with a responsible tour operator and guides who treat your porters fairly will be the safer choice for you.

The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP) is a legally registered Tanzanian not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to supporting the fair and ethical treatment of Kilimanjaro porters.

KPAP helps porters by lending them clothing for free, providing educational opportunities and performing the monitoring activities for the Partner for Responsible Travel Program.

They encourage all companies to participate with the Partner Program and educate the climbing public about the importance of selecting an ethical climbing company. KPAP's porter treatment monitoring program regularly reviews company payment and tipping practices and obtains surveys from porters. KPAP also audits partner companies and provides feedback to them.

Sometimes companies misrepresent themselves as being KPAP Partners and sometimes companies think they are KPAP Partners while in fact, they are not.

Therefore it’s not always easy to distinguish which companies are really operating fairly rather than simply making bold statements about porter welfare on their website to convince conscientious travelers.

This is not only confusing for travelers, but it’s also problematic for KPAP as it distorts the truth about what they stand for and what they work on.

There is only one way to make sure that you don’t fall into this misinformation trap. That is to always verify whether your tour operator is listed as a KPAP Partner for Responsible Travel on the International Mountain Explorers Connection website and not just believe what they state on their own website.

The Partner for Responsible Travel Program (KPAP) for Mount Kilimanjaro assures that porters have the proper working conditions.

The Partner Program’s activities include:

• Surveying porters to learn more about their working conditions
• Reviewing the tipping procedures of travel companies, and ensuring porters are paid correctly
• Placing a KPAP investigative porter on all partner company climbs to obtain an independent evaluation of the treatment standards
• Providing feedback and recommendations to companies to help safeguard proper treatment of porters
• Companies cooperating with the Partner Program do so on a voluntary basis.

Every climb of the Partner companies is evaluated and a company is approved and listed as a Partner if they are able to attain a minimum of an 85% performance grade every single climbing season by adhering to KPAP’s minimum porter treatment standards.

The KPAP Partner program is open to all tour operators. However, to qualify, companies must adhere to minimum fair porter treatment standards, as independently monitored by KPAP.

The criteria includes paying porters a minimum wage of 20,000 TSH per day. Wages must be paid within two days of a climb descent. Tipping procedures should be fair and transparent.

Porters must be provided with three daily meals and carry no more than 20kg during a climb. Proper shelter should also be provided as well as a check of proper clothing and medical attention for any work-related illness.

To qualify as KPAP Partners, companies must achieve an average score of 85% per season.

It is worth noting that companies enrolled with the KPAP Partner program also tend to learn a lot about their own operations through the climb audits and feedback provided by KPAP. People working at offices and selling climbs can be very detached from the realities on the mountain. Company owners and managers may have the best of intentions, but without KPAP’s independent monitoring, they may be unaware of the actual treatment of their porters.

Some climbing companies claim to have their own internal porter monitoring programs. At Fair Voyage, we question the claims of such companies because there is no review by an independent organization separate from the company. As a result, it’s not possible to verify if they truly adhere to fair porter treatment standards.

Some companies may have arguments for why it’s not necessary to be a KPAP Partner. Unfortunately, these arguments often distort the truth of what KPAP does and stands for. That’s why we want to highlight the most used arguments and clarify what is not true about them.

1. MYTH: KPAP porters are not being sufficiently trained/vetted

Some companies claim that they do not know the KPAP porters or their capacities. However, this statement does not match with reality. KPAP performs trainings twice a year with their investigative porters and makes sure that they assign porters with sufficient experience for each route. Many high-quality operators are using KPAP porters and are thereby proof that this is not an issue.

2. MYTH: KPAP collects confidential personal client info

Some companies claim they don't want to release their climb schedules because of their high profile clients. No specific client details are required. The company informs KPAP of the route, start and end dates of the climb, and the number of climbers. These are kept strictly confidential and under no circumstances will KPAP receive the identity of the climbers. KPAP has never and will never ask for the identity of climbers. Several 5 * luxury operators with VIP clients are KPAP partners and thus the best proof that this is not a concern.

3. MYTH: KPAP has its own climbing operations

This is not true. KPAP is a non-profit organization and has never sold any climbs. When KPAP receives requests from climbers or agents they refer such inquiries to their complete list of partner companies.

4. MYTH: KPAP is not necessary to bring meaningful improvement to porter welfare standards

Some companies claim that they don’t need the help of KPAP to improve their operations and porter welfare standards. In their opinion, KPAP’s involvement is beneficial when a company has no time to monitor their own work and see whether their porters and other crew members are treated in accordance with porter welfare standards.  

However, none of those internal monitoring efforts are independent and as such, it is not possible to ascertain whether their initiatives are legitimate or not. What makes KPAP different from any type of internal monitoring is that KPAP is independent. It has no specific interest in any company whatsoever. KPAP does its work to accomplish its mission of improving the working conditions of porters. As a result, its audits and criteria for companies to become partners are completely objective and transparent.