Sophia Wood is passionate about wildlife conservation and harnessing the power of technology to empower communities to conserve and sustainably manage their land. She is the CEO of Friends of Wallacea, a for-profit eco-tourism company that partners with rural and indigenous communities to develop wildlife tourism and incentivize the conservation of global biodiversity hotspots. She is also a member of the Amazon Investor Coalition, a Venture Partner with Magma Partners, and the Ecuador Country Manager of Operation Wallacea where she is responsible for overseeing every aspect of the logistics, operations, and management of the Operation Wallacea Ecuador site.

Sophia joins me today to share her passion for conserving the wildlife and Amazon rainforest. We discuss how she launched her tourism business mere weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm and the challenges she faced along the way. She shares how working in the Amazon rainforest has helped her learn to become comfortable with the unknown, what regenerative tourism is, and why the motto: “Leave it better than you came” is the driving force behind Friends of Wallacea. She also explains how she discovered the Amazon Investor Coalition and how they are helping investors, philanthropists, governments, and nonprofits connect and collaborate to ‘ensure the forest is worth more standing than cut down.’

“The idea behind ‘regenerative tourism’ is that not only is it sustainable, but regenerate is to leave it better than you came.” – Sophia Wood

This week on Shift-Starters:

• Asking for what you want versus asking for what you think you can get
• How Sophia launched her tourism business shortly before the COVID pandemic struck and the challenges she faced along the way
• Why Sophia loves working in the Amazon rainforest for 3 months every year, despite the rainy weather, and how it has helped her learn to be comfortable with the unknown
• What ecotourism is and the mission of Friends of Wallacea
• How Friends of Wallacea’s tourism operations helps indigenous communities while promoting wildlife conservation and regeneration
• The role Sophia plays in the Amazon Investor Coalition
• The legacy Sophia hopes to leave behind

Connect with Sophia Wood:

• Friends of Wallacea
• Amazon Investor Coalition
• Book: The Woodpecker’s Red Head
• Friends of Wallacea on LinkedIn
• Friends of Wallacea on Instagram
• Friends of Wallacea on Facebook
• Friends of Wallacea on Twitter
• Sophia Wood on Medium
• Sophia Wood on LinkedIn
• Sophia Wood on Twitter

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