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It is undeniable that we find ourselves in the midst of a climate and biodiversity crisis. You may have seen it in the news or even sensed it in your surroundings – the intensifying extreme weather and the alarming decline in biodiversity are threatening our planet profoundly.

The responsibility for this situation is mainly a result of human actions or, in many cases, inaction.

It is a paradox, however, that those contributing the least to climate emissions are among the hardest hit by its consequences. Indigenous Peoples across the globe have nurtured an intimate bond with nature for centuries, fostering deep connections to the land, water, and ecosystems that are integral to their cultures, languages, and livelihoods. Unfortunately, this connection also makes them highly vulnerable to the harsh impacts of environmental shifts.

In a world struggling with the monumental challenges of climate change and environmental degradation, our focus must shift towards Indigenous communities.

If we aspire to transform our relationship with the land and deepen our connection with the natural world, embracing Indigenous Peoples’ wisdom is imperative. Eva Müller, Director of the Forestry Policy and Resources Division at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, rightly emphasizes that the empowerment of these communities, coupled with their deep-rooted knowledge and forward-thinking strategies, is vital for the survival of future generations – both human and wildlife.

Indigenous Peoples are at the forefront of nature protection and biodiversity conservation. At Planeterra, we firmly believe that their insights must be acknowledged and that we must observe and learn from their ways of life. 

In recent months, we’ve been working on the implementation of our Global Climate & Biodiversity Initiative, aimed at supporting our community tourism enterprise partners, including Indigenous communities, to innovate new and existing solutions to the crisis with the goal of improving their adaptability and resilience to the impacts of climate change. Learn more about this initiative, here. 

Embedded within our Global Climate & Biodiversity Initiative is the understanding that the tourism sector has a significant role to play in addressing this unprecedented crisis. Therefore, we are proud to have signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, as it aligns with our vision of how tourism should be and our commitment to doing right by the communities and community tourism enterprises that we partner with. 

We will provide further insights into our work regarding this global initiative in the coming months, but in the meantime, we wanted to share an example of one of our Indigenous-led community partners who showcases how tourism can be a powerful tool to support Indigenous communities, safeguard their heritage, and champion environmental conservation.

Parque de la Papa

Pampallacta, Peru.

For centuries, potatoes have held a cherished place in the hearts and fields of the Andes’ Indigenous communities. Parque de la Papa, established in 2006, stands as a haven of agrobiodiversity, safeguarding an impressive array of potato types (approximately 1,300) along with other Indigenous Andean crops in Peru.

One of the remarkable aspects of Parque de la Papa lies in its role as the guardian of ancestral agricultural practices and wisdom passed down through generations. Their sustainable farming techniques and profound environmental insights are pivotal in maintaining the delicate equilibrium between agriculture and nature.

Thanks to support from both local and global entities, Parque de la Papa has woven agro-tourism programs and community micro-enterprises into its fabric. As a result, the reserve has become a center for cultural exchange and education where visitors have the opportunity to get a taste of the rich Andean culture, learn about traditional planting and harvesting techniques, and experience the warmth of the local community. 

The benefits derived from tourism are distributed among the local communities for investment in social projects, including improvements to community centers, training on potato conservation and sustainable agrobiodiversity use, women’s empowerment, local rights, and reinforcing traditional community rights systems concerning local bio-cultural resources, and more.

Recognizing its profound importance, the Peruvian government designated Parque de la Papa as an Agrobiodiversity zone. This recognition highlights the significance of its conservation work and provides valuable support for the community’s endeavor to protect their agricultural heritage and maintain their way of life in harmony with nature.

Examples like Parque de la Papa showcase how Indigenous communities in Peru and worldwide remain essential in protecting biodiversity and advocating for sustainable practices that have positive impacts on both people and the planet. 

They also demonstrate the importance of strong partnerships between Indigenous communities, governments, non-governmental organizations, and responsible travel operators in developing tourism initiatives that empower Indigenous Peoples while safeguarding their cultural integrity and environment.

By actively participating in responsible tourism ventures, Indigenous communities gain access to alternative income sources. At the same time, tourism helps ensure the transmission of their traditions to future generations. 

