CONSERVATION THROUGH EXPLORATION
FROM OUR FOUNDER & CEO & OUR CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER
You cannot save what you do not love, and you cannot love what you do not know.
When someone experiences the gaze of a silverback gorilla for the first time, or hears the hum of millions of monarch butterfly wings in the fir forests of Mexico, or witnesses the tender connection of a young polar bear cub with its mother on the shores of Hudson Bay—that person is likely changed forever. If they aren’t a naturalist, they may become one. If they aren’t already aware of the imperative for conservation, they often become enthralled with it. There is a very good chance our travelers fall in love with the things they see and experience on our adventures, and we know the result is an impassioned worldview that makes conservation a priority.
Yet the value of conservation travel goes well beyond a change in individual awareness and behavior. Perhaps the greatest benefit we impart to the natural world is the value that conservation travel adds to wild places and wildlife. The money we provide to local partners and communities turns entire societies into stakeholders who benefit from travel and from conservation. In fact, the monetary value that sustainable tourism imparts to local communities has been shown in numerous peer-reviewed studies to far
outweigh any financial gains from its all-toofrequent alternative: resource extraction that degrades the land and harms wildlife.
Adding value to nature and improving the lives of local people may be the two greatest powers we have. At Nat Hab, we are proud of how our contributions can change lives. We are also committed to raising the bar, believing there is always more we can do to further conservation. And that is what this report aims to showcase.
In these pages, you’ll learn about our efforts to further sustainability and promote conservation beyond the contributions we already make to local communities. We aim to increase our direct support for grassroots causes in the places we operate—enter Nat Hab Philanthropy.
We want to support environmental educators and ensure they have the knowledge and experience they need to teach and inspire the next generation about nature and conservation—enter our Nat Hab scholarship program.
We want to support boots-on-the-ground conservation work across our planet, not just in the places we visit, but in all the
world’s 25 biodiversity hotspots (most of which happen to be places we explore!)—enter our partnership with World Wildlife Fund. We want to influence others in a positive way, toward bigger and bolder conservation efforts— enter Nat Hab Films: conservation-focused filmmaking to inform and inspire viewers. We hope our efforts will inspire you as much as they animate and propel us forward.
Court Whelan, Ph.D. Chief Sustainability Officer
Natural Habitat Adventures
Ben Bressler Explorer, Founder, Conservationist
Natural Habitat Adventures
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
NAT HAB & WORLD WILDLIFE FUND
CONSERVATION & TRAVEL GO HAND IN HAND
By adding value to natural ecosystems, creating stakeholders for the environment and working directly with local communities, everyone benefits, especially the planet. This concept is at the core of what we do at Nat Hab, and our work with WWF is an integral part of the conservation travel equation. Through our partnership, we have access to the work of world-renowned scientists, plus the ability to contribute to influential conservation projects around the world.
Together, we offer conservation travel—sustainable travel that supports the protection of nature, wildlife and local communities.
Travel, when done responsibly, can be a force for good. It opens our eyes to the beauty of the world and, in doing so, inspires us to protect it for future generations.”
DR. JANE GOODALL
21 YEARS of partnering with World Wildlife Fund—since 2003
WWF has over 5 MILLION members worldwide
1.7 MILLION of those members are in the United States
$45M
dollars donated to WWF by Nat Hab travelers
WWF has 6 main areas of focus: CLIMATE FORESTS FRESH WATER OCEANS WILDLIFE FOOD
WWF works in 100 COUNTRIES
around the world
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
NAT HAB TRIPS SHOWCASE WWF PRIORITY SPECIES AROUND THE
Polar Bears Tigers Jaguars
There is perhaps no better emblem for conservation today than the polar bear. An apex predator adapted to life in the Arctic Ocean, this marine mammal symbolizes both the vigor and fragility of the natural world. Saving this species requires a multipronged approach involving community education, community protection, and research and policy at local through federal levels. Considering polar bears are circumpolar dwellers found across five countries, policy is anything but simple. WWF has been instrumental in bringing together governments, universities and conservation groups from Canada, the United States, Denmark, Norway and Russia around the common goal of protecting the polar bear.
