WWF Conservation Travel

• Client: World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
• Partners: The Conservation Travel Program (CTP)
• Project Duration: August 2015 – January 2016

Project Overview

Solimar was contracted to provide the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Conservation Travel Program (CTP) with in-depth analysis and reporting of the selected countries and respective WWF offices based on the draft Conservation Tourism (CT) Scorecard and consultations with key stakeholders. The Conservation Travel Program (CTP) builds upon WWF’s 24-year track record working with Namibia’s government, communities, and the travel industry. This program has demonstrated how sustainable travel can make wildlife worth more alive than dead and wild lands more valuable intact than degraded. WWF now seeks to harvest the lessons learned from WWF’s Namibia team, and apply these to other countries.

With the CT Scorecard, Solimar worked with WWF’s program staff in Bhutan, Nepal, and Peru to assess the viability of employing conservation travel to accelerate WWF’s short and long-term conservation objectives. The project also assessed conservation travel’s strengths and weaknesses in each destination; ascertained the readiness for engaging with the Adventure Travel supply chain; and developed country-specific implementation steps for all stakeholders to create meaningful tourism-based financial incentives to conserve and enhance biodiversity, provide high quality visitor experiences, and substantive community benefits.

A rapid assessment of the three countries helped WWF prioritize areas in which to focus their efforts and resources in the future. With the information gathered, WWF will develop a robust strategy to help the selected regions achieve their conservation goals as well as inform how WWF can use its private sector engagement acumen to harness the travel industry’s clients, financial flows, and engagement opportunities for its mission.

Major Activities

• Refined the CT Scorecard and reporting mechanism, compiled a draft list of partners and key stakeholders, and researched country trends, industry trends and market analysis.
• Extensive in-country assessments in Bhutan, Nepal and Peru to engage with WWF offices and staff members as well as other key stakeholders.
• Production of written and graphically compelling, country-specific assessments and recommendations for how tourism can be utilized to achieve local conservation objectives
• These assessments culminated in an in-person workshop in Washington, DC to facilitate peer review of the scorecard assessments, finalize the in-country strategies, determine necessary funding requirements, and galvanize WWF leaders and stakeholders to recognize the value of the strategy and commit to next stage development

Results

• A user-friendly, accessible way for stakeholders to quickly comprehend and apply lessons learned from the consultancy through a CT Scorecard Assessment for each country including scorecard results and recommendations
• Written Rapid Assessment Reports for each country complete with the scorecard excel files, graphics illustrating the workflow and enabling conditions. This report will serve to recommend potential Conservation Travel strategies and investments within each destination
• Identification of how Conservation Travel will accelerate WWF’s country-specific goals, especially in local communities, in WWF project locations
• An in-person Conservation Travel Workshop in Washington, DC to present the findings and further investment strategies