Moreover, tourism presents itself as an opportunity to raise awareness among travelers and inspire them to reflect on the impact of their everyday choices and the potential for positive global change through individual actions.

Sources referenced:

• Indigenous Peoples and climate Change in the Andes: An Indigenous Perspective on a Global Problem.
• Indigenous people and nature: a tradition of conservation.
• Custodians of Knowledge: 5 Reasons Indigenous Peoples Hold the Key to Our Planet’s Future.
• An Indigenous peoples’ approach to climate justice.
• Indigenous Peoples are protecting biodiversity, one harvest at a time.
• Indigenous People’s Knowledge, Insight Needed to Address Global Climate Crisis, Speakers Stress, as Permanent Forum Opens Session.
• Devastating rights violations against Indigenous people must end.
• Indigenous Peoples defend a precious natural resource- empowering them protects us all.
• Indigenous Knowledges and Climate Change.
• World Bank (2003). Implementation of operational directive 4.20 on indigenous peoples: an independent desk review, World Bank, Washington, DC.

Other interesting reads:

• Indigenous campaign for nature and territory
• Indigenous and local communities see big gains in land rights, study shows.
• Indigenous land rights key to curbing deforestation and restoring lands: Study
• COP15: The clash between indigenous rights and nature preservation.
• Indigenous women record age-old knowledge of bees in Colombia’s Amazon.
• The world’s healthiest forests are on Indigenous land. Here’s why.
• Indigenous funding model is a win-win for ecosystems and local economies in Canada.
• Hawaiian communities restore Indigenous conservation, from mountains to sea.

2023 marks Planeterra’s 20th Anniversary. As with any major life milestone, we’re taking a moment to look back and reflect on where we started and how far we have travelled – from those early days raising funds to the collective work that has gone into our efforts to make the tourism industry more equitable and giving a voice to communities worldwide.

Planeterra’s major milestones over the years

Planeterra’s history is filled with pivotal moments and key achievements that have allowed us to use community tourism to change lives. We are proud to share some of the highlights with you:

Using tourism to do good things around the world

When Planeterra first started back in 2003, it acted more as a traditional philanthropic non-profit charity, focusing on a specific issue and fundraising through travellers to raise money for various causes including water towers in Central America, a maternity ward for a hospital in East Africa and eye camps in Tibet.

In 2004, Planeterra partnered with Inti Runakunaq Wasin in Peru to support children, adolescents, women, and people with special needs who are at risk, abandoned victims of domestic violence, or those looking to improve their quality of life by promoting positive participation in their communities and families. Planeterra funded the purchase of the Cuzco Youth Drop-in Center Inti Runakunaq Wasin “The House of Children of the Sun” in 2009, where children and youth participate in various educational training, workshops, occupational, and income generation programs.

In January 2010, Haiti was hit by a catastrophic earthquake and together with G Adventures, we raised over $10,000 for the Canadian Red Cross in just one week, and the Canadian government matched our donation. Additionally, Bruce Poon Tip personally volunteered to join an Air Canada relief flight to deliver more than 25,000 pounds of donated food and supplies to the most affected areas. 

The world was struck by another devastating earthquake in 2015, this time in Nepal. Once again we united forces with G Adventures, raising over $200,000 CAD for the victims of this devastating event. 

Initially, we provided emergency aid and basic living supplies to families in the Kavrepalanchok district. However, after assessing the situation and the extent of the need, our plans shifted toward rebuilding houses. In total, we helped rebuild homes for 152 families! 

Investing in people and their potential for sustainable growth

Over the years, we came to realize that we could have a greater impact by working with, and through, the tourism sector itself to create opportunities for local communities to thrive.

The idea of working with tourism industry partners to support the development of community tourism enterprises that uplift communities was born and through it, Planeterra has been able to create a long-lasting sustainable impact.

Our first community enterprise, the Ccaccaccollo Women’s Weaving Co-op, was established in 2005. Planeterra worked with the Ccaccaccollo community in the Sacred Valley of Peru to develop a women’s weaving cooperative to create economic opportunities for the women of this community. 

When Planeterra first developed a partnership with the women in the Ccaccaccollo community, the cooperative was run by only 3 women – today, the cooperative is owned by 46 women! We are proud to see how these women have not only maintained their traditional weaving methods but also used the income from tourism to empower themselves and their families.