In addition to addressing global climate change, WWF focuses its efforts on both scientific data (such as using novel tagging and DNA collection technologies) and work within Arctic communities to reduce human-bear conflict and to gather Traditional Ecological Knowledge gained from those who have lived with polar bears for centuries. WWF also focuses on habitat protection by safeguarding denning areas and reducing industrial impacts as shipping and oil exploration delves deeper into the Arctic environs.
The world’s largest cat species needs a great deal of habitat to survive and flourish. In fact, each tiger needs about 20 to 40 square miles of wild terrain in order to hunt, mate and thrive. But tigers live in parts of the world with highly dense human populations, like India, China and Southeast Asia. WWF strives to protect and connect vital tiger habitat both by designating new conservation areas, and by creating corridors between existing habitats. It also aims to eliminate trade in illegal tiger products, and tiger “farms,” which heavily wild populations as they poach from natural areas while also driving increased demand for tiger products. This fuels the illegal wildlife trade, making it difficult to know which products are from legal captive facilities and which were taken illegally from the wild. The illegal tiger trade also impacts human life, as highly prized traditional medicine and tiger parts create violent black markets and criminal networks.
In 2010, the world’s 13 tiger range countries committed to an ambitious goal: to double wild tiger numbers by 2022 (the next Year of the Tiger)—a project that became known at WWF as TX2. Five critical tiger countries met this goal of doubling their tiger count— Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Russia— while global numbers overall saw a 74% increase, bringing worldwide tiger numbers to 5,574 up from 3,900 in 2010.
As elusive as they are elegant, the jaguar has become a vital figure in the fight to conserve Brazil’s freshwater floodplains, a region called the Pantanal. Up against intense habitat loss through conversion, with cattle ranching being the biggest contributor, the jaguar’s rarity could be its strongest attribute as conservation travel brings significant financial incentive to protect land once deemed unsuitable for nearly anything but draining and farming. But the jaguar’s importance to the ecosystem goes well beyond its value for tourism. It is an “umbrella species,” which when protected helps other species in the region thrive because of their shared habitat, including tapir, giant otter, hyacinth macaw, giant anteater and maned wolf.
WWF is protecting jaguars at multiple levels. Locally, WWF works with landowners and farmers to manage human–jaguar conflict, conduct jaguar population and distribution research, and improve land management practices to safeguard natural habitat. At the national level, WWF plays a key role in uniting various conservation stakeholders to collaborate on research and policy programs. At the international level, WWF is pivotal in promoting and securing large-scale and long-term financing for jaguar conservation efforts.
THE WORLD
A creature some view as dainty is proving to be one of the strongest and potentially most resilient animals on Earth. Monarchs are well known for their annual migration to Mexico, where they gather by the hundreds of millions. Not only is this aggregation a spectacle that defies description, it offers WWF scientists the ability to assess total population numbers as well as health of the butterflies during this overwintering period.
Unfortunately, monarch numbers have been on a steady decline over the past two decades due to deforestation in Mexico and habitat loss in the U.S. and Canada. However, WWF’s efforts to curtail deforestation and reforest monarch habitat in Mexico are working well. Since 2013, WWF has planted more than 20 million oyamel fir trees, on which the overwintering monarchs roost. Attention has now turned to the loss of habitat, especially milkweed, from the American prairie region—an integral summer food source for the monarchs.
Although the outlook may seem grim, monarchs have an uncanny ability to rebound dramatically in number and colony size from year to year. If the same efficacy WWF’s reforestation efforts have had can be repeated with habitat protection and milkweed planting initiatives, monarchs may prove to be one of the most resilient species in conservation history.
African Elephants
Monarch Butterflies Snow Leopards
With their unique family structure, astounding intelligence, impressive range and sheer size, African elephants are among the top highlights for any safari-goer. Most visitors are aware of the peril elephants face from ivory poachers—the number-one cause of their population decline. However, a lesserknown conservation challenge comes with elephants’ impact on villages, crops and water sources, as they are driven into closer contact with humans due to habitat loss in their natural environment.
Given that a single elephant can eat 600 pounds of food in a day, their presence on agricultural land can cause immense conflict—and it is not uncommon for retaliatory killing or poisoning to occur in remote parts of Africa.
WWF has tackled these issues headon to safeguard elephants, managing human-wildlife conflict, and provide greater financial security to those reliant on subsistence living in elephant territory. From elephant early detection and safe deterrent programs that help keep elephants away from villages and subsistence farms, to joint-venture enterprises that finance communityowned lodges and camps, programs have been created to empower local people and facilitate sustainable responses—with a positive impact for both people and the environment.
