Our Environmental Policy

Canoes are traditional crafts used throughout the world for exploring waterways and quietly observing wildlife and are a very environmentally friendly form of travel. They cause no erosion, noise or pollution and leave no trace of their passing. The British Canoe Union and English Nature have penned a memorandum that states; “English Nature and the BCU agree that there is unlikely to be any significant impact on or lasting disturbance to wildlife and the water environment from the passage of canoes.” The only way a canoe can damage the environment is if the people paddling it don’t take enough precautions and care. Our guides take care, and they ensure that our clients do the same.

As a provider of outdoor activities, we at Canoe Kent understand that the landscape and environment in which we operate is our greatest asset. Therefore we aim to minimise the negative effects of our operations on the natural environment by the following methods; 

• We send no paper documents through the post; all our business is conducted (payments taken, receipts sent, etc) by email.
• We launch our canoes at designated sites, where available, to avoid wearing away natural banks and bank side vegetation.
• We serve you Fair Trade, organically grown and locally sourced food whilst on Tour, whenever it is possible for us to get it.
• We encourage lift shares between staff, and we’ll pick you up at the nearest train station on our way to the launch site if you request, to cut down on car/taxi journeys.
• We either burn or take all of our litter home with us from our Tours, without exception.
• We keep a safe distance from any wildlife we meet to avoid causing disturbance or stress (although if the seals want to come and check us out, that’s up to them), we don't attempt to feed them to get them to come closer and we won’t visit certain islands during the nesting seasons.
• We keep our group sizes down to two clients plus one guide (unless you request otherwise, when we can increase it to 4 clients plus 2 guides) to give you a more personal experience but also to minimise our impact on the rural infrastructure such as roads & communities local to our operations.