Kurt Kutay established Wildland Adventures, an award-winning ecotourism business, only two years after graduating from SNRE. “Starting Wildland Adventures was an opportunity to continue my commitment to wilderness conservation and academic training in wildland management by creating a company dedicated to saving the world’s wild places,” says Kutay.  Costa Rica became the company’s first destination.  The 30-year-old venture now offers 150 trips on six continents in a single year.

Ecotourism is a sector of tourism that exposes participants to unique natural areas and cultures while simultaneously contributing to conservation and economic development in communities frequented by tourists.  Unfortunately, tourism to wild places done poorly can result in environmental degradation and little economic benefit for locals.  Kutay has long been recognized as an industry pioneer in the ecotourism sector because he actively strives to ensure that Wildland Adventures’ programs authentically engage with and give back to local communities and their surrounding landscapes.

The company employs mostly local guides, and Kutay founded the Travelers Conservation Trust in 1986 to channel donations into sustainability projects and community development initiatives in the regions visited by Wildland Adventures expeditions.  Among other projects, trip participants have helped clean up the Inca Trail in Peru and build schools in Africa.

One example of Kutay’s groundbreaking work is his collaboration with the Maasai of Kenya.  Early in the establishment of safaris to Kenya, Kutay partnered with a Maasai leader who was living in exile in the U.S. for his outspoken stance protecting land rights of his people, particularly around the heavily touristic Maasai Mara Game Reserve. Together, they set out to offer more authentic cross-cultural experiences that benefited communities who were being exploited by mass safari tourism and kicked off their lands by commercial interests. “Working closely with local communities, we designed a model of community-based safari tourism that acknowledged the land rights of the Maasai and their ancient role as protectors of the wildlife,” Kutay recounts.

It is these kinds of interactions that mark Kutay as a trailblazer of sustainable, equitable ecotourism.  “The only way to show the world how the tourism industry could be a powerful force for conservation and rural economic development was to involve local communities so they benefited directly from protecting the wildlands we visited,” Kutay reflects.  “They then became the guardians of the wildlife.”