Inhabiting mountainous regions across 12 countries in Asia, the snow leopard plays a key role as an indicator species for ecosystem health in its remote highaltitude habitat. When snow leopard populations are healthy, we understand a great deal more about their elusive prey and the food chain that connects the entirety of the fragile places they inhabit. But snow leopards also represent a spectacular and relatively new way to align people in remote Himalayan communities around conservation.
WWF is actively working with local communities to reduce human-leopard conflict through improved livestock protection measures, awareness programs, and community livelihood enterprises. But successful conservation measures must do more. Together, WWF and Nat Hab are working to promote snow leopard tourism in an area that is a relative newcomer to recognizing the value of protecting wildlife and the benefits of conservation travel. Providing needed income, conservation travel demonstrates to local communities that conserving the habitat snow leopards need to thrive is fundamental to improving their own livelihoods. And as snow leopard habitats are conserved, so too are habitats for a diverse array of high mountain species, in addition to the largest freshwater reserves on the planet.
REDUCING CARBON IN A CHANGING CLIMATE
Conservation cannot be discussed outside the context of carbon emissions and climate change. Human-caused global warming arguably represents the greatest threat to all life on Earth. Without aggressive innovation, investment, influence and inspiration, humans pose not only the biggest threat to the future of other species on our planet, but to ourselves and our own future. We are inextricably intertwined with the natural world.
This is why Nat Hab continually works to use conservation travel for good, as a tool to impact communities and our industry as a whole as we seek to play a meaningful role in the quest to combat climate change.
Since we became the world’s first carbon-neutral travel company in 2007, much has changed. Carbon neutrality is now a household term—something we, in our own small way, fought hard to make a reality. However, the nowcommonplace practice of quantifying and offsetting carbon is no longer enough—decarbonization is imperative.
This is perhaps the greatest challenge we face in the travel industry from an environmental perspective: How do we continue to take people to the most inspiring places on our planet, to move them and educate them about the wild world, while also substantially reducing our carbon footprint?
Through travel, we discover the interconnectedness of our planet and realize the responsibility we bear to preserve its delicate balance. Every journey becomes a step towards climate stewardship.”
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH
Nat Hab pays to offset 100% of the carbon emissions from its trips and office operations—including our guests’ flights to and from our destinations
CLIMATEFOCUSED EDUCATIONAL ADVENTURES EACH YEAR
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
NEXT-LEVEL COMMITMENT: SCIENCE BASED TARGETS
In 2023, we proudly committed to the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), beginning work on an aggressive plan to cut our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 42% by the year 2030. We are the second tour operator in the world to join this initiative, and the first in North America. Working closely with SBTi, our participation in this program addresses several core pillars of our climate action plan—to measure, reduce, eliminate, innovate, invest and inspire.
In addition to the obvious practice of measuring and reducing our impact via decarbonization, we view SBTi as an inspirational and influential step for our company as well as the travel industry as a whole. We are part of a small but growing cohort of travel industry leaders in the fight for climate action. Through these innovations, we want to be the change we wish to see in the world, raising the bar for ourselves and our planet.
While our commitment to SBTi is perhaps the boldest and most internationally recognized initiative in this Sustainability Report, in 2023, we deployed another meaningful move in our fight against climate change—our Carbon Clear Vision program. The concept is simple, but the work to produce it was anything but. Realizing that information about carbon and its relative role in the travel space was lacking, we set out to create a standardized “output label” for all of our trips. On each label, we provide carbon emissions data in a familiar, easy-to-understand format so anyone can see the carbon output expended in each major travel category—from accommodations and transportation to food, office operations and more.
It may be a cliche, but knowledge is power, and that is where we must begin. We are enthused to feature this project as another way to inform and motivate those within our sphere of influence.
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
Recognizing that information about carbon and its relative role in the travel space is lacking, we have created a standardized ‘output label’ for all of our trips.
Canada’s Premier Polar Bear Adventure Alaska Bear Camp
Hidden Yellowstone & Grand Teton Safari
Secluded Botswana Safari
CARBON NEUTRALITY
While we have moved beyond merely offsetting, as we innovate via our commitment to the Science Based Targets Initiative, inspire through our climate-conscious adventures, and invest in new projects like electric safari vehicles, we believe carbon offsetting still has a key role to play in an essential combined approach to fighting climate change.
