First Choice has joined a scheme to protect and replenish the world’s rainforests.
The company’s involvement in the Coolearth programme will run alongside its existing carbon-offset programme.
Mainstream Holidays managing director Dermot Blastland told the Institute of Travel and Tourism Conference in Gran Canaria: “Four years’ destruction of rainforest puts more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than every flight in history.
“The aim of Coolearth is to protect rainforest from commercial exploitation and buy land to reforest. We will promote it on our flights.”
First Choice will buy 2,000 hectares of forest itself – a purchase it may repeat annually – and encourage consumers to buy tracts or contribute to larger purchases.
Alongside the company’s existing carbon-offset programme, Blastland believes the project will cut the impact of First Choice Holidays’ emissions by 25%.
He said: “Our strategy is to run a carbon neutral airline in five years.”