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That鈥檚 how Rwandan cyclist spent his Thursday morning, crossing the line a few hours before the Tour de France peloton.

Niyonshuti鈥檚 ride was uncomfortable, but he鈥檚 overcome much more in his life. After he survived the horrors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide鈥攕ix of his brothers were not so fortunate鈥擭iyonshuti discovered cycling at the age of 16. He was one of the original members of , the cycling project launched in 2007 by Americans Tom Ritchey and Jonathan 鈥淛ock鈥� Boyer, which aimed to create a national racing team to inspire more Rwandans to ride.

By 2009, Niyonshuti鈥檚 talent had attracted the attention of the MTN Cycling team, with which he became the first Rwandan professional cyclist. In 2012, he was the flag bearer for Rwanda at the London Olympics, riding in the mountain bike event, and returned to the Olympics four years later in Rio, this time on the road. After retiring at the end of the 2017 season, Niyonshuti has transitioned gracefully into a career as an ambassador for cycling in Africa, founding the Adrien Niyonshuti Cycling Academy in his hometown of Rwamagana and establishing the Continental level Skol Adrien Cycling Academy team.

He never achieved his dream of riding at the Tour de France, though, so today was an emotional one. On the steep slopes of Alpe d鈥橦uez, thronged with fans at each of the iconic hairpins, Niyonshuti slowly ground his way upward on the heavy bike with one speed. By contrast, most top-end racing bicycles weigh a paltry 15 pounds, and have 22 or so gears to choose from for the gradient.

鈥淪ome people were wondering who this guy was, where I came from,鈥� Niyonshuti told me at the summit with a wide smile on his face. 鈥淚 explained to them I was a two-time Olympian riding to support Qhubeka, and they were very happy about it. Each kid that grows up in Africa and knows cycling wants to go to the Tour. Everyone growing up is thinking about the Tour.鈥�

The ride is a fundraiser for the South African cycling charity, which provides bikes for people in Africa to improve access to educational and business opportunities. The Qhubeka bike is a toughly built single-speed with a steel frame and a big yellow rack at the back to carry goods鈥斺��15, 16 kilograms [35 pounds],鈥� Niyonshuti said, assessing it with his hands.

Niyonshuti understands from experience the impact that access to a bike can have for someone trying to get ahead in Africa鈥攈e鈥檚 been there before. 鈥淚 have seen for myself how they [Qhubeka] use bicycles to change lives.鈥�

With the sun beating down on us, Niyonshuti looked amazingly fresh as he told me about his cousin and nephew, who in 2012 had received a Qhubeka bike. That helped them complete their education: 鈥淭hey went to school, finished primary school and high school, and in the end they got encouragement to continue their cycling, and now they鈥檙e in France [ed. racing for a French team].

鈥淭he Qhubeka charity is something that can change education in Africa, and help African kids for their education. That鈥檚 the most important thing,鈥� Niyonshuti told me. 鈥淏ut maybe it can also change their dream to become a cyclist.鈥�

And so, today on Alpe d鈥橦uez one dream was realized and the seeds were planted for many more.

To find out more about the fundraising initiative, or to donate, visit听.

The post This Rwandan Cyclist Climbed l鈥橝lpe d鈥橦uez on a 40-Pound Single-Speed Bike appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Our little rubber Zodiac boat听wove around icebergs eight stories high and entered a fjord flanked by high mountain basins. Jagged peaks听called nunataks听rose 5,000 feet into the Arctic clouds, forming a skyline to rival any Patagonia silhouette. Our native east Greenland听guide, Julius Nielson, cut the motor and pointed to two fleeting spouts of water to our left. A humpback whale breached, her calf surfacing beside her a second later. Drifting beside their rhythmic rising, our small group was awed into silence.

But it was far from quiet on these northern waters. The explosive breath of the two creatures echoed against the intermittent thundering created by restless tidewater glaciers听and another sound: the soft crackling of thousand-year-old air bubbles streaming to the surface, released from icebergs broken off from the vast Greenland ice sheet.

I noticed tears falling down my cheeks. This place had staggered me.

I was boating through Sermilik Fjord as part of a trip with , a company that specializes in responsible adventure travel. Once a relatively obscure spot on the globe, Greenland has been making headlines lately for both trivial reasons () and consequential ones. Its听ice听sheet听is melting at an alarming rate. But those science-heavy climate-change stories often fail to convey the magnitude of this place. Even as someone who considers myself a conscious environmentalist鈥攈aving gotten a master鈥檚 degree in environmental studies and spent the past decade doing advocacy work鈥攖his in-person experience made me want to enact more serious change than any article or statistic has inspired.

So when I was sitting in the Reykjavik airport in Iceland on the way home and saw an article from pop听up in my feed about how the best thing we can all do to combat climate change is stop traveling, I couldn鈥檛 help but feel irked. It听was spurred in part by a recent that found that the environmental impact of tourism is responsible for 8听percent of global emissions听from transport, shopping, and food. (It should be noted that calculate air travel as only 2 to 2.5 percent of global emissions.) The piece was authored听by an established travel writer who鈥檚 already gotten to see the world, and it was essentially telling people that they should feel guilty for doing the same.听Frankly, it pissed me off.

Not only that, but it missed an important point. Travel is what opens our eyes to what鈥檚 at risk鈥攆rom fragile ecosystems and disappearing wildlife to warming oceans and people struggling鈥攁nd inspires听us to fight for it. Could seeing a place actually be worth the 8听percent of global emissions? Especially when that number, while not insignificant, seems diminutive next to the for our buildings and homes听or the . In fact, mounting studies show that tourism plays a big role in preservation of the natural world.

The research on how travel has a positive effect on conservation is still relatively new, and one of the most compelling ways to measure it quantitatively is through people鈥檚 willingness to pay to see and conserve our environment. 鈥淒ollar value is the best way to turn heads to show that nature is valuable,鈥� says Court Whelan, director of sustainability for Natural Habitat 国产吃瓜黑料s. A from the World Travel and听Tourism Council shows that wildlife tourism generates five times more revenue than illegal wildlife poaching worldwide. Thanks to tourism, an elephant is than dead; India鈥檚 tiger population has increased in major part because a single wild tiger is in tourism; and several experts agree that gorillas are right now because of tourism. Other similar studies abound for pandas, one-horned rhinos, wolves, polar bears, and other species at risk.

鈥淭here鈥檚 no amount of PowerPoints or David Attenborough specials or magazine articles that come even close to having a personal experience with the things we鈥檙e protecting,鈥澨齭ays James Sano, vice president of travel, tourism, and conservation for the听, which protects wildlife and vulnerable places and communities.听鈥淧eople can read about Glacier National Park, but that doesn鈥檛 hold a candle to someone actually going there.鈥� Those personal experiences, at destinations听like Glacier鈥攚hose namesakes are melting so fast that 听it will have to be renamed鈥攕pur new behaviors toward conservation, and the WWF has the data to prove it. 鈥淭ravelers contribute [money]听at significantly higher levels to our conservation work, on the order of 27 times more compared to those who don鈥檛 travel,鈥� Sano says about those registered with the company鈥檚 membership program.

Not only can travel help enact change on a personal level, but it can initiate change on听a federal level, too. Once governments see how many tourism dollars are going into their natural attractions, they often realize the economic viability in preserving them.听鈥淢any countries know that without natural resources and cultural resources, tourism doesn鈥檛 work,鈥� says Casey Hanisko, president of the , citing recent efforts in Jordan and Japan.听鈥淚n听Jordan, the development of the Jordan Trail as a tourism asset focused on adventure travel has听ensured that the land and communities around it are protected,鈥� says Hanisko. Meanwhile, in Japan, 鈥渨hile its cultural appreciation for nature makes it more naturally focused on preservation, with almost 30 percent of its lands protected, its aging population has made the country more focused on adventure-tourism development, to support a need to bring in international visitors to replace their declining domestic-tourism market.鈥�

In Greenland,听out on Sermilik as we followed in the ripples left behind by the whales, Natural Habitat鈥檚 Nielson told us that this fjord used to freeze solid in winter with sea ice, making a nearly seamless connection between his village of Tiniteqilaaq and the glaciers descending from the ice sheet across the channel. That ice sheet is听the second largest in the world, behind Antarctica, and accounts for the vast majority of the polar ice cap. It鈥檚 two miles thick at its center听and stretches 1,500 miles north to south, covering 80 percent of Greenland.

But Sermilik no longer freezes in winter, Nielson said. And this past summer, scientists measured unprecedented melt of the ice sheet while watching parts of its center . Most of the icebergs we threaded through broke from the Helheim Glacier, just north, which has been calving from its sister, the Midgard Glacier, that seals off the fjord to the east. Neilson relayed a conversation he had last week with a sailboat captain who has听long given tours to this isolated region and believes that in ten years the Midgard will be gone completely, that he鈥檒l be able to sail straight through the fjord to the ocean. Nielson thinks it鈥檚 more like seven years.

As we passed by these ancient pieces of ice devolving into sea, the low clouds muted everything to gray. After my eyes adjusted, I was struck by a kaleidoscope of color, with each layer of ice taking on a different shade. Then the clouds suddenly parted听and revealed a bright blue sky that put our surroundings into new focus.

Watching the clouds part, I was struck by a feeling of heartbreaking clarity, similar to that of understanding something fully for the first time. It鈥檚 this moment that Sam Ham, a professor of communication psychology at the University of Idaho, identifies as the transformative lynchpin. Ham, who has been studying environmental interpretation in tourism for nearly 20 years,听explains that it鈥檚 not just the act of travel that will lead to measurable transformation听but the interpretation of the experience.

Ham pioneered this concept when he consulted with adventure-cruise company in 1998 on its small-boat Gal谩pagos Islands program. In 1997, owner Sven Lindblad had a hunch that if the company asked its passengers to donate to local conservation efforts at the same time they were asked to tip the crew at the end of the journey, they鈥檇 jump at the chance. Lindblad raised $50,000 that year听but believed the sum听could have been听much higher. He brought in Ham, who designed a new approach that was all about helping clients interpret Charles Darwin and the animals听and connecting passengers to the environment. At no point were travelers asked to give, but donations to the 听increased by a staggering 270 percent the next year.

Upon returning home from our close-up with the impacts of climate change in Greenland, my fellow traveler听Kim Borovik听found herself imagining the flight path of an aging banana she bought in the tiny Tasiilaq grocery store while there, leading her to a habit of basing her produce purchases off the origin labels in her own supermarket. Another new friend from the trip, Linnet Tse, began conscious attempts to reduce food waste, which of global emissions,听by being more strategic with purchases and eating out less. As for me, I dove headfirst into the rabbit hole that is carbon offsetting. I鈥檇 never offset my travel before, but now I wanted to figure out how to do it for my upcoming flights听to Tanzania.

I found numerous companies that will calculate travel emissions and offer projects that travelers can invest in to offset their trips. I decided to use , a Swiss nonprofit that鈥檚 certified with strict third-party auditors like CDM, Gold Standard, and Plan Vivo. The website provides options for calculating individual parts of your trip, from a flight to a car ride, as well as听trip鈥檚 entire carbon footprint. Carbon emissions are measured in metric tons, so offsets are measured in equivalent reductions of metric tons, which are priced anywhere from . My flights from Missoula, Montana, to the Kilimanjaro airport via Amsterdam weighed in at 4.7 tons of CO2, which translates to a cost of $135, a shockingly small price to pay and in this case went to helping small farmers with reforestation in Nicaragua.听

The effectiveness of carbon offsetting has seen , which is why it鈥檚 crucial to choose projects with third-party certifications. But spending my money on programs听like reforestation, renewable energy, and听water-filtration systems for villages in developing countries, so that people don鈥檛 have to cut wood and burn it to sanitize drinking water, are all worthy add-ons in听an effort to be听a more conscious traveler in general, whether that means flying less or听more thoughtfully.

Not every travel experience will be transformative or lead to behavior change, and offsetting flights doesn鈥檛 give听us carte blanche to turn up the taps, but the answer is not to stop traveling altogether. In fact, nowadays, there are as many answers as there are innovative solutions. One of my answers is understanding the impact, both bad and good, of the trips we choose to take. When that understanding leads to concrete steps toward听investing in climate-change solutions, or when our valuing a place or species through tourism is a driving force in conserving it, then yes, travel is worth the carbon footprint.

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Dotted with farmers and goats, Rwanda鈥檚 only mountain bike track winds through the foothills of volcanoes and the backyard of the country鈥檚 famous gorillas. Just two-months old, the picturesque 6.5 kilometer听loop was specially built for the African continental championships Olympic qualifier, which opened Friday.听

鈥淲e need to make the world know about [our] cyclists,鈥� said Janvier Hadi, 24, one of Rwanda鈥檚 promising young riders. Veteran Jean de Dieu Uwimana agrees. Nicknamed 鈥淩afiki鈥�, or even 鈥楰iki鈥� for short, the thirty-six year old, says, 鈥淭his is our chance.鈥�

The elite men race Sunday and, at the end of six laps on the track, only the top two nations earn a spot for Rio next summer. Expectations for riders aren鈥檛 particularly high. After years of road racing, this will be the first mountain bike race for most of them. Nonetheless, the event marks Rwanda鈥檚 first major stab at the discipline and is yet another milestone in the cycling team鈥檚 already storied past.听

Over the last decade, Team Rwanda has slowly grown from a cohort of five to a squad of nearly two-dozen. Chronicled in the documentary , the unlikely group of former bicycle-taxi drivers and delivery men emerged against the backdrop of a genocide that left nearly a million here dead.