In addition to the physical offsetting of CO2, such projects can do a world of good beyond carbon mitigation. Whether an offsetting project focuses on reforestation that actively creates new habitat for wildlife, or it provides low-emission cookstoves and aligns with multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, carbon neutrality is more than just numbers, and its benefit goes well beyond mitigating carbon emissions. These programs impact the health and livelihoods of communities across the planet on a highly local and individual level, while addressing the more obvious shared intention of climate action.
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
CALCULATE YOUR ANNUAL CARBON FOOTPRINT
Check out this interactive calculator tool from UC Berkeley to determine your estimate.
THE FUTURE IS ELECTRIC, & WE’RE ON THE EDGE OF SOMETHING GRAND
Recognizing that going carbon-neutral is only the first step, we’re upping our commitment to reducing our carbon output—and that includes transitioning to more electric vehicles. Since we debuted our first electric safari vehicle in Botswana in 2023, we are continuing to bring more EVs into our fleet, in Africa and around the world. In 2024, we ordered a new state-of-the-art Rivian electric vehicle for use by our Field Operations team in Yellowstone National Park. Plans are currently underway to add electric vehicles on our itineraries in Peru, Kenya and Tanzania, and we expect to have them operating in the field by 2025.
4 YEARS
for the investment in our Yellowstone vehicles to pay for themselves in saved fuel
CARBON-OFFSETTING PROJECTS SUPPORTED BY NAT HAB
In addition to completely offsetting our entire operations, the offset projects we have chosen align with multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. UN SDGs, as they’re often referred to, provide a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet. If you’d like to read more about the past, present and future of United Nations SDGs, please visit sdgs.un.org/goals.
ENERGY-EFFICIENT COOKSTOVES
Improving health and reducing pressure on forests in Mozambique
Providing energy-efficient cookstoves is beneficial on so many levels. Not only does it reduce emissions produced by burning wood or charcoal, it also improves human health by producing significantly less smoke and reduces the need for fuel wood, thus putting less pressure on forests and reducing forest clearing.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels while providing jobs
Southeast Asia relies heavily on imported fossil fuels for power, which must change dramatically in order to move toward a green economy. In addition to renewable energy, this project provides for sustainable economic growth in an area that experiences critical electricity shortages, impacting healthcare, education and basic livelihoods.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Protecting the rainforest and cutting emissions by preventing logging
Saving the Amazon basin from habitat loss and deforestation is much more than strictly a climate issue, but it is a key strategy for offsetting carbon. In addition to sequestering carbon, an intact rainforest ensures that valuable ecosystem services like water and air filtration, nutrient regulation and flood protection are also safeguarded.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
SONG CHUNG HYDRO IN VIETNAM
ENVIRA AMAZONIA TROPICAL FOREST CONSERVATION
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?
From January 1, 2007, through the end of 2024, Nat Hab has offset 106,883 tons of carbon dioxide. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, this is equivalent to:
TOMORROW’S AIR: DIRECT AIR CAPTURE
Investing in carbon dioxide removal with permanent storage
Nat Hab is proud to support the new technology of physically removing carbon from the atmosphere via direct air capture. In addition to removing carbon, direct air capture via Tomorrow’s Air locks the carbon away in permanent storage in one of several forms, including soils, aquifers, plants and even rocks. While nature provides its own carbon-removal solutions like traditional sequestration via trees (e.g., plants breathe carbon dioxide), direct air capture happens at a much more rapid, controlled and predictable rate, making it particularly important in the race to combat climate change. Although this technology is still new and expensive, we believe it is imperative to invest in the progress creative solutions offer. Only through a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach can we elicit the impact required to address the climate crisis.
25,438 cars not on the road for a year
12,026,893 gallons of gasoline not consumed
247,457 barrels of oil not consumed
13,939 homes not using energy for one year
1,767,320 tree seedlings grown for 10 years
685 acres of woodlands preserved from deforestation
4,642,563 trash bags of waste recycled instead of landfilled
In 2024, we offset 38,790 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
YOU CAN OFFSET YOUR PERSONAL TRAVEL, TOO
If you’d like to offset your flights for trips other than with Nat Hab, navigate to this handy carbon calculator on the MyClimate.org website, which lets you calculate and offset your emissions at the same time. It doesn’t cost much, but the collective impact is significant!
