The Porter Voice Collective is pioneering the creation of a universal set of best practices to ensure the fair and equitable treatment of porters in the trekking tourism industry worldwide. PVC is facilitating the creation of best practices that are approved by the porters themselves in Nepal, Peru and Tanzania. The exploitative practices faced by the porters in all three regions share similarities and many of the operators in every region are the same.
We aim to work with the porters and indigenous/human rights focused organizations to create a new set of guidelines and best practices in order to establish an official trade certification that we will be advocating for companies in all three regions to adopt. The PVC trade certification will ensure that the tourists are truly booking with companies that respect the indigenous rights and basic human rights of the porters.
These guidelines will also include a specific section to ensure the safety and welfare of the women porters.