鈥淎fter 1994 peace was being restored and everyone started doing what they loved to do,鈥� said Abraham Ruhumuriza, who, like Rafiki, was a founding member of the team. At first that meant riding decades old single speed bikes with more than a few broken parts and entering ragtag local races. This didn鈥檛 begin to change until 2005, when pioneering American mountain bike designer Tom Ritchey took interest in Rwanda following a visit to the country. Soon after, he organized the 鈥榃ooden Bike Classic鈥� race in the western town of Kibuye.听

On hand was Ritchey鈥檚 longtime friend, Jonathan 鈥淛ock鈥� Boyer, who was first American to ride the Tour de France in 1981. A skeptical Boyer figured his trip to Rwanda would be a one-off thing. The prospects of developing a cycling program seemed improbable, at best. But, struck by the talent, Boyer moved to Rwanda in early 2007 to evaluate riders and assemble a team.听

鈥淲e weren't supposed to be here this long,鈥� he said, from the porch of the house where he now lives with his wife, two dogs and a cat. The three-month trip stretched into six, then a year, and now eight. With Boyer came an almost exclusive focus on road racing and astonishing growth. Team Rwanda is now an African stalwart with a roughly $400,000 per year budget and brand new headquarters.听

Completed last year, the 鈥楢frica Rising Cycling Center,鈥� is a little oasis of bungalows, bikes, and yoga classes just outside the northern city of Musanze. Plastered on the side of one building is a giant Turkish Airlines sponsor logo. Above the bikeshop the 鈥楾eam is Team鈥� motto. Rafiki鈥檚 son six year old son Jonathan鈥攏amed after 鈥楥oach Jock鈥欌�攔aces around the compound with a number 51 race bib hanging off the back seat of his forest green bike.听

The move into mountain biking is an evolution aimed as much at the team鈥檚 next generation as its last. Boyer jumped at the opportunity to host the African championships because he believes they can help jump-start a nascent tourism niche here. Gorilla viewing is currently the area鈥檚 top draw, but at $750 an hour it often only keeps visitors in town for an afternoon. Mountain bike tours, Boyer says, last much longer and could provide jobs鈥攕uch as guiding or hospitality services鈥攆or Rwanda鈥檚 growing number of 鈥榓ging out鈥� riders.

鈥淲e've already invested so much time, money and energy into [our riders],鈥� he explained. 听鈥淲e want to keep them onboard.鈥�

Of Team Rwanda鈥檚 original five, the two stars鈥擜drien Niyonshuti (now racing for a top-South Africa team) and Ruhumuriza鈥攁re still quite competitive. Others are winding down. Nathan Byukusenge, wants to become a cook and spends much of his free time in the kitchen or the team鈥檚 lush organic garden. Obed Ruvogera is training to become a soigneur, and recently spent five months in America learning about massage and yoga. Rafiki, who started cycling on a single speed bike back in 1998, retired two years ago and is now the team mechanic.

听鈥淪eventeen years is a long time, you know?鈥� he said, standing on the porch of the compound鈥檚 bike shop methodically lubricating chains, adjusting brakes and checking cables on the team鈥檚 stable of Scott mountain bikes. His son Jonathan looks on. 鈥淚'm happy to see these younger guys, and give them my experience.鈥�

Even for the young Rwandan riders though, the chances earning an Olympic berth this weekend are extremely slim. Not impossible鈥擭iyonshuti did it four years ago鈥攂ut, citing the strict qualification requirements, Boyer says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be hard.鈥� Regardless, he seems to put more of an emphasis on whether the championships further the off-track transformation he鈥檚 already seen in his riders.

鈥淸My first days on the team] were so crazy. I was very, very happy,鈥� said Janvier Hadi, the up and coming twenty four year old. The opportunity to ride alongside his childhood heroes also came with a base salary of $100 a month and race earnings that can boost his income up toward $6,000 per year. In a country where per capita GDP is around one tenth that, the money has enabled him to move out of his mother鈥檚 house and, at least from his perspective, 鈥渂uy anything, anytime.鈥�

It鈥檚 clear that Hadi is eager to pass on the good fortune. He has already recruited a talented 15-year old to the team, and, deep in the woods of the mountain bike track, he playfully bants with the throngs of children who come out to watch practice. He asks: Do you want us to come back?鈥� They all shout, 鈥淵es!鈥澨�

Every Friday, the team pedals back to their respective homes. Some to the Rwandan capital, Kigali, more than 100 kilometers to the south. Others to even more distant corners of what is knows as 鈥渢he land of a thousand hills.鈥� On Mondays, they make the reverse trip and continue their collective push to bring Team Rwanda full circle.

鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty cool,鈥� said Boyer, before heading to dinner at the mess hall. 鈥淎 lot of our riders won't go to Europe or make it on the big scene. [But] if they're on Team Rwanda, their life is changed forever.鈥�

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

The post This Month鈥檚 Most Compelling Race Is Happening on a 6.5km Loop in Rwanda appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

For fans of extra-large primates, there鈥檚 arguably no more coveted experience than viewing a mountain gorilla in its natural habitat. If you fall into this camp, consider a bucket-list trek to the upscale in Rwanda鈥檚 northwest听Volcanoes National Park鈥攁 mountainous, jungle-covered area made famous by the late naturalist Dian Fossey and her mountain gorilla pals.

Today, Rwanda is home to about 400 of the endangered apes, with another 400 to 600 spread between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Sabyinyo鈥檚 eight stone cottages sit in the foothills of the Virunga Mountain range and just two miles from park headquarters. Each is decked out with a terracotta roof, fireplace, a spa-like bathroom, and sheltered veranda. You鈥檒l find a restaurant and lounge in the main lodge, as well as an information center and small shop. In case you鈥檙e concerned about where your Rwandan francs are going, know that Sabyinyo isn鈥檛 just some fancy pet project for outsider investors. The lodge is owned by an area community trust that funnels some of its profits into local conservation and socioeconomic initiatives.

The Details: Sabyinyo is a two-hour drive from the Rwandan capital of Kigali. Room rates vary depending on the season鈥攔ight now, they range from $775 to $970 per person per night. Only 80 visitors per day are allowed in the park, so make your reservation early and be prepared to buy a $750 permit for the gorilla hike.

The post Rwanda’s Mountain-Misted Jungle Paradise appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Joe Hale could spend his days lying on a beach, but he finds the prospect boring. 鈥淩etirement is a selfish act,鈥� says the 63-year-old former executive and Nantucket, Massachusetts, resident. 鈥淲e鈥檝e spent years amassing skill, and that鈥檚 too valuable to spend the next 20 years on a golf course.鈥� During a 2010 Colorado ski trip, Hale read a story about a Kenyan farmer who had no electricity and traveled six hours to reach a cell-phone charger. So, along with former colleagues, Hale, who ran seven marathons in 2005 to raise money for polio research, looked into it. He found that 1.4 billion people in rural areas have no electricity. Last year he established the , which provides solar-powered combination lanterns and cell-phone chargers in off-grid areas. With help from groups like the and local volunteers, Hale has run pilot programs in Rwanda and Argentina. Here, he reveals how to make a real impact鈥攁nd have fun doing it.

KNOW YOUR PURPOSE: 鈥淭he world doesn鈥檛 need another non-profit without a unique service. Unless you鈥檝e got a different twist on an issue, throw your support behind somebody who鈥檚 already doing it well.鈥�

BUILD A TEAM: 鈥淭here are a lot of things to factor in鈥攆undraising, distribution, travel鈥攁nd many people know more about those things than you do. Consult with them. Also, local NGOs that provide other services can be very helpful. We team with Eletrobras, Brazil鈥檚 electricity provider, to help distribute our lanterns near the Amazon.鈥�

DO YOUR HOMEWORK: 鈥淲e conducted surveys to find out what these people use. How much are they spending on wood, candles, and kerosene? Then we had them test two different products. The solar lanterns with built-in cell-phone chargers were the most popular.鈥�

CREATE VALUE: 鈥淚f you鈥檙e providing something to people, make sure you鈥檙e selling it. It doesn鈥檛 have to cost a lot, but skin in the game is important. If a person is invested in something, they value it more. Our lanterns are priced differently in each area, but they generally cost people the amount they would spend on fuel to light their homes for three months.鈥澨�

REMEMBER TO PLAY: 鈥淚n Rwanda I hiked among gorillas. In Brazil I swam with pink dolphins and went piranha fishing. If you鈥檙e someplace helping out and there鈥檚 a great mountain to climb, go do it. Why not?鈥�

The post Giving the Gift of Light (and a Cell-Phone Charge) appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

The Year of Giving Adventurously

Citizen philanthropy is on the rise鈥攁nd so are the nonprofits. Here are the 30 organizations and innovators truly making a difference, delivering health care in rural Asia, distributing bikes in Africa, and championing preservation in your backyard. Plus: Carbon-eating superplants, why the solar-powered car is MIA, and more.

THE ORGANIZATIONS
Shelterbox
American Himalayan Foundation
Oceana
Kiva
1% for the Planet
Big City Mountaineers
African Wildlife Foundation
American Forests
World Bicycle Relief
Water For People
Climate Counts
Ioby
American Trails
The Marine Mammal Center
Afghan Child Education and Care Organization
Foundation Rwanda
Environmental Defense Fund
Trekking for Kids
American Rivers
Health in Harmony
Pathfinder International
Rainforest Alliance
Technoserve
Vital Voices Global Partnership
World Wildlife Fund
THE INNOVATORS
David Belt
Amy Purdy
Jon Rose

Dan Morrison
HOW TO GIVE RESPONSIBLY
How We Picked Them
Do Diligence

听

Shelterbox

Cornwall, England

BY THE NUMBERS: More than one million natural-颅disaster victims supplied since 2001
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Tom Henderson, 61, a former Royal Navy search-and-rescue diver and offshore-drilling consultant
WHAT IT DOES: Henderson established in 2000 to offer practical tools to disaster victims so they can help themselves, an approach designed to foster self-reliance and self-esteem. Each $1,000 kit, which comes in a durable box that doubles as a storage container or crib, contains a family tent (颅torture-tested to withstand high winds, heavy rain, and 颅extreme temperatures), blankets, a multifuel stove, a cookset, a water filtration 颅system, tools, and an activity pack for kids. Teams of volunteers deploy to disaster sites鈥攐ften within 24 hours鈥攈and-deliver boxes, and teach families how to use them. ShelterBox spent more than $19 million on programs last year; since 2001, it has distributed 110,000 boxes in 150 disaster zones, including the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, 颅Hurricane Katrina, and the Haiti earthquake.
EXTRA CREDIT: Individual donations鈥攚hich go straight to paying for box contents鈥攃an be followed with tracking numbers.
LOOKING AHEAD: Shelter颅Box recently revamped its Shelter颅Box Academy, which trains hundreds of volunteers every year to operate in harsh, remote locales. It鈥檚 now offering more courses for the public, including university classes, corporate team training, and first-aid programs, which raise funds for volunteer education.

American Himalayan Foundation

San Francisco

BY THE NUMBERS: 300,000 Nepalis, Tibetans, and Sherpas served by 140 education, health care, and human-welfare 颅programs this year alone
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Erica Stone, 60, a University of California at Berkeley MBA and former documentary-film production manager who has trekked extensively in Nepal
WHAT IT DOES: The (AHF) was established 30 years ago when financier Richard Blum and a group of climbers and trekkers recognized threats to Himalayan culture from 颅unstable governments and a lack of basic 颅services. AHF supports local partners with the funding, 颅technical 颅assistance, and strategy advice they need. In 2010, the organization provided $3.3 million to these partners for projects in 颅education, health care, and cultural preservation in 颅Nepal, Tibet, and Tibetan refugee settlements in India. 颅Projects range from establishing a hospital for disabled children in Kathmandu to training locals in the Nepali region of Mustang to preserve 15th-century Buddhist temples. One notable 颅current issue: an education-based prevention program 颅fighting human traffickers, who lure as many as 20,000 rural 颅Nepali girls into prostitution or 颅oppressive 颅domestic-servant jobs each year. Board member Jon Krakauer has donated 100 percent of the proceeds from his 2011 e-book 鈥淭hree Cups of 颅Deceit鈥濃�攁n 颅investigation into the practices of 颅Central Asia 颅Institute founder Greg 颅Mortenson鈥攖o the 颅foundation鈥檚 anti-trafficking 颅program, which sponsors the girls鈥� schooling and has assisted more than 10,000 girls over the past 15 years.
EXTRA CREDIT: AHF is creative and committed; spending on programs is consistently high at more than 80 percent.
LOOKING AHEAD: One of AHF鈥檚 newest projects is the Tibetan Enterprise Fund, which offers grants and small loans to Tibetan refugees who have viable small-business and farming ideas.
听

Oceana

Washington, D.C.

