Supported by Rewilding Europe, nature-based tourism company Wildlife Adventures has grown spectacularly over the last nine years, with burgeoning benefits for nature and communities in Italy’s Central Apennines. Such support can help similar European businesses follow in the company’s footsteps.
Nature for people
At Rewilding Europe we recognise that rewilding can and should offer a wide range of economic benefits and are fully committed to scaling up their delivery. We want to show that the recovery of nature – particularly in areas suffering from economic stagnation, rural depopulation and land abandonment – can drive economic development, generating new business opportunities, jobs, and income for local communities.
As a specialist financing division of Rewilding Europe, Rewilding Europe Capital provides commercial loans and repayable grants to businesses located in and around our rewilding landscapes. The overall goal is to amplify rewilding impact, support the development of nature-based economies, and pilot new ways of doing new business that are good for nature and good for people.
A Rewilding Europe Capital showcase
The case of Wildlife Adventures – a hiking, trekking, and wildlife watching company based in the town of Pescasseroli, in the Central Apennines rewilding landscape in Italy – is the perfect example of how Rewilding Europe’s enterprise support can help nature-based businesses to thrive.
Wildlife Adventures has received three loans totalling around 60,000 euros from Rewilding Europe capital, which are now fully paid up. These helped the company set up a website and convert a high-altitude shepherd’s hut into a unique accommodation on the edge of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park. The Rewilding Europe Capital team has also provided business development advice.
“The support provided to Wildlife Adventures by Rewilding Europe Capital has had a really positive impact,” says Daniel Veríssimo, Rewilding Europe’s Conservation Finance Expert. “The loans have helped the business grow and it is now one of the biggest and most well-known nature-based tourism operators in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park. This growth is amplifying the benefits the company delivers to nature and people too.”
The pathway to success
Wildlife Adventures now manages more than 2,000 tourists every year. As a certified tour operator, the company offers multi-day experiences and has just opened another mountain cabin. It has also launched mountain bike and e-bike tours and rentals.
In addition to the support provided by Rewilding Europe Capital, the entrepreneurial spirit and ambition of Wildlife Adventures founder Umberto Esposito has also been key to this growth.
“It has always been a great ambition of mine to show that it is possible to do business in the nature-based tourism sector,” says Umberto. “This sector is often considered disadvantaged, but in fact it offers enormous potential, both on the economic side of things, and also in terms of enhancing human well-being.
“Behind every one of our successful initiatives there is a great passion for nature guiding and promoting nature and nature recovery. Our collaboration with Rewilding Europe has taught us to aim high and look beyond Italian borders. To create offerings that integrate the highest standards of customer care, and to encourage the local companies we work with to do the same.”
A productive partnership
Wildlife Adventures enjoys a close partnership with the Rewilding Apennines team, and benefits indirectly from rewilding efforts, which support nature recovery in the landscape. The team are currently developing a network of large-scale wildlife corridors, designed to enhance local populations of Marsican brown bears and other wildlife.
Wildlife Adventures has just opened a cafe in one of these wildlife corridors, and is increasing the number of experiences it offers in this location. Next spring the company is aiming to open a tented fly camp here, possibly supported by a new loan from Rewilding Europe Capital. Rewilding Europe also uses the services offered by Wildlife Adventures on a regular basis when it takes donors to the Central Apennines, and when other Rewilding Europe employees visit the area on work trips. Umberto Esposito, the founder of Wildlife Adventures, took part in Rewilding Europe’s Rewilding Training Tourism programme, which worked to professionalise and scale up nature-based tourism across Europe.
Beneficial impact on nature
Wildlife Adventures donates 5% of its profits from bear-watching tours to Italian NGO Salviamo l’Orso – a partner of Rewilding Apennines working to conserve and enhance the population of Marsican brown bears living in the Central Apennines. A percentage from other tours goes to the Bear Fund, which is managed by the Rewilding Apennines team. The fund works to support and finance actions to protect Marsican brown bears and promote rewilding.
“We always communicate the importance and benefits of rewilding and human-wildlife coexistence to all our clients,” says Umberto Esposito. “It has been fantastic to have the support of an organisation that understands the benefits that can come from nature-based activities, and we are more than happy to give back to nature, because we rely on it for our business.”
Supporting local communities
Most people who engage the services offered by Wildlife Adventures also use local accommodation and restaurants, which means the growth of the company is delivering growing socio-economic benefits to local communities. The company employs four people as guides throughout the year, while another ten people are involved on a seasonal basis.
Valeria Roselli has worked as a full-time guide for Wildlife Adventures since 2013.
“I was born in and grew up in Pescasseroli,” she explains. “I walked in the mountains around the town with my family from an early age, which gave me a passion and respect for the wild. To have the opportunity to work for Wildlife Adventures and stay and work in the place I grew up was a dream come true. I love being able to share my deep connection with this area and its nature, and the importance of protecting and enhancing it.”
Be the next Wildlife Adventures
Could your nature-based business follow in the footsteps of Wildlife Adventures? The Rewilding Europe Capital team are looking to invest in both new and existing enterprises that can enhance rewilding’s beneficial impact for nature and people – just as Wildlife Adventures has done in the Central Apennines.
“I would love to replicate the story of Wildlife Adventures in other rewilding landscapes, such as the Southern Carpathians in Romania, or the Iberian Highlands in Spain,” says Daniel Veríssimo. “With rewilding efforts supporting nature recovery and wildlife comeback in these landscapes, there are burgeoning opportunities for nature-based businesses to take advantage of. With the support of Rewilding Europe Capital, these businesses can grow and benefit nature and local communities in the same way that Wildlife Adventures has.”
“I would absolutely recommend that other nature-based businesses take advantage of the support provided by Rewilding Europe Capital,” adds Umberto Esposito. “The loans we received empowered our business at just the right time, and were far easier to access and more preferential than loans from a bank.”
If you own or know of a business that you believe would benefit from a partnership with Rewilding Europe Capital, or if you’d like further information, please contact Daniel Veríssimo.