INTREPID TRAVEL

The Intrepid Foundation supports WWF-Australia’s Protecting Antarctic Giants project. The data collected during the project will directly contribute to our understanding of Antarctica’s whale populations and help develop a conservation policy for these fascinating species. In addition, Intrepid Travel in partnership with WWF-Australia will be offering an exclusive Antarctic experience that aims to establish marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean. WWF-Australia researchers will be conducting scientific research into Antarctica’s great whales and sharing it onboard selected departures of Intrepid’s Ocean Endeavour voyages in February and March 2024. The partnership offers travellers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn more about this work through a number of interactive experiences. These unique expeditions will provide passengers with an unparalleled opportunity to discover Antarctica and its wildlife while learning about the region's whales' migration patterns from WWF-Australia researchers. Learn more here.

Conservation efforts, the world over, are dependent on the drive, support and capacity of local people. And empowering locals is critical to ongoing species protection. In 2017 WWF and Intrepid Travel started an ambitious project, in partnership with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT) through their Business Partnerships Platform. Working directly with local communities, the projects aim is to establish sustainable community-based ecotourism in the Madi Valley of Nepal, located in the southern ‘buffer zone’ of Chitwan National Park. Chitwan National Park is a World Heritage Site, home to wild rhinos, tigers and elephants and is the second most popular tourist destination in Nepal. This project is an exciting commercial opportunity to diversify the Nepali tourism product beyond mountain-trekking. Offering unique community-focused experiences can reach a broad customer base while relieving some current social and environmental pressures by using improved practices. One of the main project outcomes is to generate revenue from tourism for members of the Madi Community that from underrepresented groups, especially women. This project will also help in the reduction of human-wildlife conflict. This will be achieved through; training local youth on emergency management of wild animal and rapid response team mobilization, supporting human wildlife conflict mitigation measures (one wildlife watch tower, and physical barriers-electric fencing, and establishing endowment fund for human-wildlife conflict victims for income generation opportunities. 

With the support of the Intrepid Foundation, WWF has worked in Langtang National Park to support rebuilding tourism infrastructure to safer, greener standards. We have explored new sustainable trekking routes and helped locals to diversify their ecotourism businesses. WWF’s experience around the world has shown that this will bring long-term benefits to the Langtang communities and so minimise pressures on critical habitats and species.