Background

EplerWood International was launched in January 2003, by Megan Epler Wood, founder and past president of The International Ecotourism Society, to advise private business, government, international development projects, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions on the development of sustainable tourism and ecotourism in developing countries.

EplerWood International provides market-based approaches to sustainable tourism development in response to a rising global demand for sustainable tourism projects that would meet economic development needs.

Tools

The firm provides market research, business plans, financial and investment plans, and other economic and social entrepreneurship tools to help countries or destinations build the capacity they need to deliver sustainable and ecotourism professionally. EplerWood International oversees the development of sustainable tourism as a tool to economically benefit underserved rural populations and as a means to support the conservation of protected areas and biodiversity. The firm is well versed in developing sustainable tourism strategies on a national and regional basis. Our work in countries from Cambodia to Honduras to Sierra Leone has consistently leveraged the practical approaches and concrete outcomes donors and local leaders have been searching for.

Partnerships

EplerWood International knows the NGO world very well and can deliver partnerships that help eliminate the barriers between conservation goals and business success. We have played a transformative role by stressing partnerships between NGO projects and local private sector players, and this has led to the growth of local supply chains that can continue to thrive in the long-term without donor assistance.

The firm has established a solid network of experienced consultants working in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and can rapidly deploy teams with business experience to develop projects with outcomes that are based on solid evaluation of local needs and a cut-to-the-chase strategic analysis of how to build local sustainable tourism economies.

EplerWood International's ecotourism, adventure travel and mainstream leisure business network is readily mobilized to help local partners strategically reach international markets.

The firm also has excellent contact with the tourism media and a track record of bringing targeted media coverage to projects as required by the client.

Bio

Megan Epler Wood founded The International Ecotourism Society in 1990, the first and largest ecotourism NGO in the world and was its president for 12 years. Under her leadership, TIES developed a membership program in over 100 countries, publications, workshops and stakeholder meetings that reached tens of thousands, and an international communications program that reached millions.

Since 2003, Megan's firm EplerWood International has worked for the World Bank to develop sustainable tourism strategies for some of the poorest nations in the world, and for USAID - developing market-based ecotourism programs in biodiverse regions of Sri Lanka, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Epler Wood has been a keynote speaker at events in over a dozen countries. She has lectured at Harvard, Duke, Columbia Business School, and the International Centre for Responsible Tourism at Leeds Metropolitan University in the U.K. She was the lead ecotourism lecturer at George Washington University from 1995-2000.

In the early 1980s, Epler Wood worked for the communications office of World Wildlife Fund-U.S. drawing attention to ground-breaking initiatives in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Subsequently, she worked as an independent television producer for the National Audubon Society, World Wildlife Fund-U.S., and the National Geographic Society. Her film, The Environmental Tourist, broadcast by the Turner Broadcasting Corporation and PBS in 1991, was the first major television documentary on ecotourism.

Epler Wood is a published author and editor of many titles, including Ecotourism; Principles, Practices and Policies in 2002 for the United Nations Environment Program. Her numerous academic papers investigate sustainable tourism markets, certification, economic growth, alleviation of poverty and environmental conservation.

In 2006, Epler Wood founded NativeEnergy Travel Offsets with her business partner, Richard G. Edwards, as a subsidiary of NativeEnergy, a firm that provides carbon offsets using wind and other renewable energy sources. Dynamic growth in the marketplace and growing investment interest led NativeEnergy Travel Offsets to merge with its parent company NativeEnergy in May 2008 to create one dynamic firm. Epler Wood and Edwards are now Senior Advisors for Travel Industry Relations for NativeEnergy.