In 2007, we worked with Salaam Baalak Trust to support City Walk, a youth-led walking tour that provides a different perspective to Delhi, India while giving youth the opportunity to gain new skills. Funds from the City Walk program are used to provide scholarships and job placements for youth, as well as resources for shelters for homeless children and youth.

In 2010, we worked with New Hope Outreach Centre to build a training restaurant to support young Khmers living just outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia. In addition to providing training, proceeds from the restaurant are used to provide health care and fresh water to the student’s families to reduce sickness.

A few years later, in 2012, Planeterra was granted a $1 million multi-year partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank Multilateral Investment Fund to develop a sustainable community-based tourism program in Central and South America. The project aimed to increase the competitiveness of micro and small enterprises by optimizing their market access and efficiency in the tourism value chain. Watch the video below to learn more about this project!

In 2016 we officially launched our “50 in 5” campaign, with a vision to develop and include 50 new social enterprises into G Adventures tours in 5 years and by 2019 (a year and a half early!) we successfully completed it. Building on this success, Planeterra introduced Project 100, a new mandate to launch 100 total social enterprise and community projects into G Adventures tours by the end of 2020. In 2019, we also launched partnerships with two well-established U.K. travel brands Travelsphere and Just You.

Everything was going great, we were on track with our plans when an unprecedented pandemic hit the world. We knew we needed a rapid response to be able to support our community partners, so our team rapidly deployed a needs assessment survey to have a better understanding of the situation. From this, we learned that a quarter of our partners were at risk of not being able to support their households and families with basic needs like nutritious food and healthcare. 

Planeterra immediately began fundraising to support emergency relief grants by launching the Turn Travel into Impact from Home campaign one week after the worldwide shutdown, making us one of the first in our industry to respond to the crisis. 

We also learned that our community partners really wanted ongoing support in business planning, marketing, and partnership development and saw the opportunity to take everything we had learned in the last 15 years of developing community tourism enterprises and create an online space to provide them with all the training resources they need to thrive in the tourism sector. We named it the Learning Hub.

Planeterra’s Turn Travel Into Impact from Home campaign was selected out of over 250 applicants for the World Travel Market Responsible Tourism Award, which recognized our work supporting our community partners during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on the sustainability and longevity of our Learning Hub. The Family Travel Association also recognized our work with communities not only in 2020 and during the pandemic, but every year.

In June of 2020, Planeterra was awarded a grant from the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) for a project focusing on increasing domestic demand for handicrafts made by local artisans from our partners at the Sthree Craft Shop & Café in Kandy, Sri Lanka. This project has equipped 110 women entrepreneurs and 23 employees from the Women’s Development Centre in Sri Lanka with increased knowledge of business management, improved handicraft skills, and a better understanding of domestic market channels and trends. 

2020 also marked the start of one of our main annual fundraising events, the Planeterra Trek Challenge. In this first edition, more than 550 participants set off to symbolically trek to Everest Base Camp, walking the 85,000 steps around their neighbourhoods in more than 30 countries, while raising over CAD 100,000 for Planeterra’s work.

In 2021, another major turning point for Planeterra occurred as we publicly launched the Global Community Tourism Network (GCTN) sharing what we have learned throughout these years about community tourism with a broader audience. This includes NGOs, social enterprises, community-owned enterprises or associations, cooperatives, and small micro-enterprises that have social and/or environmental goals.

Also in 2021, we launched a ground-breaking partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network. Through a project supported by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), we worked together to demonstrate how community tourism can uplift the livelihoods of communities living in and around protected areas and thereby leading to more effective biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. 

In 2022, we launched the Global Community Tourism Fund, a grant program that supports the growth and recovery of community tourism enterprises within the GCTN through small grants and mentorship. Read more about the fund and its recipients, here.

To date, Planeterra has worked with over 450 communities in 78 countries, impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

Looking to the future, Planeterra’s ambitious vision is to achieve the following goals by 2030:

50 million travellers experiencing community tourism.

A cumulative $1 billion worth of income reaching communities.

  3.5 million lives improved.

We are excited to see what the next 20 years will bring! 

community projects planeterra has supported

Discover the community tourism projects Planeterra has supported over the years.