Borneo Ecotourism Solutions & Technologies Society is a nonprofit arm of Borneo Eco Tours that approaches rural development with an empowering perspective.

It was officially registered under the Societies Act 1966 by the Registration of Societies Department on the 18th of April 2007.

The history of Borneo Ecotourism Solutions and Technologies (BEST) Society goes back to 1995 when Borneo Eco Tours together with Sukau Rainforest Lodge organised the first environmental project to remove Salvinia molesta weeds from the Kelenanap oxbow lake which flows into the Kinabatangan River at Sukau.

After several more community projects including water tank projects and medical projects and after winning a few international ecotourism awards, the company decided to form our own non profit division in 1999, Sukau Ecotourism Research and Development Centre or S.E.R.D.C. Several projects including tree planting and medical projects later in 2007, it was decided that SERDC has outgrown its scope and original objectives. Lessons were learned on mistakes made from the implementation of community projects. At the same time, BEST Society has also intentionally moved away from its original philosophy of providing welfare to the local community to projects that develop social entrepreneurship A decision was made to further enlarge the scope to extend our projects and to apply our success model to other parts of Sabah.

It is a kind of social business dedicated to solving social, economic, and environmental problems – hunger, homelessness, disease, pollution and ignorance. It is not a for profit-maximizing business or a not-for- profit organization (which relies on charitable or philanthropic donations) though it receives grants.

Its goal is to solve a social problem by using business methods. It is set up exclusively to deliver social benefits. There is no thought of creating profit for any investor. If there is, the surplus is ploughed back into the business.

In 2013, it set up BEST Community Fund for partially setting up Camp Lemaing project, which interest free loan will be returned back to BEST Society once the business is sustainable and profitable

Borneo Ecotourism Solutions and Technologies Society