BY THE NUMBERS: Since 2001, 鈥檚 research and political outreach have helped persuade governments to increase protections for 1.2 million square miles of ocean
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Andrew Sharpless, 56, a Harvard Law and London School of Economics grad who鈥檚 held top jobs at RealNetworks, New York City鈥檚 颅Museum of Television and Radio, and Discovery.com
WHAT IT DOES: In 1999, several foundations鈥攊ncluding the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund鈥攃ommissioned a study on ocean advocacy and realized that only a tiny fraction of money spent by environmental nonprofits was aimed at ocean protection. Two years later, Oceana was born with a practical mandate: to conduct studies and research, inform lawmakers, and protect degraded oceans through concrete policy. The approach has gotten results. Chile banned shark finning, announced the creation of the world鈥檚 fourth-largest no-take marine reserve, and reformed salmon-industry practices to protect wild fish populations. The U.S. also banned shark finning in its coastal 颅waters, and Morocco and Turkey outlawed drift nets, already prohibited by the European Union and the United Nations.
EXTRA CREDIT: Oceana can point to dozens of policy victories on four continents in the past ten years. And it鈥檚 one of only a few charities to receive a four-star rating from Charity Navigator three years in a row.
LOOKING AHEAD: Oceana has devised a practical road map to wean the U.S. from Gulf of Mexico oil through measures like switching oil-heated homes to electric power and electrifying 10 percent of cars by 2020鈥攁 plan that received a grant from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy last year.
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Kiva

San Francisco

BY THE NUMBERS: Since 2005, more than 628,000 颅citizen lenders have provided $248 million in microloans to small entrepreneurs in developing countries
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Matt Flannery, 34, a former software engineer at TiVo
WHAT IT DOES: In 2004, Flannery was working as a programmer when he took a trip to East Africa to make a documentary about entrepreneurs and saw how much difference small investments can make. In 2005, he launched , which connects citizen philanthropists directly to borrowers in developing countries. In a typical transaction, a potential lender peruses Kiva鈥檚 online listings of hopeful borrowers, chosen with help from partner organizations in the field. The lender picks one and makes a loan of $25 or more through PayPal. The borrower鈥攁 Tajik peddler hoping to buy rice, say, or a Kenyan farmer buying animal feed鈥攎akes the purchase and then repays the loan, which is available for the donor鈥檚 withdrawal or future loans. Within six months of Kiva鈥檚 founding, all seven of the original borrowers, including a goat herder, a fishmonger, and a restaurant owner, had repaid their loans. Now borrowers hail from 60 countries, and their businesses encompass everything from a Bulgarian bicycle-repair shop to an Internet caf茅 in Benin.
EXTRA CREDIT: Philanthropy experts say it often takes an 颅individual鈥檚 story to move 颅donors to give. Flannery and Kiva harness that impulse, 颅taking affordable, crowdsourced lending to new levels around the world.
LOOKING AHEAD: In June, Kiva, now working with an $11 million budget, announced its first U.S. microfinance 颅programs, in Detroit and New Orleans.
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1% for the Planet

Waitsfield, Vermont

BY THE NUMBERS: In 2010, 1,450 companies donated $22 million to environmental organizations through 1%.
WHO鈥橲 IN CHARGE: Terry Kellogg, 39, a Yale-trained MBA who was the first director of environmental stewardship at Timberland.
WHAT IT DOES: In 2001, 颅Patagonia founder Yvon 颅Choui颅nard and Craig Matthews, the owner of Blue Ribbon Flies, hatched a simple plan to encour颅age 颅businesses to give back to the environment. A business pledges to donate 1 percent of sales to vetted 颅environmental groups鈥斅璱ncluding several on this list鈥攁nd agrees to be 颅audited annually. In exchange, it can display the 1% logo, designed to encourage consumers to support companies that are giving back. Since then, the organization has raised close to $100 million for more than 2,500 groups, from American Forests to the Shawangunk Conservancy. The money has 颅powered high-impact projects like the Seed Alliance, which is using money from Clif Bar to establish a seed bank to conserve genetic crop diversity. Now signs on an average of one new member every day鈥攆rom small wineries to large manufacturers in 45 countries鈥攁nd is on track to become the largest network of environmental funders on the planet.
EXTRA CREDIT: For decades, Chouinard has put his money where his good intentions are.
LOOKING AHEAD: 1% recently enlisted 14 people鈥斅璱ncluding musician Jack Johnson and 颅国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 own Christopher Keyes鈥攖o help spread the word.
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Big City Mountaineers

Denver

BY THE NUMBERS: More than 15,000 urban teenagers have taken part in sponsored outdoor trips since 1989.
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Executive director Lisa Mattis, 41, former director of individual giving and director of the scholarship program for Outward Bound
WHAT IT DOES: (BCM) gives underprivileged city kids a chance to experience wilderness adventure. Roughly 83 percent of urban teens who participate in BCM鈥檚 trips live below the poverty line, 62 percent have never been outside their home counties, and the vast majority have never seen a starry sky. Drawing on an annual budget of $1.5 million, this 22-year-old nonprofit takes young city dwellers from Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon, on seven-day hiking or canoeing trips in settings like the Boundary Waters and Yosemite National Park. Along the way, volunteer leaders guide teens through a series of challenges that culminate in summiting a peak or completing a long river portage. BCM has devised innovative fundraising techniques, including , in which participants challenge themselves in the same way BCM kids might鈥攂y tackling a guided climb of a difficult peak and raising funds through sponsorships. This year, North Face鈥搒ponsored athlete Cedar Wright signed on, choosing a self-guided climb on a remote Malaysian island. He hopes to raise $10,000.
EXTRA CREDIT: BCM offers diverse ways to get involved and is one of the largest wilderness programs for urban kids.
LOOKING AHEAD: The group has added single-day and overnight programs to augment its seven-day courses. These offer gateway programs for kids intimidated by longer outings.
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African Wildlife Foundation

Nairobi, Kenya

BY THE NUMBERS: Currently backing 31 conservation-oriented projects that generate more than $2 million annually for African communities; spent $19 million on programs in 2010
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Patrick Bergin, 47, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania and project officer for the foundation in Tanzania鈥檚 national parks
WHAT IT DOES: Launched in 1961, the (AWF) is one of a growing number of NGOs pushing a more inclusive 颅approach to conservation based on a simple philosophy: local people should be factored into the equation. AWF starts by sending field researchers to identify species and landscapes at risk, then employs a host of education, advocacy, and development plans to give local people sound reasons to care for their land and wildlife. One method is what the AWF calls conservation enterprises鈥攕ustainable businesses like wildlife tourism and eco-sensitive agriculture. In 2008, AWF partnered with Rwandan communities to build the swanky, locally owned Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge near Volcanoes National Park. It now attracts well-heeled tourists who come to see rare mountain gorillas, generating a flow of dollars that supports locals with infrastructure and development projects. AWF also brokered a deal between Starbucks and small coffee growers in Kenya. In exchange for adhering to strict ethical guidelines for both labor and cultivation, Starbucks offers farmers lucrative contracts.
EXTRA CREDIT: AWF earned a top rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy. Thanks to its success, its people-centered programs have been emulated widely, particularly in the past decade.
LOOKING AHEAD: The group recently launched a website () that catalogs community-owned safari lodges that conscientious travelers can visit.
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American Forests

Washington, D.C.

BY THE NUMBERS: Nearly 40 million trees planted in the past 21 years
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Scott Steen, 47, former executive 颅director of the American Ceramic Society, an organization for cera颅mic engineers and scientists
WHAT IT DOES: Forests are the planet鈥檚 most effective carbon sinks, so their health has never been more important. Which is why newly appointed CEO Steen is revamping this old-guard conservation organization鈥攆ounded in 1875 to establish and protect state and national forests鈥攊nto a force to battle climate change, boost river and habitat quality, and improve recreation areas. With nearly a third of the staff replaced and a new science advisory board 颅installed, the group is now largely focused on reforestation projects in 颅response to urban need and devastation from wildfires, insect infestations, agricultural clearing, and 颅pollution. This year, introduced 54 new 颅projects, ranging from a 27,000-tree planting effort near Oregon鈥檚 Klamath River鈥攖o prevent erosion into tribal fisheries owned by the Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa people鈥攖o a project in Cameroon that involves planting 50,000 trees.
EXTRA CREDIT: In the face of climate change and clean-water shortages, forest health has never been more important. American Forests has earned a top rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy.
LOOKING AHEAD: Whitebark pines are known as a keystone species with an outsize ability to enhance ecosystem diversity; they鈥檙e also nearly extinct in some parts of the Rockies. American Forests is working with the Forest Service and a team of researchers to identify and breed disease-resistant trees.

World Bicycle Relief

Chicago

BY THE NUMBERS: More than 88,000 bikes distributed and sold in developing nations since 2005
WHO'S IN CHARGE: F. K. Day, 51, executive vice president of SRAM Corporation, the largest bicycle-component manufacturer in the U.S.
WHAT IT DOES: Shortly after the 2004 tsunami hit, Day traveled to Sri Lanka, saw the apocalyptic devastation firsthand, and realized there was a simple, brilliant invention that could speed reconstruction and improve lives: bicycles. Bikes are at least four times as fast as walking and can carry up to five times as much cargo as a person. They improve access to health care and education and facilitate commerce. To put more of them in service, Day created a virtually indestructible, easily fixable bike that costs about $134 to produce. By 2006, (WBR) was born and, in partnership with the NGO World Vision, had distributed more than 24,000 free bikes to Sri Lankans. Since then the organization has built assembly plants in Kenya, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, trained locals to construct bikes, and taught some 700 local mechan颅ics how to maintain them. Now it partners with reputable NGOs already in the field to identify populations in need and create contracts with individuals who promote using the free bikes for productive purposes like getting to school. In 2010, they spent $2.5 million on bikes, plants, and programs.
EXTRA CREDIT: WBR tracks the effects of its programs through third-party studies. Day was picked as one of the top 25 philanthropists by Barron鈥檚 and the Global Philanthropy Group last year.
LOOKING AHEAD: The bikes are so sturdy that volunteers at organizations like the World Health Organization and Catholic Relief Services in Africa requested to buy them. Two years ago, World Bicycle Relief initiated a program to sell bikes to organizations; proceeds benefit WBR charitable 颅programs. In 2012, WBR will open a fourth 颅assembly plant, in South Africa.
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Water for People

Denver

BY THE NUMBERS: The group helped more than 188,000 people gain access to clean water in 2010.
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Ned 颅Breslin, 46, formerly a Mozam颅bique country representative for WaterAid, health and hygiene education manager for Mvula Trust, and development director for Operation Hunger
WHAT IT DOES: It鈥檚 estimated that 884 million people lack 颅access to a reliable supply of clean drinking water. Each of 鈥檚 projects, carried out in countries from India to Peru, is based on the organization鈥檚 four guiding principles: everyone in an aided community gets access to water and sanitation; representatives from local government, NGOs, and the local business community all must sign on to the plan; commitments must span at least ten years; and solutions, such as wells, storage tanks, gravity-fed piping systems, and latrines, are designed to last and grow as populations expand. In an ongoing project in Malawi, 48 new water kiosks were constructed. A local entrepreneur returns regularly to purchase the compost. His family earns enough to pay off the loan and save money, and the businessman sells the compost to farmers for a profit. To support the programs, which cost nearly $10 million per year, the organization has devised innovative fundraising initiatives. The 颅latest: mountaineer Jake Norton is climbing each continent鈥檚 three highest summits to raise $2.1 million in donations.
EXTRA CREDIT: For seven years in a row, the project has earned a four-star rating from Charity Navigator.
LOOKING AHEAD: Water for People just released a beta version of FLOW (field-level operations watch), a new monitoring system in which field workers use a cell-phone app to update the WFP website with the status of clean-water access in remote areas. Donors and staffers can chart progress on an online map updated in real time, sending money and volunteers to places that need it most.
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Climate Counts

Manchester, New Hampshire

BY THE NUMBERS: 150 major companies, from Disney to General Electric, are rated annually on their climate practices
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Mike Bellamente, 35, who led a team from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to study how communities were affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
WHAT IT DOES: Launched in 2007 and operated by a small team of sustainability experts and more than a dozen independent researchers, uses a scorecard for corporations, rating them on 22 criteria in four areas: carbon footprint, efforts to reduce impact, support for climate-friendly legislation, and public transparency. With a $350,000 annual budget, the group now looks at companies in 16 high-visibility industries, including airlines, hotels, electronics, food products, and toys. The goal is to encourage consumers to vote with their dollars鈥斅璻atings are available through the website, a pocket guide, and a mobile app鈥攁nd to spur executives to reduce their companies鈥� carbon output. Many firms have embraced the ratings concept; some have even hired corporate sustainability directors as a result.
EXTRA CREDIT: The group leverages a tiny staff鈥檚 efforts into positive changes on a large scale. Renowned sustainability journalist and consultant Joel Makower as well as Gary 颅Hirshberg, founder of Stonyfield Farm, a corporate sustainability leader, sit on the board.
LOOKING AHEAD: In 2010, Climate Counts began offering audits, verification ratings, and workshops for smaller, unrated companies that elect to be scrutinized. The group is expanding its ratings with a new scorecard on water use.
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IOBY

New York City

BY THE NUMBERS: (In Our Back Yards) has raised more than $130,000 for 100 neighborhood environmental projects in New York since 2009.
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Erin Barnes, 31, a former community organizer for the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition
WHAT IT DOES: In 2007, Barnes, Cassie Flynn, and Brandon Whitney鈥攁ll recent grads of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies master鈥檚 program鈥攎oved to New York City and noticed a curious trend in the environmental movement. Movies like An Inconvenient Truth had galvanized people to take action, but the problems seemed so large and distant that the energy was channeled mainly into green consumerism. Using a digital platform from , the three launched a pilot website that posts environmental projects in the city that could use money and volunteers. Soon, locals in all five boroughs were posting projects like urban farm startups in empty lots, beach cleanups, and beautification days for city parks. With help from IOBY, a group called Velo City raised some $3,000 to support an urban-education program called Bikesploration.
EXTRA CREDIT: IOBY is a young startup but readily supplies financial reports. It鈥檚 backed by more than a dozen foundations, including the Kresge Foundation and the Jack Johnson Ohana Foundation.
LOOKING AHEAD: After the successful NYC pilot鈥攖his year IOBY expects to raise 颅another $100,000 for neighborhood environmental projects there鈥攑lans are afoot to expand to up to three more U.S. cities in the next two years, using $250,000 in seed money from foundations.

