If you seek to explore nature and not to exploit it, it is an act of connecting instead of consuming. When going into the wild for rest, recharge, or good times, all you can take from nature are impressions, inspiration, and happy memories. By giving you those, nature does not lose anything. All nature wants you to do is not to leave anything behind that it cannot process. Zero environmental footprint! The rest is just pure and green communication between the two of you!
But that is in a perfect world…
The Reality
The real world is much more about consuming from nature than connecting with it. This world is marked by the ecological footprint that individuals and entire countries leave on the face of our beautiful blue-green planet. Even more eye-opening is the fact that soon eco-friendly travelers will have to look hard to find a pristine environment untouched by anthropogenic activities.
The solution is pretty simple. Since people cannot stop affecting the natural environment, what would make a difference is the WAY in which we affect it.
A New Vision of the Relationship with Nature
If you are looking for a way to offset the devastating effects of consumption on the environment and restore the lost equilibrium in the human relationship with nature, you should try Nullker.
Nullker stands for a movement of progressive people and businesses united by the values of sustainable development. Their mission is to build a new world where everyone wins: people, companies, and nature.
The online fundraising platform of Nullker is a hub for environmental initiatives from all over the world. Local and global. With ambitious long-term goals and small near-future targets. Ranging from tree-planting to waste management.
The Restoration Efforts
When using the natural resources in the acts of consumption, we need to always try to give back in order to reach and maintain what Nullker calls the “zero balance” between the economy and ecology. Therefore, supporting environmental initiatives that restore, reforest, and rewild our world is a perfect solution – the most natural one, in fact!
Here is a list of Environmental Initiatives from Nullker that sustainable travelers can support:
1. Habiba Community. The Community aims to revive the desert through organic farming, ecological knowledge, and human collaboration within a circular economy. Founded by a visionary entrepreneur Maged El Said and powered by a deeply ingrained love for Egypt, Habiba Community embodies a fusion of three elements. The organic farm complexes test regenerative growing techniques and provide local bio-produce. A splendid beachfront lodge overlooking the gulf of Aqaba offers its visitors rest for body and mind. A learning center helps bring up young green minds. Habiba Community is a safe haven for people who appreciate agritourism and seek to experience the authenticity of the indigenous lifestyle that is being preserved and cultivated here.
2. Ecosystem Restoration Communities. ERC is a global movement reversing environmental degradation in over 30 countries across 6 continents. ERC views tree planting as the first stepping stone on the way to a more holistic effort in restoring degraded ecosystems from the ground up, starting with the soil and ending with biodiversity. Almost 3/4 of our planet’s land is degraded, and more than 3 billion people are affected by soil erosion. The rate of biodiversity loss is beating the dinosaur extinction rate by 1000! That is why ERC and Nullker invite people to become Earth Restorers!
3. REEFolution. Coral reefs are among the top attractions for divers. However, due to climate change and pollution, almost all corals may disappear by 2050, becoming a mere memory for our generation of reef divers. With 50% of coral reefs already lost and 80% of the living corals being threatened, REEFolution strives to save the world’s most diverse underwater ecosystems. REEF Rangers actively restore coral reefs using a variety of different science-based methods. Coral reef restoration involves coral gardening, artificial reef placement, coral fragment outplanting onto artificial reefs, and establishing marine protected areas. If you are an admirer of the underwater world, you have a real chance to save it for yourself and future generations!
Concluding Green Thoughts
In order to be able to enjoy nature, we need to preserve it! During our daily strolls in a city park or getaway vacations in pristine mountain forests somewhere at the edge of the world, we take pleasure in the contact with nature. Nature has given us so much already that we need to learn to take less or compensate for what’s already taken.
The last thing one wants is spending the next weekend in a tent set amidst the stumps of a cut-down millennial forest with the view of a smoke-belching factory somewhere in the distance… Or having a diving experience only to see a field of bleached deserted corals… Similarly, when exploring a faraway exotic land, we want to feel its indigenous spirit and unique culture, which implies the latter need to be preserved.
Tourism is a way to connect with nature, and restoration effort is a way to preserve it!
