Save the Planet at These Luxury Resorts with a Purpose

Save sharks, rhinos, leopards, and turtles at these eco-friendly luxury resorts and safari camps.

Originally published: RobbReport.com

June 14, 2017

Thomas Jefferson believed that closeness to the land is essential to virtuous citizenry. For those who share in this sentiment, there are thousands of ways to get involved, even in the lap of luxury. Of course, resorts, cruises, and safari camps have been teaming up with leading conservation groups for years—but only a few allow guests to roll up their sleeves and get involved in the action. The following properties go beyond monetary donations and educational lectures, offering rare opportunities to get close to the land—and the sea—and truly make a difference.

1. Save the Rhinos

The safari experts at andBeyond have been arranging once-in-a-lifetime wildlife encounters for high-end travelers for the past 26 years. The outfitter has also successfully helped to replenish endangered species around the world, from the gaur of India’s Bandhavgarh National Park to the Aders’ duiker of Tanzania.

Standing out among andBeyond’s conservation efforts, however, is its Rhinos Without Borders project. While staying at andBeyond’s Phinda Homestead, Ngala Safari Lodge, or any of its Phinda Private Game Reserve or Kruger National Park properties, guests can help monitor the health of both black and white rhinos, protecting them from poachers via land and helicopter expeditions. Participants can also help stop the population decline—in the past decade alone more than 7,000 African rhinos have been lost to poaching—by helping locate and dart rhinos alongside a team of veterinarians and conservationists. While the endangered giants are sedated, guests can help notch a rhino’s ear with a unique  marking, take horn shavings and skin samples for DNA analysis, and microchip both the horn and the rhino’s body for security purposes.

2. Save the Coral Reefs

According to the World Wildlife Fund, 27 percent of the world’s coral reefs have already been lost to climate change and pollution. If the current rates of destruction continue, 60 percent of the world’s coral reefs will be destroyed over the next 30 years. Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru is working to prevent this with its Reefscapers Program. While staying in one of the resort’s 103 overwater and beach villas, guests can help marine biologists build coral frames at the resort’s state-of-the-art Marine Discovery Center. The center also features a refurbished aquarium, a clownfish breeding program, expeditions with the Manta Trust conservation organization, and a rescue center for injured green turtles. PADI-certified guests can also dive with the scientists to help install underwater frames and attach new strains of pocillopora verrucosa—chosen specifically for its resilience to rising ocean temperatures. So far, Landaa Giraavaru scientists and guests have installed more than 3,000 coral frames in the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, Cambodia’s Song Saa Private Island is doing its part by assisting the country’s first marine reserve and supporting coral conservation efforts. Although guests cannot actively farm the coral themselves, they can snorkel or scuba-dive through the resort’s sprawling man-made coral reefs with a marine guide, assisting in underwater clean-ups and auditing the surrounding coral and marine life. Back above water, guests can partake in other Journey of Change programs, such as kayaking through the mangrove forest of the adjacent island Koh Rong (where they can audit red, black, and white mangroves, as well as shrimp, needle fish, and Oriental pied hornbills) and visit the neighboring island of Prek Svay to help local conservation teams implement clean water initiatives.

3. Save the Leopards

Merrill J. Fernando—the Dilmah tea tycoon behind the luxurious Resplendent Ceylon hotel brand—has been one of Sri Lanka’s biggest philanthropists for decades. Now, the 87-year-old hotelier is hoping to engage his guests through a partnership with the Wilderness & Wildlife Conservation Trust that aims to teach local communities about the leopards in order to reduce fear and avoid conflict, while also reducing unnecessary interactions between humans and leopards. Guests can join Fernando’s mission with a stay at his five-bungalow resort Ceylon Tea Trails, set on a working tea plantation. There, they can accompany a team of conservationists as they monitor resident leopard behavior via remote cameras and collect scat for diet analysis. Guests can also join naturalist Anuradha Ediriweera on a night hike to audit other nocturnal species, such as rusty-spotted cats, wild boar, and a variety of snakes.

4. Save the Sharks

Once a hunting lodge for wealthy Boston vacationers, the historic Chatham Bars Inn is today one of Cape Cod’s most luxurious summer retreat. This season, the charming turn-of-the-century resort is giving back to its pristine surroundings with its new Great White Shark Expedition, allowing guests to join the area’s only team of scientists currently conducting great white research. Participants, along with a member of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, can learn to identify the apex predators in their natural habitat while sailing aboard one of the resort’s research vessels. Participants may also have the opportunity to help tag individual sharks, allowing scientists to conserve the species and better understand their hunting and migrating patterns. Expeditions run twice daily on Mondays and Thursdays from July to late September, weather permitting.

5. Save the Turtles

It is estimated that each year only one in 1,000 hatchling turtles live to adulthood. The hatchlings that do manage to survive the dangerous journey from beach to sea are subject to overharvesting and bycatch threats—4,950 turtles are caught each year as bycatch in Indonesian longline vessels alone. There are many programs around the world attempting to give these beloved creatures a fighting chance, but Tanzania’s Thanda Island and Madagascar’s new Miavana Island Sanctuary are among the very best. Guests of Thanda’s 20-acre exclusive-use retreat can join the property’s conservation partner Sea Sense to protect turtle nests from mongoose and monitor lizards. Guests of Miavana, meanwhile, can do their part by counting hatchlings. The 14-villa eco-resort, which opens this month, is located near important nesting sites for four species of marine turtles, all of which have been affected by a spike in illegal poaching.

Further east in the Maldives, the Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa is joining the turtle-conservation effort with its Head Start program, focusing specifically on turtle hatchlings. The program is set to debut later this year and will nurture baby hawksbill turtles for 1 year before releasing them back into the wild. Guests of the resort can work alongside the program’s scientists, feeding the infant turtles and cleaning their tanks, ensuring they will be ready for the challenges of the open ocean.

6. Save the Elephants

Last year’s Great Elephant Census showed that 352,271 African savanna elephants currently live in 18 African countries—a decline of 30 percent from figures recorded 7 years ago. And although China is making moves to close its ivory markets by the end of 2017, there is still a lot of work to be done in order to create a sustainable elephant population. Travelers can do their part by joining the safari outfitter Ker & Downey on a volunteer journey with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Orphans’ Project. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, the orphanage has raised more than 150 infant elephants, ultimately reintegrating them back into the wild herds that live near the Tsavo and Athi rivers. While staying in Ker & Downey’s acclaimed partner camps, guests can make pre-opening visits to the elephant sanctuary to feed, bathe, and play with the baby pachyderms, as well as assist research staff in performing their daily duties.