Creating a Conservation Culture

As you may know, most of my travels (and photography) have a focus on conservation. Thus, I'm going to deviate, only slightly, from my routine articles for a topic that I view is of paramount importance in today's ever-changing world.

Creating a global conservation culture is among the most important things we can do today in the travel industry. Yep, there are a lot of buzz words in that statement, and it may sound generic, but trust me, I've thought hard on this.

Let me explain a bit of the backstory here... 

So, in addition to heading up Sustainability at Natural Habitat Adventures, I guide our adventures from time to time, and when I’m in the field with guests I try to ask each and every group, at some point (usually over a dinnertime conversation), “if you had one magic genie wish to save the world (from a conservation perspective) what would it be.” I usually get some pretty standard answers, like ‘everyone should recycle’ or ‘everyone should start offsetting’ etc. Frankly, I use this question as a conversation starter about all these various tactics, each one carrying a special weight in solving the climate crisis, biodiversity crisis, etc.

I stumbled upon ‘my wish’ upon guiding in Costa Rica quite often in the early 2000s, as I was fascinated by their conservation culture. It seemed as if everyone in the country played a role in sustainably/conservation. Some more than others, of course, but nevertheless it permeated the landscape—in businesses, transport companies, restaurants, activities, you name it—there were signs everywhere. And as one direct and indirect result, they’ve set aside over 35% of their country/habitat in protected areas, and that number is increasing. 

I’ve been enamored ever since with this idea of what is one thing, that if we aim toward, could solve multiple conservation problems all at once. 

I keep coming back to this idea that if the world, all inhabitants, were to have some inkling of a conservation culture, we’d make progress in multiple arenas all at the same time…climate, waste, ocean acidification, invasive species, biodiversity, habitat loss, etc. My hope is for wide-scale behavior change, and as we all know, culture is a pre-cursor to behavior. 

Thus, if I am to set a north star in all this, I believe a conservation culture could be the one thing that could result in the broadest, most comprehensive, most meaningful change. But, at the same time, I’m a hopeless optimist, so take it for what it’s worth 😊. (let me be clear that this isn’t in place of regulation and more poignant, measurable steps 😊).

No pressure, but if you have a "magic genie" wish you'd like to share or send to me, I'm really interested to hear!

All the best, Court