A History of Conservation Travel Milestones
Photo by Nat Hab Chief
20 18
Started planning the world’s first Zero Waste Adventure 20 19
Began offsetting all our travelers’ flights, nearly quadrupling the total amount of carbon we offset each year
20 20
Formed the Community Relief Fund to help local communities impacted by the devastating tourism halt due to COVID-19, raising and distributing more than $340,000 across the world
20 23
Built and deployed our first Electric Safari Vehicle (ESV) in Botswana
Produced our first annual Sustainability Report
Signed on to the Science Based Targets Initiative to reduce carbon emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement
Ran the world’s first Zero Waste Adventure in Yellowstone National Park 20 22
20 24
Expanded the Nat Hab Scholarship Program, including more Monarch Teacher Grants, as well as Polar Bear Teacher Grants
Began to invest in and offset some of our emissions using Direct Air Capture technologies to physically remove and sequester carbon 20 21
Launched Nat Hab Films, a conservationbased storytelling platform, to our global audience
NAT HAB
PHILANTHROPY
If we’ve learned anything from our conservation partners, it is that in order to save our planet, we must invest in people. As a result, we have been investing in communities around the world, forging relationships that contribute to sustainable economies and helping people become stakeholders in support of wildlife and wild places.
The lion’s share of our contribution to local communities is and will always be through the conservation travel adventures we operate. The value they create and the human lives our trips support dwarf anything else we could possibly do in the service of conservation.
But given that a core ethos of ours is to always raise the bar on our conservation overtures, we contribute more than $50,000 a year to projects, people and places around the world where small grants go a long way. These grants, averaging about $2,000 each, help fund initiatives that could easily be overlooked due to their small grassroots nature. These are the projects we look for! And we do so specifically in places where we operate trips, wishing to support those connected to our partners and local communities in as many ways as we can.
Philanthropy is not just about giving; it is about creating a legacy of conservation. It is an investment in the well-being of our planet and an enduring gift to future generations.”
KRISTINE TOMPKINS
$225K donated to philanthropic efforts worldwide since 2017
Tasiilaq, Greenland
$3,646
Traditional growing seasons are almost nonexistent in Greenland, but thanks to the inspiring efforts of Siu-Tsi’s Tasiilaq Garden Project, crops like spinach, onions, turnips and radishes thrive in this remote village in East Greenland.
A part of Tasiilaq’s youth social services organization, this program is one of several that collectively contribute to local sustainability while also creating a bridge to further education and employment opportunities for young Greenlanders. In April 2023, Nat Hab contributed $3,646 to Siu-Tsi’s Tasiilaq Garden Project. In addition to providing more locally grown vegetables to the community of Tasiilaq, Siu-Tsiu also forged a partnership with Nat Hab to offer freshly grown produce to our chef at Base Camp Greenland, aligning with our mission to source sustainable food whenever and wherever possible on our worldwide expeditions—no matter how far-flung our destinations are.
Humanitarian
Pantanal, Brazil
$5,000
Oncafari is a conservation and research organization focused on jaguars in Brazil’s Pantanal. One of its core missions is to understand how jaguars interact with one another and their surrounding environment, including relationships with trees, other species, and various elements within a biome that experiences drastic seasonal changes. Since 2011, Oncafari has pursued answers through a pioneering initiative involving scientific research, the habituation of jaguars, development of ecotourism, and reintroduction of young orphaned jaguars. After two highly successful jaguar restoration efforts, Oncafari is expanding its scope to include other native mammals, specifically species orphaned or apprehended by Brazilian authorities as a result of trafficking and mistreatment. Having supported Oncafari’s past rewilding and reintroduction of jaguars at Caiman Ecological Refuge, Nat Hab Philanthropy continues support toward further research on ecotourism’s effects on jaguar populations, along with assistance for orphaned jaguar reintroduction.
Conservation & Biodiversity
Research
Lynn, North Carolina
$2,000
Connecting the next generation to nature and familiarizing young people with environmental topics is key to protecting our planet’s future. Champions for Wildlife understands this and seeks to inspire and empower youth in the United States to champion wildlife through art projects and education programs. Planned lesson units focus on biodiversity and wild animals such as the critically endangered red wolf. Through such curricula, children become ambassadors for conservation and biodiversity, educating their communities and fundraising via the art they create.
