Bodhi Tree Foundation’s Goal of Sustainable Tourism
Over the past year, two new foundations focused on sustainable tourism have been formed. While in theory, this is great news for those of us who promote and believe in responsible, sustainable, socially-conscious, whatever you want to call it-tourism, there is also cause for slight concern.
The Bodhi Tree Foundation was founded by Jena Gardner, founder of JG Black Book of Travel, a consulting firm that “provides expert marketing, promotion and sales services to the world’s finest travel providers.” JG Black Book of Travel prides itself on working with only the top travel companies in the world, including various hotels, resorts, villas, tour operators, cruises and yachts, although “top” is not defined here. Gardner appears to be a highly successful businesswoman, with a background in luxury hotel management and a winner of various marketing and sales awards.
The Foundation is “dedicated to mobilizing travelers and the tourism industry to support underserved communities and endangered places, saving them for future generations to experience.”
The board and advisory positions are overwhelmingly filled with representatives of luxury hotels, resorts, and others that may or may not be in the sustainable tourism business. While we’re sure these folks are smart as a whip, business savvy, and probably connected to potential donors, we are not convinced they are the best people for a foundation dedicated to the conservation of underserved communities and endangered places. (To the foundation’s credit, its leadership can also boast Costas Christ of Conservation International and Brian Mullis of Sustainable Travel International, among a very few other non-business types.)
Look, anytime that someone with money decides to use it to form a foundation, it’s a good thing. (Well, save for the cra-zazies who want to do stuff like bring Glenn Beck on a tour to every elementary school in America.) So, overall we think the Bodhi Tree Foundation is a good idea. But we also think it could use a bigger injection of research, academia, and the input of people most affected by tourism, the host communities. These are some of our de-snarkified ideas to improve the design of this foundation:
- Rewrite the mission statement, leaving out the paternalistic “saving underserved communities and endangered places” and substituting something like “mobilize travelers, the tourism industry, and host communities to work together to ensure that endangered places and cultures are sustained for future generations.”
- Increase the number of conservationists, humanitarians, anthropologists (currently none as far as we can tell), and others of that ilk to be at least 50% of the executive board, leadership council, and advisory board.
- Include country or community leaders in sustainable tourism areas for the board and council positions.
- Form another (or replace one of the ones they already have) board or council called something like the Community Council, comprised of only activists who can speak for the host communities.
- Be upfront and transparent about how grantees are chosen. As of our last perusal of their website, the foundation has seemingly already given out grants but there’s no information on how grantees are chosen or the application or selection processes, save for the ambiguous “deserving charities are carefully vetted by The Bodhi Tree Foundation’s executive board.”
- Consider establishing a fellowship program for masters or PhD level students in relevant disciplines to use in their research on responsible and sustainable tourism and communities. Being connected to innovative research by young people is a great way for the foundation to make a unique name for itself.
The other foundation that has been in the news recently with spokesperson Usain Bolt, is the Zeitz Foundation, which we will discuss in a soon-to-be-published post. Stay tuned!
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I am truly impressed by all of the rising eco-tourism foundations! I feel as though a new foundation is established every week. I am happy to see that the word is spreading and the power of eco-tourism is being recognized. We have actually started a eco-tourism foundation ourselves, the Hills of Africa Foundation. We have joined with other foundations in Africa to help increase eco-tourism efforts and build a more socially, economically, and environmentally responsible Africa.
These trees are truly spectacular. There are quite a few here in the Dominican Republic, I recently placed a family from Australia into a villa with a Bodhi tree in the front yard. Very beautiful, they feel very lucky.
Thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful piece on The Bodhi Tree Foundation. Having just launched in earnest last October, we are proud and energized by what we have been able to accomplish in that time. Still, as your post suggests, there is more that can and will be done to strengthen our organization as we grow over the coming months and years.
We are currently working with eight non-profits, offering support to their humanitarian, conservation and cultural heritage preservation initiatives. Many of these organizations have been working for decades in the areas they serve, actively engaging community members in their work. Through the generosity of our donors we’ve been able to fund projects that range from supporting critical eastern black rhino conservation efforts in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area of Tanzania to helping rebuild a school destroyed in the January earthquake in Haiti.
The Bodhi Tree Foundation was built on the idea that great change begins with small steps, that when united, simple actions can have a profound impact. The work of creating a better world does not rest on the shoulders of academics and activists alone. I believe deeply that businesses and business leaders must play a role in meeting the challenges of our time. That is why we chose to reach out to leaders within the travel and tourism industry to join us in this endeavor, to inspire change within their organizations and among their networks.
I agree that as we move forward we should engage more researchers and community leaders and reaching out to these constituencies is a natural step in the evolution of a non-profit like ours. We are already in the midst of talks with a number of universities about collaborative research opportunities so I think your thoughts on this point are particularly prescient.
I have shared your post with The Bodhi Tree Foundation’s Board of Directors and we will be discussing some of your suggestions at our next meeting. I hope that moving forward we can continue this constructive dialogue.
Jenna - thanks so much for writing about your upcoming plans. Please keep us posted on your organization - as you know, we very much appreciate the effort!
Today is the Buddha Purnima and the significance of this tree is the highest today