American Trails

Redding, California

BY THE NUMBERS: The world鈥檚 largest advocacy group for planning, building, and managing trails and greenways
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Pam Gluck, 54, former state trails 颅coordinator for Arizona, 颅recreation director for Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona, and 颅cross-country ski guide
WHAT IT DOES: Chances are, if you walked any new trails in the U.S. in the past 20 years, (AT) played a part in establishing them. The 20,000-member outfit is the only national organization dedicated to building, expanding, and safeguarding trail systems for all users, from hikers, 颅bikers, runners, and equestrians to dirt-bike and ATV riders. Oper颅ating on an annual budget of $295,000, AT provides hundreds of member organizations with guidelines on how to plan trail systems, write grant proposals, negotiate rights of way, and manage urban and backcountry trails. (For example, the Sacramento River National Recreation Trail in California and the Arkansas River Trail in Little Rock were recently built with help from AT.) It secures funding for trail building and maintenance by knocking on doors on Capitol Hill and at numerous federal agencies, including the Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. AT contracts with these agencies to run training sessions for trail crews and sponsors an annual national symposium for trail builders and advocates.
EXTRA CREDIT: A host of 颅government agencies, including the Forest Service and the 颅National Park Service, endorse AT, which supports some 22,000 members and 500 grassroots trails organizations.
LOOKING AHEAD: Two years ago, manufacturer GameTime, research firm PlayCore, the Natural Learning Initiative, and American Trails launched Pathways for Play, a program designed to keep kids outside and to help fight childhood obesity. The pilot project, PlayTrails, debuted in an urban park in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2010 with six play areas on a half-mile trail. PlayTrails have since debuted in Missouri and North Carolina, and more than a dozen communities nationwide plan to build them.

The Marine Mammal Center

Sausalito, California

BY THE NUMBERS: 30,000 people schooled in marine-science programs each year; approximately 17,000 marine mammals rescued since its inception
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Executive director Jeffrey R. Boehm, 50, formerly the senior vice president of animal health and conservation science for the Great Lakes Conservation Awareness initiative at the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and a onetime veterinarian at the Los Angeles Zoo
WHAT IT DOES: In 1975, when the (MMC) was founded, this seaside rescue-and-rehab outfit was little more than a first-aid clinic housed in a collection of kiddie pools. Now it鈥檚 the largest operation of its kind in the United States, rescuing hundreds of sea mammals each year (from dolphins to newborn seal pups) that are malnourished or have been stranded, beached, shot, struck by boats, bitten by sharks, or tangled in fishing nets. After receiving veterinary care, the creatures are returned to the wild or鈥攊f they鈥檙e unlikely to survive release鈥攖ransferred to aquariums or zoos. During the mammals鈥� captivity, kids from preschool to college age are allowed to come in for a look, and MMC offers educational programs that inspire many of them to consider careers in marine biology. Meanwhile, the group鈥檚 16-颅person veterinary-science unit has collaborated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and numerous universities on research topics like the effects of toxic-algae poisoning, a natural occurrence 颅exacerbated by agricultural runoff and warming seas.
EXTRA CREDIT: MMC transforms a simple mission into a force for conservation through education and science. It earned top marks from the American Institute of Philanthropy.
LOOKING AHEAD: Marine mammals are bellwethers of environmental changes, not least because they鈥檙e at the top of the food chain. MMC鈥檚 ongoing research鈥攆or example, on the potential link between PCBs and startlingly high rates of reproductive cancer among seals and sea lions鈥攃ould help shed light on how those changes affect our health.
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Afghan Child Education and Care Organization

Kabul, Afghanistan

BY THE NUMBERS: More than 11 orphanages established in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2003
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Andeisha Farid, 28, a former war refugee from Afghanistan. Before launching AFCECO, Farid worked as a program manager for CharityHelp International鈥檚 child-sponsorship program.
WHAT IT DOES: estimates that Afghanistan is home to roughly one million war orphans, many of whom are forced into child labor or a life of begging. Farid, who was educated by Afghan women in a Pakistan refugee camp during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, envisioned a new kind of orphanage, one that would operate with the blessing of home villages by keeping the kids connected to their heritage. After she started her first safe house for 20 kids in Islamabad in 2003, she teamed with CharityHelp International鈥檚 child-sponsorship program, which allowed her to expand. Now AFCECO鈥檚 three-story orphanages鈥攂uilt in places like Kabul and Islamabad鈥攁re oases of learning, where children take classes and participate in soccer, photography, drama, and martial arts. The orphanages harbor more than 600 children, some of whom get a chance to study abroad.
EXTRA CREDIT: Farid鈥檚 locally effective approach is also globally inspiring鈥攁s an example of the dividends that can accrue from a single salvaged life.
LOOKING AHEAD: AFCECO is raising money for a medical clinic in Kabul that would offer care to both orphans and orphanage employees, many of whom are war widows.
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Foundation Rwanda

New York City

Jean-Paul

Jean-Paul assembling a Kona Africa bike

Assembling bikes

Foundation Rwanda mothers assembling Kona Africa bikes to give to other Foundation Rwanda families in need

BY THE NUMBERS: More than 830 children of rape survivors have been educated through sponsorships since 2008.
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Jules Shell, 34, a documentary filmmaker and former creative 颅director at the Andrea and Charles Bronf颅man Philanthropies
WHAT IT DOES: In 2006, while on assignment in Rwanda, Newsweek photo颅journalist Jonathan Torgovnik met Margaret, a woman who had not only survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide and weathered multiple rapes but also contracted HIV, given birth to a child, and been marginalized by her community. 颅Torgovnik later returned to 颅produce a book of photographs and, with Shell, a film about the estimated 20,000 Rwandan children conceived through sexual assaults. They established Foundation Rwanda to pay for the 颅children鈥檚 education and provide medical services and job training for their 颅mothers. These days, the 颅foundation spends about $283,000 颅annually on programs. Other initiatives include an oral-health project that offers checkups and dental products, and the Ladies of Abasangiye, a cooperative that trains women in business, 颅English-language, and craft skills. (Upscale retailer Anthropologie recently began importing its handbags.)
EXTRA CREDIT: A triple play of tactics鈥攕mart use of media, solid tools, and sound business practices鈥攂oosts a marginalized but extremely deserving class of recipients.
LOOKING AHEAD: Foundation Rwanda has announced plans to launch BirthdayBike.org, a program that raises money to buy a bike and a year鈥檚 schooling for Rwandan schoolkids.
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Environmental Defense Fund

New York City

BY THE NUMBERS: Four million acres of private land are now protected under the group鈥檚 Safe Harbor program, which helps landowners preserve endangered-species habitat on their property.
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Fred Krupp, 57, former head of the Connecticut Fund for the 颅Environment
WHAT IT DOES: In the 1960s, widespread use of the pesticide DDT threatened the survival of countless American bird species, and a small group came up with a solution that, back then, was strikingly novel: sue the government. The result was a landmark court case that led to statewide and nationwide bans of DDT and, in 1967, to the establishment of the (EDF). The nonprofit continues to pursue unusual tactics, hiring not only scientists and lawyers but also economists and political strategists to devise market-based solutions to broad environmental issues, including climate, oceans, ecosystems, and human health. In the nineties, EDF pioneered corporate partnerships, and their consulting resulted in major corporate changes, such as reducing McDonald鈥檚 waste stream by 30 percent and introducing hybrid trucks to FedEx鈥檚 fleet. Last year, EDF spent more than $83.5 million on programs like Climate Corps, a summer fellowship that trains MBA students to consult with large businesses on energy efficiency.
EXTRA CREDIT: EDF鈥檚 willingness to work with corporate giants like McDonald鈥檚 and Wal-Mart has earned them a reputation for cooperative results.
LOOKING AHEAD: EDF is growing a campaign to pass clean-air legislation at the state and municipal levels, since Congress appears stuck. The organization is also working to quantify the economic benefits afforded by natural systems鈥攆or example, runoff filtration by wetlands鈥攕o decision makers can consider the positive impact in dollars.
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Trekking for Kids

Washington, D.C.

BY THE NUMBERS: Nearly $400,000 raised for ten orphanages in developing countries since 2005
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Jos茅 Montero, 40, president of the Montero Group, a D.C.鈥揵ased consulting firm
WHAT IT DOES: When siblings Jos茅 and Ana Maria Montero decided to hike the Inca Trail in 2005, they wanted to give something back to the Peruvian community. Their father, Pepe, who鈥檇 lost his parents during the Spanish Civil War, suggested raising money for orphanages, and (TFK) was born. Now the small group鈥攚hich 颅operates mostly with volunteers and an annual budget of about $32,000鈥斅璷rganizes walka颅thon-style treks, bringing money and volunteer labor to remote areas. Each trekker raises a minimum of $1,000 for the chosen orphanage and pays his or her own travel expenses. For two days before the trek, the group completes a project they鈥檝e raised money for, such as building a new dormitory or renovating kitchens. After as many as eight days on the trail, trekkers return and take the orphans on a field trip, like 颅zip-lining, hiking, or visiting a children鈥檚 museum. So far, volunteers have gone to Peru, Nepal, Ecuador, Morocco, 颅Guatemala, Tanzania, and Thailand, raising as much as $60,000 for each orphanage.
EXTRA CREDIT: Combines adventure with purpose-driven travel, and every dollar raised for a project goes to the project
LOOKING AHEAD: Upcoming expeditions include 颅Patagonia and Romania next summer. TFK aims to expand corporate sponsorships to cover 颅administrative expenses and increase the number of trips it offers, with programs geared toward college students, families, and corporate team building.
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American Rivers

Washington, D.C.

BY THE NUMBERS: 200 dams dismantled since 1998
WHO'S IN CHARGE: CEO and president Bob Irvin, 52, a veteran attorney and environmentalist who most recently served as senior vice president for conservation programs at Defenders of Wildlife
WHAT IT DOES: Rivers are valuable for more than just hydropower: they provide clean drinking water, recreational 颅opportunities, and healthy fisheries. For years, (AR) has pushed these and other arguments in an effort to heal North American waterways, and the group has been at the forefront of two big recent anti-dam victories, both in Washington State. This fall, the 210-foot Glines Canyon Dam became the tallest ever removed, restoring more than 70 miles of salmon and steelhead habitat on the Elwha River. The dismantling of the 125-foot Condit Dam has restored 33 miles of steelhead habitat on the White Salmon River, a renowned whitewater run visited by 25,000 boaters annually. The nonprofit group also lobbies for Wild and Scenic designations鈥攚hich preserve rivers as free-flowing鈥攔eleases an annual most-endangered list to spotlight rivers in peril, and works with municipalities to push measures to prevent polluted urban runoff from reaching watersheds.
EXTRA CREDIT: AR has earned honors from multiple watchdog groups for its efforts to improve river health.
LOOKING AHEAD: American Rivers helped orchestrate the removal of two major dams on Maine鈥檚 Penobscot River. When completed next summer, the effort will restore 1,000 miles of Atlantic salmon runs and 颅canoeing and fishing access. The organization, which spent $8.5 million in 2010, has also helped plan more than 100 dam removals over the next five years.
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Health in Harmony

Portland, Oregon

BY THE NUMBERS: 14,000 patients treated in 鈥檚 Indonesia clinic since 2007
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Kinari Webb, 39, a graduate of the Yale School of Medicine
WHAT IT DOES: Gunung Palung National Park, a 222,000-acre swath of rainforest in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, harbors one of the last major wild populations of orangutans and other rare species such as gibbons, crested fireback pheasants, and clouded leopards. It鈥檚 also the watershed for 60,000 people who live in poverty on its margins, often engaging in illegal logging. When Webb first visited as an undergrad studying orangutans, she realized that the high cost of medical care for subsistence farmers was what drove them to log the forest for cash. She returned in 2005 to start Health in Harmony and its Indonesian counterpart, Alam Sehat 颅Lestari鈥攂oth of which are driven by the philosophy that better health care for locals could improve the health of the forest. She opened a small medical center in the remote town of Sukadana, a mobile clinic, and an ambulance 颅service, and started several projects to help locals develop sustainable alternative livelihoods as farmers and herders. Though no one is refused care, the clinic offers discounts to communities that agree to stop illegal logging.
EXTRA CREDIT: Health in Harmony is supported by a host of foundations and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Great Apes Conservation Fund; members of the board include professors and doctors from Yale, Dartmouth, and Johns Hopkins.
LOOKING AHEAD: Health in Harmony plans to build a $1.2 million hospital in Sukadana, which will provide surgical care for people who now must travel 12 hours or more to get it.
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Pathfinder International

Watertown, Massachusetts

BY THE NUMBERS: More than 3.75 million people received HIV and AIDS services through Pathfinder-supported projects in 2010
WHO'S IN CHARGE: In February, Purnima Mane will take over as president, replacing longtime leader Daniel E. Pellegrom. Mane is currently the assistant secretary general of the United Nations.
WHAT IT DOES: Overpopulation can lead to poverty and conflict and can overtax water supplies, arable land, and other resources. was founded in 1957 to expand access to basic health and reproductive services so individuals in developing 颅nations can plan families and build sustainable communities. With $90 million to spend each year, the organization reaches people in more than 25 countries with a range of local programs. In the past two years, these have included establishing a solar-powered blood bank in Nigeria, distributing delivery kits with medication for rural births in Bangladesh, and training Red Cross staffers to prevent postpartum hemorrhages in refugee settings in Tanzania. Through a project in Bihar, India, Pathfinder helped educate more than 650,000 youth in 700 villages about contraceptives. The program resulted in an average 2.6-year increase in the age of marriage and a 1.5-year increase in the age of mothers at first birth.
EXTRA CREDIT: Pathfinder spends 88 percent of its budget on programs.
LOOKING AHEAD: Recently, the group partnered with the Nature Conservancy and the Frankfurt Zoological Society on a plan to establish sustainable fisheries, healthy forests, and health care in a remote, wildlife-rich area of western Tanzania, where populations are outpacing natural resources.
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Rainforest Alliance

New York City

BY THE NUMBERS: More than 167 million acres of forests worldwide are now rated as sustainable under Rainforest Alliance鈥檚 certification system
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Tensie Whelan, 51, a former journalist and consultant who has worked with the National Audubon Society and the League of Conservation Voters
WHAT IT DOES: Established during the rainforest crisis of the 1980s, 25-year-old aims to preserve the biodiversity of forests worldwide by creating conservation-friendly livelihoods for locals. Its programs center on sustainability-certification labels for forestry, tourism, and agricultural businesses, which can just as easily be forces for conservation as for devastation. Certification guidelines and training programs help farmers, foresters, lodges, and tour guides build sustainable businesses. The labels are also designed to encourage consumers to purchase conscientiously. (Companies like Newman鈥檚 Own Organics, Naked Juice, and Whole Foods buy Rainforest 颅Alliance鈥揷ertified 颅coffee, cocoa, bananas, and tea.) The organization offers a free grade-school curriculum鈥攄ownloaded and viewed online eight million times since 2003鈥攖o teach kids about the animals and people living in the rainforest.
EXTRA CREDIT: The demand for sustainable goods has never been higher, and Rainforest 颅Alliance鈥揷ertified products sell to companies with major impact, like Dole and Wal-Mart.
LOOKING AHEAD: In 2007, Rainforest Alliance launched a climate-change program, which helps farmers reforest unused lands, and recently raised its standards for sustainable beef production.
听

Technoserve

Washington, D.C.

