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Home > Destinations > Central
America > Belize
> Giving Back
A non-profit organization through which travelers can support conservation and
help indigenous people at a local level worldwide.
The Travelers Conservation Trust (TCT) was established in 1986 as a nonprofit,
affiliate organization of Wildland Adventures, Inc. on the basis that culturally
and environmentally sensitive tourism is a powerful force for conservation
and community development. The TCT identifies means by which Wildland Adventures
and our travelers can support local, small-scale projects that protect the
environment and help local communities. By inviting our travelers to be more
sensitive and conscientious guests, TCT provides an alternative to exploitative
and destructive elements of conventional tourism. This link between travel
and conservation enhances your travel experience and allows authentic cultural
encounters through learning, sharing and making a contribution. Travel to remote, unspoiled areas presents
an opportunity to assist and encourage
conservation and community development
at a local level. For over a decade, Wildland
Adventures travelers to Belize have become
our partners, in cooperation with the New
York Botanical Garden and National Cancer
Institute, in supporting rain forest conservation,
research, education, and applied use of
medicinal plants by the Ix
Chel Tropical Research Foundation. Ix Chel is a Belizean
community-based organization devoted to
rain forest conservation, researching new
medical uses of rain forest plants, fostering
ethno-botanical studies, preserving and
teaching traditional Maya healing practices
utilizing the rain forest pharmacopoeia.
Our contributions have directly supported
the Traditional Healer’s Foundation
providing basic needs for Maya elders and
support for Ix Chel’s ongoing projects
and programs:
The Belize Ethnobotany Project
In conjunction with the New York Botanical
Garden and the Institute of Economic
Botany, the Ix Chel Foundation is researching
traditional and potential new medical
benefits from rain forest plants.
Education
Belizean school children are invited to
visit Ix Chel Farm and conduct fieldwork
with the staff, learning about the usefulness
and conservation of the rain forest in
their country.
Terra Nova Preserve
The Traditional Healers Foundation of Belize
and Ix Chel has managed this 3000-acre
primary rain forest reserve to teach
young people about medicinal plants and
as a refuge for medicinal plant seedlings
rescued from areas of rain forest destruction.
Message from former Director, Dr Rosita
Avrigo:
“Your contributions have been
used in a very grassroots fashion. We
are all
in awe of the generosity of Wildland Adventures
and its travelers who remember us year
after year. Many of the healers cannot
write or read, but they send their deepest
and heartfelt thanks and gratitude to you
all.”
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