Education
Conservation & Biodiversity
Zimbabwe
$2,500
Zimbabwe once had one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, but sadly, this is no longer true. With the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy in recent decades, the majority of qualified teachers have not only left the profession but have moved to neighboring countries and overseas in search of employment and a living wage. Add COVID-19 into the mix, and it is not surprising that more than half of Grade 7 students are unable to read, write and comprehend English. Yet literacy is the key to a better future. In July 2023, Nat Hab Philanthropy worked with Children in the Wilderness (CITW) to help fund literacy centers in communities throughout Zimbabwe and Zambia, which work to remediate and improve English language and literacy skills for all ages.
Education
Kvarner Islands, Croatia
$2,000
Birds of Prey Protection Society aims to preserve the last Croatian population of griffon vultures by creating conditions for their return to their former habitats and colonies, including Croatia’s Kvarner islands. As with conservation and recovery plans for many species, data is crucial to understand the behaviors and nesting areas of griffon vultures, and this is what the Birds of Prey Protection Society excels at. In August 2023, Nat Hab Philanthropy provided funding for research equipment, including specialized climbing and rappelling gear that allows research teams to access the remote cliffsides these vultures inhabit. In addition to research, the conservation organization educates schoolchildren and the wider public about the importance of birds of prey and their role in nature.
Conservation & Biodiversity
Research
Okavango Delta, Botswana
$2,500
To protect both people and wildlife when they live in proximity to one another requires a balance that can sometimes be daunting to find. Even when in the presence of non-predatory animals such as elephants, simple walks to school or medical clinics can be dangerous. Enter the Ele Express Bus project—a program that provides safe bus transport through elephant corridors of Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Through coordinated, shared rides via the Ele Express, people of all ages can safely get to where they need to be. By minimizing potential runins with people, animals are safer, too, creating a more harmonious balance between people and nature.
Humanitarian
CONSERVATION PARTNERS
Every act of conservation is a ripple that, when joined by others, creates a tidal wave of positive change. Partnerships amplify our impact and shape a better world.”
DOUGLAS TOMPKINS
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
NAT HAB SCHOLARSHIPS
IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS INTERESTED IN APPLYING FOR OUR SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM, PLEASE SCAN OR CLICK THIS LINK.
2023 was an exciting year for our scholarship program at Nat Hab. We resumed our Monarch Butterfly Scholarship program (paused during the COVID-19 pandemic) and selected two extraordinary teachers to join our January 14, 2024, Kingdom of the Monarchs migration adventure. We also made plans to expand our scholarship programs for 2024.
This year, in addition to providing two additional monarch scholarships annually, bringing our total to four all-expenses-paid trips for educators, we are now offering two scholarship spots on a Nat Hab polar bear adventure each fall. It’s been a dream of our Nat Hab Scholarship team to meaningfully expand to this program, and we couldn’t be more excited to grow both deeper and wider in our scholarship offerings.
Teaching the teachers is like planting seeds of knowledge that will blossom into a forest of conservation-minded individuals, nurturing the next generation to become stewards of our planet.”
DR. JANE GOODALL
scholarships provided to educators each year 6 per year in scholarship grants $46K
students impacted by Teaching the Teachers 3,600
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
CONSERVATION FILMS
When it comes to defining the “why” of what we do at Nat Hab, our mission statement is clear: conservation through exploration. But exploration can take many forms. While the conventional thought is that travel is a requisite for exploration, our Nat Hab Films team has created exploration opportunities for anyone with access to a screen. While 2024 wasn’t the first year we began producing high-quality conservation-focused short films, it was perhaps our most momentous year so far, as we finished six new films on a wide range of subjects, including the value of jaguar conservation to local livelihoods in Brazil; the power of family connections in The Silverback, about Africa’s mountain gorillas; and our most ambitious conservation film project to date, involving more than three months of filming in remote regions of Alaska to produce The Bear Coast.
These films are a portal into stunning natural beauty, along with insight into the interaction of nature and the human spirit—essential for the conservation enterprise. We invite you to watch these Nat Hab Films by scanning the QR codes on the right page with your phone.
Film and video have the power to transcend borders and connect hearts, making the invisible beauty of nature visible to all. Through the lens, we can inspire a global movement for conservation.”