BY THE NUMBERS: Since 2010, an estimated 40,300 people employed in 30 countries with the help of 鈥檚 programs
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Bruce McNamer, a 49-year-old Stanford MBA, formerly an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, a management consultant at McKinsey, and a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay
WHAT IT DOES: While working in a hospital in Ghana in the 1960s, Technoserve founder Ed Bullard realized that local farms and businesses languished not because of a shortage of moti颅vation or ability, but because of a lack of resources, both educational and financial. He started Technoserve in 1968 to connect entrepreneurs in developing countries with capital and educational resources. The organization started primarily with small farmers, but now, with a $58.3 million annual budget, it works to strengthen entire industries, such as coffee and cocoa. Some 1,000 staffers, mostly natives with successful business experience, train entrepreneurs in skills from writing business plans to apply颅ing fertilizer; connect them to finance organizations and corporations that can purchase their goods; hold business-plan competitions; and lobby to improve regulations. The results can be tangible for beneficiaries like Nicaragua鈥檚 Jorge Salazar Cooperative of farmers, which, with Technoserve鈥檚 help, started planting high-value crops like rare criollo cocoa and built a plant for processing malanga, a local tuber. The co-op then reinvested its profits to build a pharmacy and support local schools and police.
EXTRA CREDIT: Technoserve enlists volunteer consultants from companies like McKinsey and L鈥橭r茅al. It鈥檚 top-rated by the American Institute of Philanthropy.
LOOKING AHEAD: Techno颅serve recently received a grant from the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund to help develop Haiti鈥檚 business sector along with initiatives like the Haiti Hope Project, a partnership with Coca-Cola to help mango farmers find new markets and financial backing.
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Vital Voices Global Partnership

Washington, D.C.

BY THE NUMBERS: 10,000 emerging women leaders trained in 127 countries since 1997
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Alyse Nelson, 37, former deputy 颅director of the Vital Voices Global Democracy Initiative at the U.S. Department of State
WHAT IT DOES: This NGO sprang from an acclaimed U.S. State Department program, 颅Vital Voices Democracy Initiative, established in 1997 by Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Working with the UN, EU, World Bank, and international governments, the program organized conferences for hundreds of emerging women leaders. In 2000, (VVGP) was established to continue the mission by combating human trafficking, supporting women entrepreneurs, and advancing women in politics and public leadership. The goal is for each woman touched by VVGP鈥檚 颅programs to pay it forward. In 2008, Ghanaian Brigitte 颅Dzogbenuku, general manager of a fitness center in Accra, spent five weeks in the U.S. taking skills seminars and shadowing Donna Orender, president of the WNBA. After returning to Ghana, she founded Hoop Sistas, a girls鈥� basketball program that offers career development and women鈥檚 health workshops.
EXTRA CREDIT: Big reach with steady 颅results; consistently receives four-star 颅ratings from Charity Navigator
LOOKING AHEAD: In 2012, VVGP will expand programs in North Africa and the Middle East.
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World Wildlife Fund

Washington, D.C.

BY THE NUMBERS: More than $1 billion invested in roughly 12,000 projects in 100 countries since 1985
WHO'S IN CHARGE: Carter Roberts, 51, a Harvard MBA who spent 15 years leading domestic, international, and science programs at the Nature Conservancy
WHAT IT DOES: The (WWF) was founded in 1961 with a deceptively simple mission: to conserve species. It soon realized that in order to do that, it needed to preserve the land and oceans those species live in鈥攁nd that triage was in order. Over the years, the organization has homed in on 19 hot spots of biodiversity experiencing grave threats, such as the Amazon, the eastern Himalayas, and the Arctic. Now operating out of 100 offices worldwide, WWF employs a strategy heavy on fieldwork and scientific studies, which staffers use both to develop solutions at the village level and to affect policies and consumer behavior. One solution WWF pioneered: sustainable-business certifications that encourage better business practices and informed purchasing among consumers.
EXTRA CREDIT: WWF鈥檚 name recognition and budget allow it to implement projects and initiatives that cross political borders and incorporate dozens of complicated partnerships, a difficult feat for smaller groups.
LOOKING AHEAD: Through its Market Transformation Initiative, WWF is working with about 100 multinational corporations鈥�50 partnerships are already established鈥攖hat provide staples like soy, beef, and sugar. The idea is to help companies institute sustainable practices on all levels, from harvesting to packaging. Critics decry WWF for sleeping with the enemy鈥攖he organization takes consulting fees鈥攂ut its success is undeniable. In the past four years, with WWF鈥檚 help, Coca-Cola has improved water efficiency by 13 percent and reduced carbon emissions by 6 percent.

David Belt

Bright idea: New-school urban playgrounds

In July 2009, in a blighted junkyard along the borough鈥檚 Gowanus Canal, a tree grew in Brooklyn鈥攁ctually, a tree, a bocce court, lounge chairs, and three swimming pools made from converted dumpsters. For the next two months, this lo-fi country club hosted barbecues, birthdays, and mixers, offering locals a taste of leisure life inside the hardscrabble city.

The project, called Dumpster Pools, was the work of David Belt, a 44-year-old real estate developer who grew restless a few years ago and decided to chart a new course. To that end, he began turning what he calls 鈥渏unk spaces鈥濃�攁bandoned big-box stores, run-down urban lots鈥攊nto inspired community rec centers and art projects. In May 2010, Belt and his 颅colleagues at 鈥攁 rotating crew of like-minded friends and designers鈥攖ook on the 鈥渂oring act of recycling,鈥� as Belt puts it, by building a 20-by-30-foot clear box, with high walls made of steel and bulletproof glass, on a private Brooklyn lot. Locals were invited to smash bottles against the glass, which was wired to trigger nightclub-style flashing lights. The shards were all recycled.

Both projects were funded entirely by donations and built mostly by volunteers. In 2012, Belt is expanding, with new projects in Philadelphia (where he refurbished 27,000 square feet of an old warehouse and church as a rec-and-learning center) and Detroit (an industrial-wasteland skate park). The coolest of Macro Sea鈥檚 future visions: a series of five-story artificial ice cliffs for urban mountaineering, which Belt hopes to bring to Manhattan high-rises someday. The challenge is finding ice coils large enough to keep the walls solid for weeks at a time, but Belt doesn鈥檛 seem worried. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not afraid of scale,鈥� he laughs.

Amy Purdy

Bright idea: Disabled adventurers go big

Purdy is one of the country鈥檚 most effective advocates for disabled outdoor athletes, and she came to her work the hard way: by losing both legs below the knees when she was 19. In the summer of 1999, bacterial meningitis sent her body into septic shock and set off a cascading series of 颅organ failures that nearly killed her. A week before, she鈥檇 been a rising young snowboard competitor; suddenly, it looked like her career was over.

鈥淚 was lying in my hospital bed, watching the X Games on TV,鈥� Purdy says, 鈥渁nd I remember thinking that if I could see just one person competing with a prosthetic leg, everything would be OK.鈥� There weren鈥檛 any, but working with a prosthetics expert, Purdy created a leg with an articulated ankle joint that allowed her to bend her knees on a board. Within a year and a half, she was competing again. Since then she鈥檚 won three gold medals in adaptive events, most recently at the New Zealand Para-Snowboard World Cup.

In 2005, Purdy and her boyfriend, Daniel Gale, founded (AAS) to give other disabled athletes a path into extreme activities鈥攆rom motocross to snowboarding to skateboarding. In addition to taking wounded veterans onto the slopes and halfpipe, AAS has created a competitive circuit for disabled riders and hopes to bring boardercross to the Paralympics by 2018. 鈥淲hen I lost my legs, there were no 颅opportunities to move forward in snowboarding,鈥� she says. Now, thanks in part to Purdy, there are 81 adaptive snowboarders competing around the world.

Jon Rose

Bright idea: DIY disaster relief

In September 2009, California surfer Jon Rose was sailing toward the island of Sumatra, carrying ten water filters that he planned to deliver to a rural community while enjoying a surf trip in Indonesia. Rose was looking to move on from his career as a Quiksilver-sponsored surfing pro. Inspired by his father鈥檚 nonprofit, RainCatcher, which teaches African villagers how to filter rainwater, he hit upon the idea of recruiting surfers to deliver water filters in their travels through developing countries. He thought it would be a pet project. Then, on his first mission, an earthquake hit nearby, devastating the city of Padang. 鈥淚t was like divine intervention,鈥� Rose says. 鈥淟ike, 鈥極K, this is your life. This is what you鈥檙e doing.鈥欌�夆��

Rose鈥檚 organization, , has since provided some 2.5 million people access to safe water, delivering more than 75,000 simple portable filters, which can be used with local water supplies and whatever buckets are at hand, cutting out the need to dig wells or use purification chemicals. The group is one part viral campaign鈥攍ooking for volunteers to buy and distribute filters abroad鈥攁nd one part action squad, running relief and improvement programs in Haiti, Brazil, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kenya, Uganda, India, and Liberia. It鈥檚 a style that Rose refers to as 鈥渂lack ops鈥� or 鈥済uerrilla humanitarianism,鈥� which he defines as working 鈥渦nder the radar and around the red tape.鈥� That means a lean budget and a skeleton staff that coordinates with locals on the ground and moves into and out of target areas quickly.

Those years he spent far off the beaten path prepared him for his new job, Rose says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 sort of the same way I felt about surfing as a kid,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 greater.鈥�

David Milarch

Organization: Archangel Ancient Tree Archive
Bright idea: New old growth

David Milarch discovered his calling as a tree evangelist during a near-death experience from renal failure 19 years ago. 鈥淲hen I came to, there was a ten-page outline that I don鈥檛 remember writing,鈥� says the cofounder of this Michigan-based environmental group. His mission, dictated (he sincerely believes) by the Archangel Michael: to clean up the planet鈥檚 air and water and reverse the effects of climate change by cloning the world鈥檚 biggest, oldest trees.

Once a hard-living biker, Milarch developed a passionate spiritual connection to old-growth trees鈥攅specially redwoods and giant sequoias. Both species can live for millennia, pumping out oxygen and sequestering tons of atmospheric carbon. Milarch, along with his son Jared and project coordinator Meryl Marsh, started taking cuttings from the tops of the most titanic redwoods and sequoias they could find, as well as sprouts from huge stumps. Working in a Monterey, California, greenhouse and using various propagation techniques, project consultant Bill Werner has coaxed bits of the plant tissue to root and grow into field-ready transplants. also maintains living libraries of more than 40 cloned species, from an ancient Monterey cypress to thousand-year-old Irish oaks.

Some scientists have questioned whether genetic material alone is responsible for the trees鈥� size and longevity, arguing that favorable growing conditions could just as likely explain it, but Milarch sides with his science adviser, the eminent redwood geneticist William J. Libby. Next year, Milarch hopes to start planting redwood saplings in San Francisco鈥檚 Golden Gate Park, and he鈥檚 looking for investors to underwrite other planting projects in the U.S. and abroad. 鈥淲e want to rebuild the world鈥檚 first old-growth redwood forest,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e the most iconic trees on earth.鈥�

Dan Morrison

Organization: Citizen Effect
Bright idea: Donations with destinations

Dan Morrison understands the power of face time. While traveling through India in 2006, he met a woman who said her earthquake-ravaged community needed a well but didn鈥檛 have the $5,000 required to build it. Back home in Washington, D.C., he sent out a card pledging $2,500 and asking acquaintances to join him. Within days, $500 checks started 颅arriving鈥攆rom a friend, a former roommate, and Morrison鈥檚 high school English teacher, among others. A lightbulb went off. 鈥淚 realized that with fundraising, it鈥檚 critical to have a specific project people can wrap their minds around,鈥� says Morrison. 鈥淭hat the request was coming from someone they knew made it that much more effective.鈥�

In December 2008, Morrison created 1Well, a nonprofit that helped people make investments in high-need areas around the world. Soon after, he quit his job as a consultant on Middle East policy to focus on 1Well full-time. In 2009, spurred by a $300,000 grant from Google鈥檚 executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, and his wife, Wendy, the group morphed into , an online fundraising platform that connects citizen philanthropists with vetted, small-scale projects around the world. Budding do-gooders visit the website and choose a country, a fundraising goal, and a focus area (food security, education). In 2011, the group raised close to $500,000, funding 339 projects to date.

