40-room Sukau Rainforest Lodge (SRL) perched on the banks of Kinabatangan river was born from the vision of Albert Teo, founder and managing director of Borneo Eco Tours (BET) of the complete ecotourism experience. As Albert observed “an ecotour without a good ecolodge is not complete”, so he undertook to build a lodge that would provide great wildlife watching experiences and become a base of operations for the Kinabatangan area while also demonstrating sustainable building and operating principles.
Established in 1995, SRL is an ecotourism leader throughout borneo for over 25 years with the mission to excel as an ecolodge by providing a unique experience in hospitality, interpretation and conservation with local community participation and leadership development. SRL is owned and operated by Borneo Eco Tours. The majority of employment at the lodge are 80% locals.
“An ecolodge is a two-to-seventy five room, low impact, nature-based, financially sustainable accommodation facility that helps protect sensitive neighboring areas; involves and helps benefit local communities; offers tourists an interpretive and interactive participatory experience; provides a spiritual communion with nature and culture; and is planned, designed, constructed, and operated in an environmentally and socially sensitive manner” – Hitesh Mehta, Authentic Ecolodge
An ecolodge must satisfy must satisfy at least two additional criteria for the following list of eight:
