G ADVENTURES - PLANETERRA

Today I would like to talk about travellers and travelling.

Most of the time, travelling is associate to a possible threat to natural environments and local communities of a country rather than something beneficial.

G Adventures seems to make the difference.

This travel company for over 25 years not only helped travellers to integrate travelling into the different cultures but it also sustained local communities while doing that. After the firsts successes in 2003, Mr Bruce Poon Tip founder of G Adventures, established a non-profit organization called "Planeterra Foundation". The aim of this company is to invest the donations they collect from travellers into development projects, in the last 15 years they have been able to support different businesses from healthcare to conservation. 

This is how they define themselves: “Planeterra helps to start something. Once a social enterprise is up and running the impacts begin to multiply within the community. We believe that tourism can be the greatest method of wealth distribution in the world, and we’re out to prove it.”  <https://planeterra.org/about-us/>

In Nairobi in Kenya, for instance, G Adventures Safari Central cooperated with Café’ Ubuntu. Together they planted trees during the Earth Weeks and now this café’ supports Special needs' schools and local women whose children are living with disabilities.

Among the various projects Planeterra is developing there is also one in Guneysinir, in Turkey. This area is particularly dry and between July and September, and the average rainfall is less than 10mm. Accordingly with recent researches on the territory, it resulted that the population is growing and the limited agriculture resources of the natural environment are unable to feed the population.

Considering characteristics of this land, it has been found out that almond orchards are the best trees to plants in order to optimize the water retention. When travelling with G Adventures in Guneysinir, there will be the chance to plant some trees in the orchard. Tourists will have the opportunity to visit the park, interact with the local residents and learn further about the project. This almond plantation provides sheds for people, improves water  retention in the soil and the selling of almonds is a source of income.

 “This project was inspired by conversations with G Advenutres' field staff and the residents participating in the home stay experience. The goal is to provide an opportunity for travellers to spend time in a community park and contribute to a budding social enterprise. With the help of the local municipality, we identified a 10,000 sq.m. plot of land that is perfectly suited for this type of multi-year development project.” <https://planeterra.org/what-we-do/our-projects/turkey-almond-cooperative/>

 

I got to know G Adventures during my University time when I attended a convention held by mr Poon Tip here in London. I found very inspiring this new way of looking at tourism as a resource rather than as something harmful.

I firmly believe there should be more initiatives like this, the world is one and it is an unique place: we need to take good care of it.