The twist comes in picking a fundraising approach鈥攍ike the cross-country bike ride that Boulder, Colorado鈥檚 Glenn Olsen did to raise money to build indoor toilets in Bandwhad, India. 鈥淲hen you do what you love in the name of a good cause, it鈥檚 more fun for everyone,鈥� says Morrison, who believes that many people who might skip a specific objective (eliminating dysentery in South Asia?) will be lured in by an individual putting forth so much effort to help.

How We Picked Them

To compile our list of top philanthropies, we polled everyone from fellow journalists to independent experts who keep track of nonprofits all over the world, and we used Facebook and Twitter to broadcast our interest. We also brought in Kate Siber, a tireless Colorado-based writer who spent weeks beating the bushes for capable nonprofits that are doing work that is both worthwhile and innovative. Siber relied on ratings from organizations like Charity Navigator and Charitywatch, but she also looked to other credibility factors, including partnerships with government agencies and NGOs, transparency (does the organization clearly spell out its mission and the results it鈥檚 achieved?), 颅efficiency (how much is spent on programs instead of overhead?), and scope. Your favorites aren鈥檛 on the list? Tell us all about them at fixtheworld@outsidemag.com. It鈥檚 a big planet out there. No doubt we鈥檒l be doing this again.

Do Diligence

How to size up charities on your own

There are 1.6 million nonprofits in the U.S., but only a small number are rated by groups like Charity Navigator () and the National Center for Charitable Statistics (). Interested in one that hasn’t been vetted by either? Do your homework using their methods.
Check financial health. Efficient charities spend at least 75 percent of their annual budget directly on programs, according to Charity Navigator. An organization should be able to provide recent 990 forms鈥攁n annual report to the IRS, required of most nonprofits, describing their mission and finances鈥攐nline or upon request.
Assess executive compensation. You don’t want to spend too much on somebody else’s salary. Be aware that average executive pay for the largest 5,500 organizations is $150,000, but highly effective organizations may spend more for a seasoned CEO.
Consider reputation. Grants from well-known groups, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, or contracts with government agencies lend organizations credibility, since they require detailed vetting. Do a search of the organization on Google News for any red flags.
Request the organization’s policy on donor relationships. Most will agree not to sell your contact information to other groups or will offer you the opportunity to opt out.
Investigate results. Established charities should be able to demonstrate the need for their services, report their activities, measure their results, and communicate all of it clearly. If the group is small and local, observe projects in your area.

The post Citizen Philanthropy appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Anderson Cooper

Eyewitness
[42, NEW YORK CITY]
You were in Port-au-Prince less than 24 hours after the quake. With a tragedy of this scale, where do you start?
You just turn the camera on and open your eyes. No matter what direction you move, you keep the camera rolling. It's all happening in real time and goes on for days like that. Each morning you go out and think, OK, I'm going to look for a rescue, or, I'm going to go to a cemetery, but invariably you never get there, because so much comes across your path.

Do you sleep?
The first couple of days, you really don't. You shoot all day, and spend the nighttime editing and writing. But frankly, you don't think about that stuff, because it's so overwhelming.

Watching your reports, it seemed like anger might have become the dominant emotion among Haitians.
I think first there's the shock and horror of it all, and then you see how things play out. It doesn't get better, and the local government is completely not meeting the needs of its citizens, so there are a lot of things that anger people. Those are the people we talk to all day long. It's not so much what I think about it; it's more what I'm hearing from people. Why are people dying stupid deaths? A child doesn't need to die from an infection from a broken leg.

Is part of your role to broadcast that rage?
It's not so much that I'm broadcasting rage. I'm there to bear witness to what's happening. There's really nothing sadder than a child dying and no one knowing the suffering and pain of the loved ones left behind. And I think there's value in documenting that and giving voice to it.

There's been criticism directed at you and some of your CNN colleagues for overstepping your roles as objective journalists and getting involved in the story. At one point, you jumped into a crowd of looters to pull out an injured boy.
To be in places before relief workers are there: That presents some unique challenges. You suddenly find yourself in a situation where, say, you're a doctor鈥攚hat do you do? There are some journalism purists who say that you do nothing, that you just go watch and report, and I certainly understand that. But in the case of the little boy [in Haiti] who got hit in the head with a cement block, no one was helping him. He couldn't get up. He'd try to get up and collapse. Blood was pouring from his head…It was a split-second decision to take him out of the situation. I think anyone would have done the same thing if they had the opportunity.

What kinds of stories make you want leave the studio and jump on a plane?
I tend to be drawn to stories that aren't on people's radar. When I was a kid, I used to look at old maps with unexplored regions. I find it interesting that with all the technology we have today, there are still places that don't make headlines. The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is one I've traveled to report on a lot. There are six million people who have died in the Congo in the past ten years. It's the deadliest conflict since World War II, but very few people know much about it. It's truly horrific.

We ran a piece recently by Nicholas D. Kristof, arguing for the need to find hopeful stories within a tragedy to get people's attention. Is that something you try to do?
I believe in telling the reality of what's happening. And some nights there isn't much to be hopeful for. But even the first day after the quake in Haiti, before the rescue crews got there, [we filmed] people rescue a little girl. That was a positive thing.

What effect do the things you witness have on you personally? Is it traumatic?
There was a time when I first started, when I made a fake press pass and borrowed a camera and headed into wars, and for three years that was the only kind of story I was interested in doing. It definitely takes a toll. You have to be very conscious of its effects and try to take a break when you need to.

There's also the inherent danger you're dealing with for prolonged periods.
I'm far more acutely aware of my surroundings than my friends who have regular jobs. I'm acutely aware of who's around and what the possibilities are. It changes the way you see your surroundings. But I don't seek out dangerous situations. I'm pretty much a chicken. Truly, I don't believe [my team has] taken any risks.

What about when you were younger?
My first three years, I can't believe some of the things I did. The idea of going to Somalia alone, not having a place to stay or security. I was 23 or 24. There was fighting between different clans in the city. I literally landed on the airstrip and had no idea about the town. A truckload of gunmen approached me, and I ended up hiring them as my gunmen, and we went around to the burial grounds where all these bodies were being dumped, and there were all these empty pits. I was thinking, They could just shoot me and put me in a pit and no one would ever know.

Were you just naive?
I don't think I was naive; I just didn't allow fear to stop me from going to a place. I don't believe you should be ruled by fear in anything in your life. I don't like anything that scares me, and I prefer to face it head-on and get over it. Anyone who says they're not scared is a fool or a liar or both. I just don't want that fear in my stomach to be part of my life, so I work to eliminate it.

Some of the athletes we talk to seem to crave the adrenaline that goes with fear.
I think it's a little different. I have no interest in jumping out of an airplane, or any of the things people do for thrills to push their limits and all that. To me, that seems foolish, and there's no point. If people are suffering in a place, to me, it's not a question of whether I'm going to go or not, it's a question of how fast can I get there?

国产吃瓜黑料 Icon: Ivan Watson

Chaos Correspondent

[34, ISTANBUL]
Cooper isn't the only guy in a tight T-shirt reporting live from Haiti these days. CNN recently poached Ivan Watson from National Public Radio. Here's his take on the crisis in Haiti:”You don't have someone you can be angry at in Haiti. There's little more you can do than shake your fist at the sky. This is real 'wrath of God' stuff. Yesterday they gave me a mandatory day off. I wasn't allowed to work. You go at a sprint for five days, and then your body starts to deteriorate. I've never covered anything this big鈥攖he amount of human suffering, the loss. It was so overwhelming that I couldn't process it at first. But then it became clear that it was a duty to get some word out about this place. The only way I could deal with the bodies stacked up was to put on the journalistic lens. The scale of the damage was so huge that I couldn't pretend to pitch in. There was a girl who was in trouble, and I didn't drop everything to help. We reported on her and we were running from one place to another. I checked up on her later and didn't expect this little girl to die. If it had happened three days later, and I had been capable of understanding what the hell was going on, I would have tried to do everything to save this trapped girl but…didn't. It will haunt me forever.”

国产吃瓜黑料 Icon: Sonnie Trotter

Rock Star

Sonnie Trotter

[30, SQUAMISH, B.C.]
A lot of climbers drill permanent safety bolts into the rock every six or seven feet, but we're going back and doing trad routes the way they would've been done back in the seventies. We've nicknamed it “retro-trad.” Some outstanding climbs would've never been bolted if they weren't 5.14. Only now, climbing that hard on trad gear鈥攕toppers, cams, and nuts that are placed into cracks and then removed鈥攊s relatively normal. So that's what we're doing. When I was 16, I saw footage of Peter Croft doing a climb like this in Yosemite. It was a 5.13 finger crack, and it had bolts on it. He ignored them. It just seemed to make sense to me. You can turn a lot of sport climbs into really dangerous trad climbs, but I'm looking for lines with big, bold features鈥攖he ones that scream out from across the valley. Maybe they have history. These I find worthy of the challenge. And, of course, they help me hone my skills for my own first ascents.

Trotter, who's climbed trad routes as hard as 5.14c, spent March establishing new routes on Mexico's 2,500-foot El Gigante.

国产吃瓜黑料 Icon: Lynsey Dyer

Huck Doll

[28, JACKSON HOLE]
The more skiing becomes a job, the less you get to ski for fun. I used to feel like I had to prove myself all the time. It was kind of like “Hold my beer. Watch this.” It's always good to stomp those giant airs, but the skiing part has become underappreciated. A lot of the time, just getting to the cliff is the burliest part of the line, the part that shows whether you're a legit skier. When you watch somebody ski fluidly from top to bottom, that's what makes you want to go do it. Most of the big lines I've skied so far have been around Jackson. But there's nothing like Alaska. I've put a lot of time in up there but still haven't gotten my dream opportunity. All the guys are champing to get up there. They have seniority and dictate what's going on鈥攚hether you get on a helicopter that's going to the best places. I just want to keep putting my time in, so when I get the call I'm ready. When women are given a chance, you'll be impressed.

Dyer, a former Junior Olympic gold medalist, left racing to ski the biggest cliffs and steepest faces for the cameras of Warren Miller and Teton Gravity Research. She's the co-founder of , which aims to increase female participation in sports.

国产吃瓜黑料 Icon: Reid Stowe

Marathon Mariner

Reid Stowe

[58, ADRIFT]
There are many reasons I decided to do this voyage, but they've changed a lot since I first conceived of it, in 1986, and left land in 2007. I've been at sail for more than a thousand days now鈥攖he longest sea voyage without resupply in history. But I still have months and months to go, so I can't celebrate. I'm trying not to look ahead, but right now it seems as if I don't have a home. This boat is the only home I have, and it's been beaten up in every way. At the beginning of the voyage, I was hit by a ship on autopilot, so I've sailed this whole time with a partially disabled boat. I capsized at one point, but I kept going. In a way, I succeeded through the power of love, because if you truly love what you're doing, you can succeed at whatever you do. I've learned a lot about myself by being separated from society for so long. I've learned that we as humans must explore. We must see and discover new things or we degenerate. My hope is that this voyage will inspire people to overcome their fears and follow their dreams鈥攖o explore. I kept going because I had to. What else could I do?

Stowe was on day 1,003 at sea when we reached him via sat phone. He'd been sailing back and forth between the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. He plans on docking his 70-foot schooner, Anne, at New York City this June.

国产吃瓜黑料 Icon: Lewis Gordon Pugh

Sea Lion

[40, LONDON]
I started out wanting to swim in places where nobody had swum before: Antarctica, the Arctic, all the bloody-cold places. I wanted to be a pioneer, a descendent of Scott and Amundsen, except an explorer of the oceans. I think I was born to swim, but standing on the ice edge at the North Pole in just a Speedo and goggles, I was terrified. You dive in and the water's 28 degrees鈥攃older than what killed the Titanic's passengers鈥攁nd it's like a death zone. It feels like somebody punched you in the stomach. You cannot breathe. Your skin is on fire. But doing this also gives me an opportunity to shake the lapels of world leaders who aren't taking the environment seriously. In 2008, I swam north of Spitsbergen and was so shocked by how thin the sea ice had become I called Gordon Brown on my satellite phone. We had a long chat. Shortly after, he appointed a climate-change minister in Britain.

In May, Pugh will attempt a one-kilometer swim through the near-freezing waters of an unnamed lake, at about 18,000 feet at the foot of Everest.

国产吃瓜黑料 Icon: Maya Gabeira

Giant Rider

[23, OAHU]
The first time I saw a really big wave was at Waimea, at the Eddie Aikau invitational. I was 17 and had just moved to Hawaii from Brazil. I wanted to live on my own. I wanted to figure out who I was and what I really wanted in life. I knew that day that I wanted to surf those waves. After a year of sitting in the lineup with the boys, I caught my first big one鈥攎aybe 15 feet鈥攁nd everything just felt right. I was so focused and in the moment. I loved it. Soon enough I was surfing big waves all over the world. I ended up at Teahupoo, in Tahiti. I was really nervous. I took two big wipeouts, either of which could have ended my career. But it didn't feel right to sit on my board and look stupid, to give up. So my partner, Carlos Burle, towed me out again, and I caught one. People criticized me for taking those risks, for getting in over my head. And, yes, in the beginning I did take a lot of risks, but in the beginning you have to take those risks. How else do you make it? How else do you realize your dreams?

