As the impacts of climate change continue to dominate global headlines, opportunities have emerged for frequent flyers concerned about their carbon footprint to integrate sustainable and eco-friendly approaches into their travels. Organizations like UN Tourism and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council promote sustainable travel, along with “inclusive tourism practices that respect cultural authenticity and protect the environment.”
Now, a relatively new concept has entered the travel vernacular: regenerative tourism. Drawing on the principles of regenerative agriculture, which emphasizes restoring ecosystems and enhancing biodiversity, regenerative travel is a practice that seeks to leave destinations in a better state than they were found, according to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
The Columbia Climate School offers several opportunities for students to engage in regenerative travel, such as the Wild Tomorrow Reserve capstone workshop in Rwanda and the Cuttyhunk Practicum in Massachusetts.
State of the Planet spoke with Wild Tomorrow workshop lead Jenna Lawrence, a behavioral ecologist, conservation biologist and lecturer at the Climate School, about the significance of these programs in the context of giving more than you take when traveling.
Is regenerative travel a term you’re familiar with?
I’ve heard of regenerative only in the sense of agriculture, but I’ll embrace whatever works. This is something I’ve been struggling with for years: no matter the catchphrase, I make sure my students carefully look into all of its claims. When it was all about “ecotourism,” I made sure my students always carefully defined the term and looked into all of its claims. The same is true of “sustainable tourism.” Here, it seems the goal of sustainable tourism is to have a net-neutral effect, whereas regenerative tourism has a net-positive effect.
Exactly: leaving a destination not just as is, but in an improved state. Would you say regenerative travel incorporates aspects of what you’ve experienced in field trips that you’ve led?
Yes, the Wild Tomorrow Reserve is not an ecotourist lodge or a sustainable tourist lodge. But it is regenerative in that the organization is actively working to improve the reserve, and its activities directly help the local KwaZulu-Natal community through employment and also by building a kindergarten.
Wild Tomorrow’s whole purpose is to restore habitat that’s been degraded by pineapple monocultures. The reserve is located between two large protected areas, and the organization is working to connect and restore them and create a wildlife corridor. So its mission is net-positive, and it is focused on having people come and have kind of a working vacation.
Wild Tomorrow seems to fit the description of regenerative travel, because it’s not just coming to a place and being mindful of packing in and packing out, but it also involves engaging with the environment through restoration, rewilding or conservation projects.
This place is definitely on the more “engaged” end of the spectrum. They are a working site. They do bird mist netting and banding. They work with local women, called green mambas, who spend all day pulling out invasive plants. They’re doing all of these activities to help with the restoration and then with the community as well. Perhaps that is what defines this sort of [regenerative] travel and sets it apart from just being eco-friendly and sustainable. But also, a good eco-tourist experience, in the best sense of the word, would also require minimizing the operational footprint, meaning the resources used and waste produced, as in a circular system.
Is the intention to lead more such trips?
I’ll do Wild Tomorrow Reserve again next year and then every other year after that because we also have a Rwanda program. The whole point of the capstone workshop is for the seniors to use all the skills they’ve been amassing and put them to real-world use. There is plenty to do there and with the Wild Tomorrow community, and I don’t think we’ll run out of projects for the students.
What about regenerative travel experiences in the U.S., such as the Cuttyhunk Practicum, which is held on an island off the coast of Massachusetts?
The Cuttyhunk experience is the perfect example of a regenerative program, and the students love it. Sustainable development majors are required to do a one-credit practicum. So they can either do directed research or, even better, one of these short trips. There’s also a Catskills overnight focused on the amazing story of the watershed, the wonderful drinking water, and the private-public partnerships that are behind it.
If you are interested in regenerative travel and resources on sustainable development goals and tourism, check out Earth Changers and Sustainable Travel International for more information.
