Himalayan Insight – The social wing of Heco
An NGO in the Himalayas – Our story
Himalayan Insight was established as the social wing of Heco, born from the challenges faced by Himalayan Ecotourism (HET) during the pandemic. Since its inception in 2013, HET has been dedicated to empowering the local community in the Tirthan Valley, Himachal Pradesh, through social enterprise, focusing on social well-being and environmental conservation.
However, financing large-scale projects like ecological restoration, which includes tree planting in difficult terrains, proved challenging due to financial constraints. These limitations became especially apparent during the pandemic, when our primary income sources were halted for nearly two years.
In response, we registered Himalayan Insight as an NGO to further support our initiatives, particularly ecological restoration and education programs. While these efforts are now bolstered by Himalayan Insight, our businesses – Himalayan Ecotourism and Himalayan Ecocreation – continue to be the major contributors to our different projects.
Together, these three entities – Himalayan Ecotourism, Himalayan Ecocreation, and Himalayan Insight – form the backbone of Heco, our comprehensive social enterprise dedicated to fostering sustainable development and community empowerment.
FIRST MEETING
With the women of the village Pekhri in 2014.
Mission Statement
LOCAL LEADER
Working with the well-intentioned local leaders – Keshav Thakur.
Himalayan Insight is in line with its mother organization, Heco, about its goals.
Himalayan Insight’s mission is to provide a holistic approach to nature conservation by facilitating sustainable socio-economic development of local communities and empowering them to become advocates of nature conservation. We aim at restoring a symbiotic relationship between the rural communities and all other forms of life in the Himalayas.
Based on our understanding of the inherent connection between social welfare and conservation, our strategy is to provide opportunities to the local communities for –
- Economic Prosperity through a sustainable and ethical tourism business model
- Women Empowerment through establishment of their micro-enterprises
- Ecological restoration through community-lead programs
- Child Development considering tomorrow’s local and global challenges
Fairness, inclusiveness, transparency, respect and honesty are the set of values that we nurture to achieve our goals.
Reports
This is a report about all the work we did near the Great Himalayan National Park since the inception of Himalayan Ecotourism.
Most of our social and conservation oriented work is now being undertaken under our NGO Himalayan Insight.
The second part of the report delineates our action plan for the next couple of years.
The people behind Himalayan Insight
Our mentors and supporters
Payson R. Stevens
A businessman, a community-lover and an environmental scientist to organizations like NASA. Mr Stevens has played a crucial role in giving a concrete shape to our company as a social enterprise. He is now a painter, an artist and a decisive friend of the GHNP.
Sanjeeva Pandey
The first director of GHNP, ex-PCCF of Himachal Pradesh, Mr Pandey has constantly encouraged our grassroot movement in the ecozone of the GHNP since its start. By extending the support of the park, he helped us realize the vision of empowering communities and we continue to seek his mentorship.
Vinay Tandon
Ex-Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Himachal Pradesh, Vinay’s immense love for the Himalayan forests extended into his goodwill for our projects. He is deeply dedicated to empowering women and has provided great insights for our work.
Tony Gaston
Main research investigator of the establishment of GHNP, Mr Gaston has been one of our primary backbones of the reforestation programmes in the ecozone. His guidance made it easier for HET’s journey through the COVID-19 pandemic.