Last August, Gabeira surfed a 45-footer at Dungeons, South Africa, the largest wave ever ridden by a woman鈥攚hich makes her a shoo-in for her third consecutive Billabong XXL title.

国产吃瓜黑料 Icon: Cody Townsend

Water…Skier

[26, SANTA CRUZ]
A little over a year ago, Mike Douglas and I came up with the idea to ski on waves. We're both longtime surfers and professional skiers, so the idea came naturally. Very few people knew about the project when we arrived in Maui. We were sure we'd get blasted out of there as kooks if locals heard about some haoles trying to ski on waves, but everyone was supportive. The technology is pretty far behind. It's like skiing on hickory skis 50 years ago. We used alpine ski boots and super-fat wake skis. After one ride, a wave sucked me down and gave me the worst hold-down of my life. I was standing on a reef below the surface. Even with a life jacket on, I couldn't get up. My skis felt like 200-pound weights on each leg. But we also got up to 25-second rides on some big waves with 20-foot faces. It felt like skiing on top of a slow, wet avalanche. It'd be the easiest way ever to get barreled. On a surfboard, you often get spit out, but on skis you can stall out in the tube. By the end of the trip we knew exactly what equipment we'd have to design to make it better.

Townsend is a professional skier, surfer, and watersports innovator.

国产吃瓜黑料 Icon: Nikki Kimball

Endurance Predator

[38, BOZEMAN, MONTANA]
Fun? The race? Fun? Yeah, there were parts of it that were fun. One time, five of us were running along the singletrack and saw this wasp nest, and there was nothing we could do but run through it. (You can't go off-trail, because the jungle's too thick.) These hornets were as long as your little finger鈥攈uge. You just heard swearing in five different languages. It was hilarious in a warped kind of way. It's not always painful. I was 27 when I started entering trail races. I'm a slow runner, but I can run for a really long time. It's like hiking at a faster pace. You get to see so much more country, and race organizers are always holding these things in amazing places. It's very social for me. I never took the racing seriously until the press noticed that I had a six-year winning streak. I think each person has a finite number of world-class performances in them.

Starting in 1999, Kimball went seven consecutive years without losing an ultramarathon, including the U.S. national championships. She just returned from winning Brazil's 150-mile Jungle Marathon.

国产吃瓜黑料 Icon: Teresa MacPherson and Banks

Guiding Lights

Teresa MacPherson

Teresa MacPherson and Banks

[57 and 6, FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA]
I went to Port-au-Prince with the second wave of people from our task force with Banks, my 65-pound black Labrador, who is trained to find living people. The rubble went on for miles and miles. Helicopters were continually overhead. Rescue teams were everywhere. We used the dogs to discover people trapped in difficult-to-reach places. Banks crawled into voids, tunneling through an unstable environment where no human could go. He barked when he detected the scent of a living person. It could be seven days before an extrication was complete. The doctors said the victims were probably able to survive because they were used to subsisting on so little. The best canine story in Haiti was about a dog that ran out of its search area and began barking at a wall. They bored a hole in it and stared into the face of a three-year-old, dehydrated but alive. That was a 100 percent dog find. I often wondered if our training would be good enough for a disaster of this magnitude. Would the dogs just go, Are you kidding me? But Banks totally did his job. Our group made 16 rescues, a new record for us. Thankfully, we made a difference.

Virginia Task Force One canine search specialist Teresa MacPherson manages FEMA's disaster dog program. She and her Labs have worked in the aftermaths of the Oklahoma City bombing and hurricanes Ike and Katrina.

This article originally appeared as Parting Shot in 国产吃瓜黑料's April 2010 issue.

国产吃瓜黑料 Icon: Rolando Garibotti

Silent Master

[39, JACKSON HOLE]
Am I media shy? I don't make sponsorship money or apply for grants. I make a living as a guide, and that works well enough. I don't object to media after the fact, but I'm always surprised when people promote a climb before doing it, because it's difficult to deal with the pressure of those expectations. The Torre Traverse [Patagonia's Cerro Standhardt, Punta Herron, Torre Egger, and Cerro Torre] took me almost three years. I dedicated all of my time to it. The reason Colin Haley and I pulled it off is because we're very good at planning, not because we're particularly good climbers. We had barely enough food and were barely warm enough. We asked to withdraw the climb from the Piolet d'Or [mountaineering's highest award] in early 2009. That was the second time I'd done that. The first was for a new route on Cerro Torre, in 2005. I just thought the idea that somebody would win this Piolet d'Or was ridiculous. I'm down here with Haley, again. We have an idea, but I don't know if we'll pull it off this year, so I think I'll keep it to myself.

Garibotti has held the record for the Grand Traverse鈥攃limbing ten Teton peaks鈥攕ince 2000, with a time of 6:49.

国产吃瓜黑料 Icon: Trip Jennings

River Lover

[27, PORTLAND, OREGON]
There's no road map that shows you how to make a living as a kayaker and filmmaker, but last December I knew I had done it when I paid my cell-phone bill on time. The idea behind my first film, Bigger Than Rodeo, was to blend environmental activism and cutting-edge whitewater. I drove around the country in a '96 Subaru Impreza and maxed out three credit cards while showing footage of a paddler running a 105-foot waterfall. It took three more films and two more credit cards to figure out a combination of adventure and activism that worked. You don't get an interesting job by filling out an application; you commit to your dream the same way you do a waterfall: pick your line and dive headfirst. I'm glad I did it. In the past two years, my filming expeditions to Papua New Guinea, China, the Congo, Bolivia, Canada, and Brazil have been paid for through a partnership with National Geographic and the International League of Conservation Photographers. In the next six months I'm scheduled to shoot one film about elephant poaching in the Congo and another about kayaking in Laos. I created my dream job. It all started because I spent a year living out of a moldy Subaru and poaching continental breakfasts at cheap motels.

In 2008, Jennings led a team down the rebel-infested lower Congo, the last of the world's great unrun rivers. His films for National Geographic TV use kayaks to access Class V rivers in the service of science.

The post 国产吃瓜黑料 Icons appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

HERE’S THE THING about the Wooden Bike Classic, in Rwanda: It’s not really a bike race. Well, there are bikes. Sorta. They’re more like prehistoric scooters, carved from eucalyptus trees, with wobbly wooden wheels, wooden handlebars, a wooden platform for your feet, and a splintery wooden seat that’s best avoided if you want to have children someday. They look like they were stolen from Fred Flintstone’s garage, and though they’ve been pushed around Rwanda for as long as anyone can remember鈥攈auling bananas, tea, coffee, beans, mangoes, plantains, oranges, chickens, goats, pigs, and whatever else can be lashed aboard鈥攏o one ever thought of racing them until Tom Ritchey rode into town.

Biking Rwanda

A Rwandan racer takes a test spin at the start of the Wooden Bike Classic, September 2007.

Biking Rwanda

Terraced agricultural plots in Rwanda, “the Land of a Thousand Hills”

Biking Rwanda

From left, Ritchey in Butare; the start of the 2007 Wooden Bike Classic; a family walking home near Ruhengeri

Biking Rwanda

From left, Racing, wooden-bike style; Team Rwanda on the podium after the Wooden Bike Classic road race; team rider Adrien Niyonshuit, who won the event

Biking Rwanda

Biking Rwanda

Ritchey is greeted by an entire village on the road to kimbuye.

Biking Rwanda

Ritchey, 51, a lanky, handlebar-mustached Northern California bike builder, first traveled to Rwanda in 2005 to have, as he likes to say, “a great midlife crisis.” An ex-racer who crafted some of mountain biking’s earliest lightweight frames in the eighties, Ritchey was enthralled by Rwanda’s wooden bikes, which are found all over its mountainous, landlocked countryside. No two are built exactly the same, and Ritchey was staggered by the innovations he saw: hand brakes that use rubber strips from worn-out tires, metal bearings taken off old cars, aluminum cans repurposed as reflectors. These were magnificent machines. Then, being an American, he thought, Hey, let’s race ’em.

So now I’m here on a humid September morning in the dusty college town of Butare, at the start line of the Wooden Bike Classic 2007, along with a hundred or so Rwandans, many of them barefoot teenage boys, and about a dozen American lunatics, including Ritchey, who’s conducting a prerace inspection. The Rwandans don’t know Ritchey by name, but they figure the White Dude in the Navy Shorts is in charge somehow, and they clear a path as he runs a hand across their rickety handlebars and wheels. Ritchey halts when he comes to a skinny young man holding a broken wooden frame in his right hand and a busted set of wheels in his left.

“No, no, noooo, man,” Ritchey says in his mellow-yellow California accent. “You can’t just run it. You’ve gotta ride it.”

The kid has no idea what he’s saying, but someone else explains to him, in Kinyarwanda, the regional language, “The bike cannot be carried, dude. It must be ridden.” The dejected racer walks away.

Ritchey, who’s now at the start line, is waving his arms maniacally as he instructs a Rwandan man about the proper way to start a bike race. “You gotta do it this way!” he says. “You gotta say, Ready! Set! Go!” Ritchey pumps a fist three times. “Ready…Set…Go!“

All around me, the Rwandan racers are getting impatient. They start clapping in unison, like high school football players on the sidelines in some cheesy movie. Ritchey hustles to the back and grabs a tall wooden bike. The Rwandan starter jumps out and flails his arms, just like Ritchey told him to do.

The race is a mile long, most of it on this dirt road. I feel a twinge of nervousness as I place my left foot on my wooden bike and dig my right foot into the red African earth.

“Are you readeeeeee?!” the starter asks.

“Get…

“Set… “

OH, RIGHT: Rwanda.

Not exactly a biking destination, you’re thinking. A country less than a decade and a half removed from the genocide of 1994, in which mobs slaughtered some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in roughly 100 days. A place so stigmatized by terror and tragedy that when I told my mother I was going there, she responded with only one anxious word: “Why?“

Well, for starters, I’d heard there was a story to be told, about a tiny country pulling itself out of the clutches of civil war and becoming a surprising model for self-improvement in Africa. There were reports of national reconciliation, international private investment, and a promising trickle of global tourism. But I’ll confess: I mostly came for the wooden bikes.

The plan was simple. As Ritchey explained to me over the phone from his home in the Bay Area a couple of months before our trip, I would meet him and some of his friends in the capital, Kigali. We would ride mountain bikes around the country for a few days, ending up in the southern city of Butare for a string of weekend races that would culminate in the Wooden Bike Classic.

And that was the extent of the agenda. Though Ritchey owns his own company, Ritchey Logic, which sells high-end bike components around the world and has some 50 employees, the man doesn’t really do superfirm plans. He also doesn’t pack much for his frequent biking adventures. Marion Clignet, a French Olympian who won cycling silver medals in 1996 and 2000, joined us in Rwanda and told me about a bike trip she’d taken with Ritchey a few years ago in the Pyrenees, for which he brought a wool jersey, shorts, flip-flops Velcro’d to the front fork, and a toothbrush sawed in half to shave weight. He used newspapers picked up along the route to keep his chest warm. (Not surprisingly, one of Ritchey’s coolest inventions is the Break-Away, a top-tier road bike that can be disassembled to fit into a piece of luggage about the size of an accordion.)

Rwanda is a potential paradise for hardcore cyclists. At least that’s what Ritchey’s friend, investment manager Dan Cooper, decided when he went there on a business trip in 2004. The country is roughly the size of Vermont and even more vertical鈥攊t’s known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, and the endlessly repeated punch line is that the title leaves out a few zeros. Elevations range from 3,100 to almost 15,000 feet, and during his stay Cooper saw hundreds of miles of winding dirt roads, spectacular vistas, and few cars. You can even ride road bikes on a couple hundred miles of paved routes. A former colony of Germany and Belgium, Rwanda also possesses a rich cycling culture. In addition to the wooden bikes, it’s home to thousands of taxi-bike riders, a handful of competitive cyclists, and an annual Tour of Rwanda stage race.

In December 2005, Ritchey flew to Rwanda to see for himself. It was a delicate period in his life; his marriage had recently fallen apart. “I didn’t know how to deal with my 17-year-old daughter or my 17-year-old company,” he says. “I went out on a metaphorical gangplank and decided it was time to jump.”

So he got on his bike and cranked out hundreds of Rwandan miles, visiting tiny villages and the bustling capital. He talked with mechanics crafting homemade bikes and pedaled alongside taxi riders pushing 30-pound tubs of steel. “I had no plan,” he recalls. “It was a completely spontaneous, walk-in-through-the-door experience for me.”

The Westerner Affected by Africa is one of the great travel clich茅s, but it exists for a reason. Ritchey likes to say that Rwanda is “a place of second chances,” and here he was, desperately needing a reboot. Within weeks of returning to the U.S., he’d started a nonprofit called Project Rwanda. He began welding away in his garage on a low-cost, low-maintenance “coffee bike” that could speed up the transportation of freshly picked beans, enabling farmers to sell them to U.S. and European buyers at a premium (see “Mean Bean Machine,”). He concocted the Wooden Bike Classic, envisioning it as an annual tourist draw鈥攁 sub-Saharan running of the bulls. And he turned to his old friend Jock Boyer鈥攖he first American to complete the Tour de France, in 1981鈥攖o develop a Rwandan national cycling team that could spread the feel-good word about the country’s recovery. Boyer would come to Rwanda searching for his own kind of new start. In 2002, after pleading guilty to a felony charge of molesting an 11-year-old girl鈥攁 crime that stunned the cycling world鈥攈e’d served nine months in prison. Ritchey’s decision to offer him a job was inspired, in part, by a Christian belief in the power of forgiveness.

