After a significant break due to Covid-19, in summer 2022, it should be possible again to visit and experience our LT&C-Example Svalbard. Our partner and founding member, Oceanwide Expeditions, recommends, in particular, their tour OTL05, where besides experiencing Arctic wildlife and various activities also cleaning the shores is included. They offer this expedition for LT&C members for a 20% reduced price. In this early summertime, it is an excellent opportunity to observe beside the sea mammals the many arriving and displaying seabirds, explore the west coast of Spitsbergen, reach the pack ice and learn why Svalbard ranks as an LT&C-Example. If you join this tour, we expect that this will not only be your once-in-a-lifetime wildlife- and wilderness experience but that you return as an ambassador for protecting the wild nature of the Arctic and engage in nature protection where you live or travel to.
The study tour will be performed by emperor penguin member and co-founder of LT&C, Oceanwide Expeditions (OE), with their expedition vessel M/V Ortelius. You find the detailed itinerary for this voyage on their website.
It is the core of LT&C’s mission to describe, profile and promote so-called LT&C Examples, where the cooperation between conservation and tourism has led to the establishment of protected areas or the support and improvement of their management. In this context, visits to these unique areas are a way to make those examples better known, learn from them and create incentives and tools to replicate or boost them. To safeguard our earth’s biodiversity, it is seen as crucial to protect by 2030 at least 30% of the global land and sea area with their different ecosystems and habitats. To reach this so-called “30×30 Goal“, tourism can and must play an essential role. Increasing those cases where tourism supports the establishment or further development of protected nature areas is critical to reaching this global goal. You can involve yourself by combining your wish to explore exciting nature areas with the visit, support and promotion of such LT&C Examples.
Several study tours to the Arctic and Antarctica have been conducted in recent years, where the LT&C concept was presented on site. Our Dutch tour-operating partner and LT&C member, OE, has a long history of cooperating with various conservation organisations and supporting protected area projects. Suppose you can’t choose the above-described tour (HDS05), as an LT&C member, you can also benefit from Oceanwide’s general offer to get a 10% discount on booking any other tour to the Arctic or Antarctic LT&C-Examples described on their website.
If you are interested in the Arctic study tour OTL05 or any other Arctic or Antarctic tour of OE, you only need to express your interest to us and let us forward your name and contact to the tour operator. You then will be contacted by OE, who will make the booking with you. The official prices of Oceanwide Expeditions you find on their website. LT&C-members can get a discount of 20% on OTL05 (or 10% on other tours). Still, we expect you to compensate your climate footprint by supporting concrete and certified projects with benefits for both climate and biodiversity. You can also offset your entire personal climate gas emissions of the year by using the calculator of our member Southpole.
You just need to let us know your interest. You are very welcome to spread the information to others you know that may be interested in experiencing pristine high Arctic nature and learn how tourism can support nature conservation.
If you are interested…
