This month, we asked our community:
How are you preparing for the ‘super’ El Niño, and what have you already changed to protect your guests, your team and the communities you work with?
Here are 6 rich answers:
Hendry Sianipar
Sustainability manager
Nikoi Island, a global ecosphere retreat®
how nikoi island is tackling water shortages and wildfires
Tackling droughts
On small islands like Nikoi and Cempedak, prolonged droughts put real pressure on our limited freshwater. We rely on rainwater harvesting during the rainy season, with storage for over 240,000 litres, alongside groundwater extraction. But when rainfall becomes unpredictable and dry periods stretch on, even these systems have their limits.
This is where seeing waste as a resource matters. Our Wastewater Gardens filter greywater from our bathrooms through layers of sand, pebbles and plant roots, and we reuse it to irrigate the landscape instead of drawing more from our wells and rainwater reserves. Drought has shown us how valuable that system is to our daily operations.
Tackling wildfires
Water is only part of the challenge. At our permaculture farm, wildfires during dry spells have exposed another vulnerability: limited firefighting infrastructure and a heavy reliance on manual labour to contain them.
The ‘super’ El Niño has reminded us of both the value and the limits of what we have built. Our team makes the most of existing systems and manages resources carefully, but long-term resilience needs bigger decisions about infrastructure and investment.
Perhaps the most important lesson is that sustainability does not automatically translate into climate resilience. Adapting is not simply about introducing more technology. It is about rethinking how we use limited resources, recognising the ecological limits of the islands, and making sure our people and operations are ready for what lies ahead.
Georgia Beech
General Manager
preparing for floods, this estancia has installed new drainage systems
Here in the Sierras Chicas, El Niño usually means a wetter season rather than a drier one, so our focus has been on managing heavy rainfall.
We have installed new drainage systems across the property so water runs off properly instead of pooling. That protects our paths, our corrals and the garden around the main house, and keeps the ground safer underfoot for our horses and our guests.
We also remind guests before they arrive to bring good wet-weather gear, and we have mapped out the best places to shelter if a storm hits hard while we are out riding, so everyone knows the plan if the weather turns.
On a positive note, the extra rain has been a real gift for the land. We have planted lots of new trees, flowers and shrubs, and they are thriving with all that water. The estancia is looking greener than ever.
Donald Grieves
Sustainability & Restoration Consultant
cottar’s safaris, a global ecosphere retreat®
Using ai to summarise key information and forecast weather patterns
Working in the Mara, the main impact we expect is heavy rainfall and possible flooding. For us, that carries a high risk of being cut off for an extended period, as all bridges and river crossings will be impassable.
Our first focus has been on emergency provisions and drinking water, followed by a review of our rescue and recovery equipment.
We have also created a scheduled AI review. It generates a regular summary of relevant information, forecasts and articles, which circulates to management. We then analyse our mitigation strategy and preparations against each update, so we can adapt where needed.
Fernando Polanco
The super El Niño is already affecting Ecuador severely. The worst events, from heavy rain over long and short periods, have been in the coastal regions and on the western slopes of the Andes.
Most of our electricity comes from hydroelectric dams on the eastern slopes of the Andes, and those areas are suffering droughts more severe than usual. The higher Andes, especially the northern areas, are also expected to face drought, and we are already feeling abnormal rain patterns.
So our efforts have gone into preparing for blackouts, some lasting many hours, and above all into saving as much electricity as we can.
Isabelle Tompkins
Head of Sales and Marketing and Second-Generation Custodian
He learned beadwork with local Maasai mamas, then offered to help us track our emissions
In the semi-arid Karoo, El Niño is set to bring lower rainfall and higher temperatures. That raises the risk of drought and large veld fires, and it will hit our grazers hardest, such as zebras and white rhinos, as grass cover shrinks.
Our approach is to:
stockpile emergency fodder before prices go up
check our runoff waterholes for leaks, so the water we have is used well
buy new firefighting equipment
There is still a lot of uncertainty about how El Niño will play out. We have just come out of a very wet winter, so groundwater reserves are high and vegetation is plentiful for now. We will keep monitoring our boreholes for flow, water quality and depth through what is expected to be a drier summer.
Silvia Rico
We are constantly monitoring the situation.
In Peru, El Niño is expected to bring drought to the Andes and the Amazon during our rainy season (January to March), and heavy rain to the coast. For now, we are not recommending Peru's northern beaches over the festive season and after.
Some fires are happening in the mountains. They are linked to farmers' annual practice of burning their fields, but with little or no rain, these burns need closer control before they spread. So far the impact has not been huge, but we are watching closely.
Every month, we ask 100+ of the world's best sustainable tourism leaders a question and pick the best 4 answers. Their answers are disarmingly honest, practical and often rather moving.