JACQUES COUSTEAU
Gray wolves were reintroduced to America’s first national park in 1995, more than a century after they were eradicated from the Yellowstone region. As these wolves began to thrive again in the wild, so did controversy. Watch this short film to learn more about the conservation challenges faced by Yellowstone’s wolves and how you can have a respectful wolf encounter of your own.
Africa’s endangered mountain gorillas have family units similar to our own, inspiring a strong human connection to these great apes. This primal allure is powerful for safari guide Richard De Gouveia, whose journey to becoming an Expedition Leader was shaped by tragedy. Watch this short film to discover how Richard’s relationships with his family and nature inspired him to lead travelers to meet the wild primates of Uganda and Rwanda and help protect them for future generations.
Naturalist guide Cassiano “Zapa” Zaniboni rarely saw jaguars when he started leading wildlife safaris through the Pantanal wetlands in Brazil decades ago. Now, these elegant predators are making a comeback. Watch this short film to find out why this Expedition Leader is passionate about protecting threatened jaguars in the world’s largest seasonal floodplain.
The annual monarch butterfly migration to Mexico is at risk, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the monarch as an endangered species. Together, local communities and WWF have made progress toward protecting monarch habitat in the high-altitude forests the butterflies migrate to each winter. People in the U.S. and Canada can support monarchs through other stages of the insects’ lifecycle by preserving habitat and food sources like milkweed.
Meet a group of passionate Alaskans who talk about the importance of protecting the Alaska Peninsula’s pristine wilderness for the animals and people who depend on its rich natural resources. Alaska’s wild brown bears—and the salmon they subsist on—face many threats, including from mining, oil and natural gas extraction, and a changing climate. Discover how you can help support conservation efforts to preserve this critically important area of wild Alaska for generations to come.
Join us on this soul-stirring journey into the realm of the polar bear, as we follow the life-changing experiences of Nat Hab guests, Expedition Leaders and a WWF scientist during a trip to Churchill, Manitoba—the Polar Bear Capital of the World. Learn how the power of conservation travel can help protect a threatened species like polar bears for generations to come.
THE VALUE OF CONSERVATION TRAVEL
Nat Hab’s 2024 Sustainability Report showcases the power of conservation travel. When undertaken responsibly, travel can be a tremendous force for good—and it is one of the most important ways to help save our wild world. Conservation travel transforms mindsets among travelers, host communities and governments alike. It inspires, informs and educates people about aspects of our planet and its inhabitants, which they might otherwise never have a chance to understand. Experiencing nature in person creates a deeper bond with the wild world, prompting more engagement with the many causes and solutions available to help protect it.
However, we must always come back to the foundation of conservation travel, which is the value it bestows upon the natural world, including habitats and species. While we are immensely proud of our ongoing initiatives and accomplishments presented in this publication, including our growing scholarship programs, projects supported by Nat Hab Philanthropy, new strides in carbon management, our treasured WWF partnership, and inspiring Nat Hab films, our biggest contribution may well be the value our travelers add to nature. The economic impact our presence has helps ensure that natural habitat remains as is—that sustaining nature in its intact state is the highest value.
76 x
An elephant is worth 76 times more alive than dead ($1.6M vs. $21K)
$36M
Annual revenue generated by wolf tourism in the Greater Yellowstone area6
A growing number of research publications are studying this value, and we find it deeply inspirational to witness how significant these numbers have become. The economic impact our presence has helps ensure that natural habitat remains as is, and it demonstrates that sustaining nature in its intact state is the highest value. Sources: 1David
$2B
Spent on wildlife-viewing activities in Alaska yearly by residents and visitors8
Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, 2Galapagos Conservancy, 3BBC.com, 7TOFTigers Initiative, 9International Gorilla Conservation Program, 10UN
51% Of the Galapagos Islands economy is generated by tourism2
$16B
The total economic value of panda bears to China’s Sichaun Province3
19K
Jobs created by wildlife viewing in Alaska4 Conservation Travel by the Numbers
$6.3B
The socioeconomic value of polar bears to Canadians5
$34M
Annual revenue generated by mountain gorilla tourism9
7.7M
Number of jobs the tourism industry provides in Africa10
$750K
Annual tourism revenue attributed to a single wild tiger in a well-visited reserve in India7
10 x
Every dollar spent on travel and tourism can yield upwards of $10 in economic benefits to local communities11
