Vancouver company uses ‘tree-hugger’ technology to build eco-adventure amenities around world
Brian Morton
Sun
Greenheart Conservation Company project manager Dave Shepherd tests a trolley and harness that is used to carry customers suspended on a cable above ecologically sensitive sites. Photograph by : Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun
A Vancouver company is bringing new meaning to the idea of leaving a light environmental footprint on the earth.
Greenheart Conservation Company Ltd. designs, builds and installs such eco-adventure amenities as suspended treetop walkways and similar facilities around the world so that tourists can experience the lush sights and scenery of the jungle, but not disturb the surrounding ecosystem.
As well, the company — which expects to see gross sales in the $3-million to $5-million range in 2007 — directs a portion of its profits toward helping countries such as Haiti –which has seen massive deforestation — develop sustainable economies.
Among other projects, Greenheart — with an office and production facility on Annacis Island — built the Kukum National Park Canopy Walkway in Ghana, a suspended walkway that includes 330 metres of suspension bridge 35 metres high. The walkway utilizes Greenheart’s “tree-hugger” technology, using no nails or bolts that would damage the trees. The walkway received the Conde Naste Ecotourism award and the British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow award.
“We’re a for-profit company, but our objective is to contribute to conservation,” Greenheart’s principal co-founder John Kelson (who started the company along with president Ian Green) said in an interview. “We identify areas with conservation value and develop viable tourist businesses that generate revenue to support the conservation of those places. We build canopy [treetop] walkways, an elevated series of bridges so people can walk around in the top of the forest. In tropical forests, that’s where all the action is.”
Canopy walkways allow access to the upper parts of the forest, where visitors — at eye level — can see the birds, butterflies, flowers, monkeys and other animals, plants and insects that live there.
In some forests, trees can support suspension bridges used to build the walkway, but aluminum towers are necessary in forests or wetlands that can’t provide enough support. In those cases, Greenheart builds the portable towers and prefabricated walkways that can be transported in pieces to remote sites. Greenheart says its approach is to provide access to the canopy with minimal impact on the trees or habitat.
Since starting up with partner Green in the early ’90s, the company has grown to 12 employees, including Green and Kelson.
“Last year, we did a canopy walkway in Nigeria [for the Nigerian Tourism Bureau, in some of the last lowland gorilla habitat in Africa] for $1.3 million,” said Kelson. “This year, we’ll probably have four or five projects of that size.”
Other treetop walkways by Greenheart include: the Oxbow Meadows Treetop Trail on 650 hectares of wetland in Columbus, Georgia, and projects in Guyana and Brazil.
The company has also branched out into developing flightlines [or ziplines, suspended cables on which visitors can literally “fly” through the forest at great speeds]; “tree hotels,” tree-based overnight facilities where small numbers of people can spend the night; and aerial trekking eco-holidays.
Kelson said Greenheart just completed an 800-metre flightline in Haiti [it has also built one in Whistler] in partnership with Royal Caribbean International that will see 50 per cent of the revenue that’s generated given to a foundation in Haiti supporting and promoting sustainable development. “It’s the biggest cruise line in the world. It [the flightline] cost $1.5 million US.”
Kelson said they are now building a 300-metre treetop walkway through the cloud forest in Peru in partnership with National Geographic and Alcan for the Amazon Conservation Association [ACA], a non-profit organization that promotes biodiversity and sustainable land-use management in the Amazon Basin.
“It will go right through the tops of the trees,” said Kelson. “It’s full of orchids and bromeliads. It’s absolutely incredible. And the birds are unbelievable. It’s one of the best birding areas in the world.”
Kelson said the walkway, which will be completed this year, will hire 20 local people in the construction process. They will be taught how to build and maintain the walkway and then serve as guides, he added.
ACA project coordinator Joyce Barr said in an interview that Greenheart’s aluminum towers were the best choice. “I know they have extensive experience in building canopy walkways and that’s why we chose them. They did an amazing job in Nigeria. The eco-friendly part is it will be aluminum. It’s very humid. Aluminum doesn’t rust.”
Joe Foy, national campaign director of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, said in an interview that Kelson’s environmental commitment is real — “he’s the real McCoy” — and he admires Greenheart’s work. “There’s nothing they’ve done that we haven’t supported.”
Foy said treetop walkways are a great way to promote eco-tourism, “especially when it supports communities that require the income.”
Foy recalls when Greenheart wanted to build a treetop walkway in North Vancouver — a plan WCWC supported — but it went nowhere when local residents objected. “We saw it as a wonderful way to educate people about old growth near an urban population centre.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
