Travel is so much more than leisure; it’s also a way to connect with places and communities across the globe. The following five organizations, ranging from a foundation focused on protecting and preserving the untamed wilds of Chile and Argentina to a 12-seat restaurant in Brooklyn using profits to fund the meals of those in need, are focused on selflessly serving the people and places around them.
Sandals Foundation
Courtesy of Sandals Foundation
The Sandals Foundation has been working across the Caribbean since 2009 but, in recent years, has stepped up its impact. The brainchild of the resort brand’s executive chairman, Adam Stewart, the foundation has funded philanthropic projects on nine islands. These range from coral restoration in Jamaica to water catchments for schools in Grenada and marine conservation education in
Antigua—and even seemingly small gestures that can have a big impact, like supplying technology to an elementary school in the Bahamas. “We look at where there are gaps,” says Heidi Clarke, the foundation’s executive director. Guests of both Sandals and Beaches resorts can visit many of the projects. In fact, Clarke says, “our guests are our biggest donors, and we are super grateful to them.” —Hannah Selinger
Tour Operators for Tigers
Erwin Angel D’Rose/Courtesy of Tour Operators for Tigers
Since 2006, the number of Bengal tigers in India has more than doubled, from 1,411 to 3,167, according to the nonprofit Tour Operators for Tigers. Amplifying the work of India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority, this organization works to certify eco-conscious accommodations, educate guides, and engage with local communities to support conservation in more than two dozen areas, including some national parks, to help these charismatic animals thrive. The group, which in addition to tour operators counts lodges and travel advisors among its members, also sets sustainability standards that are meant to encourage water conservation, waste reduction, and energy efficiency. “The tiger is at the top of the ecosystem,” says Ritu Makhija, the group’s director of sustainability. “If the tiger is taken care of, then the entire forest regenerates.” —Elaine Glusac
Ikigai
Evan Sung/Courtesy of Ikigai
“When people walk in to a restaurant, they want to know the chef, to know there are good people involved and good things happening,” says Dan Soha, owner of the 12-seat Ikigai, which opened in Brooklyn last July. Chef Rafal Maslankiewicz creates avant-garde kaiseki dinners; the 12- or 15-course menus feature dishes such as Hokkaido sea-urchin toast with husk-cherry jam and a quail egg. But it’s the business model of Ikigai that’s most impressive: After accounting for staff wages and operational costs, Soha, who doesn’t take a salary, diverts earnings to Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, a national nonprofit that works to distribute prepared meals and groceries to those in need. What’s more, Soha owns the building in which the restaurant is located, meaning Ikigai is likely there to stay. “This restaurant gives me a purpose every morning,” Soha says. —H.S.
Tompkins Conservation
MAIKE FRIEDRICH/COURTESY OF REWILDING ARGENTINA AND TOMPKINS CONSERVATION
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins has been focused on the work of conservation since she retired from the brand Patagonia in 1993—the same year rewilding was added to the dictionary. Together with her late husband, Doug Tompkins, she cofounded the influential organization Tompkins Conservation, which has over the decades helped develop a network of enormous national parks in Chile and Argentina—and spurred similar efforts around the world. “We have all these projects going now, and I’m really the godmother of them,” Tompkins says. “I don’t have to change the oil in the trucks anymore.”
That work took a major leap forward in 2017, when Tompkins and Chile’s then-president Michelle Bachelet negotiated a deal to expand, by 10 million acres, the amount of land protected from development in that country. Today, the organization’s locally led nonprofits, Rewilding Argentina and Rewilding Chile, are safeguarding even more territory. The former is at work on a coastal protection project, Patagonia Azul, on the shores of Chubut Province, Argentina, where dolphins, seals, and whales congregate. Meanwhle, Rewilding Chile is creating the first national park at the very bottom of the continent. Cape Froward, as it’s known, is situated along the Strait of Magellan, southwest of Punta Arenas, and is a critical habitat for pumas and endangered huemul deer. Says Tompkins: “That’s a big one, and it’s all hands on deck.” —Paul Brady
Long Run
BACKDROP AGENCY/COURTESY OF THE LONG RUN
In 2009, Jochen Zeitz, then-CEO of the sportswear brand Puma and the creator of the Kenyan safari camp Segera, brought together nine like-minded lodges to create what he called the Long Run. The goal was to share not only best practices but also, critically, well-intentioned failures, so that the group could learn together. Today the collective has more than 70 members who are working to advance what they call the Four Cs: conservation, community, culture, and commerce. One recent achievement is the creation of the Fund for Female Guides, by the tour operator Steppes Travel, which aims to improve gender parity in the profession. Another is the development of a permaculture farm by the Indonesian resort Nikoi Private Island, which was inspired by the work of Grootbos Private Nature Reserve (a past Global Vision Award winner). In total, members are active across more than 21 million acres of biodiverse landscapes, in the African bush, on the coast of New Zealand, and in the mountains of northwestern Argentina, to name just a few. “Sustainability is a journey, not a sprint,” says Anne-Kathrin Zschiegner, the group’s executive director. “It’s not about what we do in a year or three but in the next 20 or 50.” —E.G.