“I hired Jock because he was a faithful, reliable, and uniquely gifted friend,” says Ritchey. “And after the troubles he’d been through, and my experience with Rwanda healing itself, it seemed to make sense and fit together.”

A longtime supporter of Christian charities, Ritchey says he was inspired by Rwanda’s ability to forge on as a country. “I realized I was in the center of a place that was almost a vortex of reconciliation and renewal,” he says. “It’s the most obvious observation, but when you see the scars on a person over 13 years old, what must have happened to their parents…” His voice breaks. “They’re just getting on with life.”

OUR BIKING GROUP IS A COLORFUL CREW. Along with Boyer and Clignet, there’s Kelly Crowley, 30, a world-champion Paralympian in women’s swimming and cycling, with an underdeveloped right arm, who used to be Ritchey’s next-door neighbor. There’s Ritchey’s old friend Kevin Cusack, a 51-year-old Michigan investment manager, and Doug Grant, a happy-go-lucky guy from Orange County who held a Project Rwanda fundraiser ride on his 50th birthday and raised $30,000. There’s also a small group from a Christian charity called Kids Across America鈥攁ll wearing matching white safari shirts鈥攈ere to launch a U.S.-style sports camp.

Our first ride happened two days into the trip. After a quick group photo taken about an hour outside Kigali, zoom: We were off down a steep, bouncy dirt road. The landscape was astonishing鈥攕umptuous valleys thick with green-tea plantations and dense eucalyptus forests; jagged, cloud-lined cliffs; steep waterfalls that dove into shimmering rivers and lakes. At times it looked like Brazil meets Switzerland meets Maui.

Let me admit right here that I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I’ve been riding road bikes for a few years now, racing as a thoroughly mediocre amateur for the past two. But I live in New York City, and I’ve hardly done any mountain biking. Ritchey doesn’t exactly subscribe to the everyone-sticks-together theory鈥攃onsciously or not, he likes to floor it and see who hangs. After a half-hour or so, I was dropped and depressed. Then it dawned on me: Up the road were a five-time Tour de France competitor (Boyer, who’s also won the Race Across America twice), a six-time world champion (Clignet), and Tom freakin’ Ritchey. It wasn’t like I was riding with three chumps in cargo shorts.

And then she appeared, from out of the woods鈥攁 barefoot girl around five years old, dressed in a rose-colored smock. She began to run alongside me, smiling.

“Where are you going?” she asked in English.

“Ruhengeri,” I said, though I was sure I’d totally mangled the pronunciation.

“Where are you going?”

“Ruhengeri.”

“Why?”

“To sleep.”

“Why?“

And on we went. I crawled along in a low gear; she hopped along, with no shoes, for at least a mile, into one village, then the next. Later, Boyer would tell me that many of the people we encountered on the mountain roads rarely stray more than 20 miles from their homes, never seeing larger cities like Kigali or Butare. I could not imagine what I must have looked like to the girl. In my white helmet, bug-eyed sunglasses, and black-and-yellow spandex uniform, I was a superfreak, a fact confirmed when I rode into the next village, where a young boy perched on a bluff let out a buoyant scream:

“MUU!“

(Inhale.)

“ZUUUUNNN!“

(Inhale.)

“GOOOOOOOO!“

As in mzungu, Swahili for “white person.” This is what I would be called throughout the trip鈥攁t least 150 times a day before lunch. Not only is it accurate; it’s clearly a very fun word to say, because as soon as the first kid let loose with a “Muuzuungooo!” there was another one saying it, and another, and another, until there was a formation of a dozen kids bouncing alongside my bicycle, giggling at my ridiculous getup and marveling at the fluke of my pigmentation.

I rolled into the village pursued like a tabloid celebrity. Ritchey and the gang were already there; he’d flagged down what appeared to be a wooden bike assembled by Hummer. The thing was at least six feet long. “I’ve never seen one like this before,” he said. “Would you look at those bearings? Those are from, like, a truck.”

I’d started to notice something unusual. In this village and all along the day’s route, we’d encountered tons of kids鈥攖here was a massive baby boom after the genocide, and 42 percent of Rwanda’s population is under 14. We saw old folks, too, but what you don’t see a lot of are people in their thirties. It’s a sad realization: There really is a missing generation here.

When I pedaled wearily into Ruhengeri as darkness was falling, I headed into the red-brick guesthouse where we were staying and peeled off my spandex. And for a moment, I started to tear up. Not because I felt grimy and exhausted (which I did), or couldn’t believe we’d have to ride this hard again the next day (which we would), but because I was overwhelmed. Earlier, Ritchey had told me, “You can’t leave this place untouched,” and I could already see he was right.

So I had a little cry. Then I stepped into the shower, lost my balance, slipped and fell on my ass, feet over head, and slammed my skull hard into the porcelain with a dramatic thwap. And I laughed, loudly, for what felt like an hour.

IT CAN BE TOUGH to get Rwandans to open up about the genocide, but nearly everyone we met had a story. A driver in Kigali, a Tutsi in his thirties, told us how he’d hidden in the woods and tied plastic bags filled with powdered milk around his feet to throw the militiamen’s dogs off his scent. Saidi, a gregarious driver hired by Ritchey’s cycling team, had been a spy for the Tutsi resistance, infiltrating the Hutu leadership and reporting back on when the killings would occur. A chef who works at Boyer’s house, in Butare, had recently been reunited with a son he’d presumed dead since the mid-1990s.

In Ruhengeri, we were invited to dinner at the modest home of John Rucyahana, an Anglican bishop who lives in the compound where we were staying. A small, stocky man dressed in matching olive shirt and pants, he welcomed us and took a seat in the living room under an enormous map of the world. As a meal of chicken, goat, and rice was served, there was a loud thunderclap, and rain rattled off the tin roof.

Bishop John told us his story. Of Tutsi descent, his family had gone into exile in Uganda and the Republic of the Congo in the sixties, when the new Hutu regime began target=ing their countrymen. Like other older Rwandans, he pointed out that the 1994 genocide had been preceded by many smaller attacks. “This country lost about 300,000 people between 1959 and 1962,” he said.

For most of the next 30 years, the bishop was in Uganda with 150,000 other Tutsi; he spent 1988 at a seminary in Pennsylvania. After reports of renewed killings in Rwanda reached Uganda in the mid-nineties, he returned to his homeland. “The forces of darkness were unleashed here,” he said as rain battered the roof. “I was feeling a huge call to come witness the horrors.”

In America, of course, the Rwandan genocide inspires guilt, because our government did little to stop it. It’s immeasurably worse in Rwanda. “You need to be able to understand the guilt we carry,” Bishop John said. “Imagine how it must feel for those who took the machete to their brothers.”

Lately, however, the bishop is seeing reason for hope. There’s a stable government, led since 2000 by President Paul Kagame, a former Tutsi general. There are promising steps in education and public health, especially in the prevention and treatment of HIV. Kagame’s business-friendly approach has helped earn Rwanda’s coffee farmers major corporate buyers in Costco and Starbucks. Last year, Google sent a team to the country to set up communication services at government ministries and three universities. Meanwhile, the government has been aggressively investing in Web access across the country, a debatable choice for a nation made up mostly of subsistence farmers.

There’s also been a pronounced uptick in the number of adventure travelers. Though tourists have long come to see mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park, the visits were usually part of East Africa package safaris. Now Rwanda is becoming a destination in its own right. Part of the draw is the genocide memorials, which attract sightseers looking for the same kind of inspiration that Ritchey felt. But upscale outfitters have also launched a number of new trips since 2003, and in June the celebrated Governors’ Camp chain opened a luxury resort in the foothills of the Virunga Mountains.

Ritchey’s Project Rwanda is supposed to add to the positive momentum. The coffee bikes, which farmers buy for about $185, have the potential to boost the annual revenues of Rwanda’s half a million growers. The Boyer-led cycling team provides both international PR鈥攊t’s raced in a couple of U.S. events鈥攁nd national pride. Since the team came together, in the fall of 2006, they’ve shown signs of becoming a serious contender in the African Continental Confederation. Their top rider, Abraham Ruhumuriza, is ranked 72nd out of 400 African cyclists and, at the African trials, just missed a chance to compete in mountain biking at the Beijing Olympics.

“It’s a real blessing,” Bishop John said of the team. “We can use them to blow the bottleneck鈥攆or Rwandans to see that they, too, can fly.”

AFTER THREE MORE DAYS of riding鈥攁nd one over-the-bars, helmet-cracking crash by yours truly鈥擨 was ready for a break. Luckily, it was time for the first big event of the Wooden Bike Classic weekend: an 80-mile road race from Kigali to Butare. I’d just be watching, thank God.

In the start-line crowd at a mini-mall in downtown Kigali, the guys on the national team were easy to find. Not only were they dressed in blingy gold, green, and turquoise Project Rwanda kits; they were the only Rwandans riding bikes that looked like they’d been made after 1964.

There are five riders on the team: Ruhumuriza, Adrien Niyonshuit, Nyandwi Uwase, Nathan Byukusenge, and Rafiki Jean De Dieu Uwimana. Each of them raced bikes locally prior to being recruited by Boyer; several worked as bike messengers. They’ve become national celebrities. “Everybody know Rafiki now,” Rafiki said.

All the team members have devastating stories from the genocide. Soft-spoken Adrien lost six of his brothers. Nathan’s father was killed. Though they represent Rwanda’s new growth, the past is never far away. “We try to move on,” said Abraham. “But we think about it a lot.”

I hitched a ride in the Team Rwanda car with Boyer, as well as Ryan Scheer and Andrew Johnston, a pair of twenty-something filmmakers who flew over from Austin, Texas, to make a documentary about the team. They’d been in Rwanda for a couple of months and had the scruffy beards and farmer tans to prove it.

When the ride began, we roared off and chased after the peloton. At a rotary, we were suddenly joined by at least 60 green-helmeted motorcycle-taxi drivers. Our driver wove through the green helmets until he stopped short at a logjam, and鈥�smack!鈥攁 moto driver skidded and bonked off the back of our Toyota SUV. Andrew and Ryan laughed uproariously. The rider was OK; he hopped up, inspected his bike, and sped off.

“Go, go, go!” Boyer said to the driver. “What are you waiting for?” Then, to us: “I don’t think the driver is used to race driving. Maybe not any driving.”

The day’s route was perfect for Team Rwanda. They’re all lithe climbers鈥攏ot one of them weighs more than 150 pounds鈥攁nd the ride out of Kigali was punishingly steep. Within five miles, the lead group had been whittled down to about 20: the full team, along with Ritchey, Marion Clignet, Kevin Cusack, and a couple of Project Rwanda volunteers from the Bay Area. As a stretch of hills approached, the team rode to the front, and the mzungus started dropping away.

Boyer popped out of the sunroof and barked at his riders in French. “Allez, allez, allez! C’est bon! C’est bon!” A truck wheezed by and exhaled a plume of thick smoke. “Those guys are going to be eating a lot of diesel today,” he said.

By now Team Rwanda was riding alone; Adrien took the win in a brief team sprint at the finish line. But before we arrived in Butare, Boyer got a phone call from someone who told him that Ritchey had crashed. Not long after the climb out of Kigali, his front tire had flatted on a descent, sending him careering into a ditch. He landed in a grassy patch, narrowly avoiding a stand of trees. After “taking inventory” of his body and realizing there were no broken bones, he brushed himself off, replaced his inner tube, and jumped back into the race. Cusack would later tell me that he watched Ritchey roar past him at 30 miles an hour, drafting behind a truck. Only later did I learn that Ritchey had actually been holding on to the back of the truck.

“ALL I REMEMBER was doing this organic gymnastics routine, and I ended up in a ditch,” Ritchey said, somewhat dazed, an hour or so later in Butare. “Everything kind of went backward from there.” He wiped his head wearily. “Anyways, it’s good to see you guys.”

Butare was a scene. The main drag was crowded with trinket shops and restaurants, the biggest of which was the Hotel Ibis, a loud, outdoor caf茅 and mzungu magnet serving hamburgers and French fries. The Ibis was the headquarters for the weekend’s events, which included a mountain-bike race, a coffee-bike race, a single-speed race, and, finally, the wooden-bike extravaganza.

In town were a gaggle of well-groomed executives with World Vision, a massive Christian relief organization based in the U.S., there to discuss various programs related to Project Rwanda. Also in attendance were some of the bigger wallets in the realm of Christian giving, including Chicago investor Joe Ritchie (an adventure pal of the late Steve Fossett) and Dick DeVos, the Amway scion and a failed Republican candidate for governor of Michigan. With them was a stern posse of bodyguards from Blackwater Worldwide, the controversial private security corporation founded by DeVos’s brother-in-law Erik Prince. Having them there in sleepy Butare was like toting a bazooka to a baby shower.

Still, the moneymen did signal more change in Rwanda. As weird as it sounds, the country is on the verge of becoming trendy. Rwanda was recently the topic of a panel discussion at the Tribeca Film Festival. Shortly after my return to the U.S., a sprung-from-prison Paris Hilton would announce that she, too, plans to pay a visit to Rwanda. A friend of Ritchey’s would e-mail me to see if I know Hilton’s publicist鈥擱itchey is hoping the heiress will lug a few bikes over.

Not everyone is so impressed by the rush to modernity. An American engineer I met in Butare worried that Rwanda is getting too many sexy, 21st-century ideas like Wi-Fi and isn’t focusing enough on unglamorous pursuits like infrastructure. “There’s a lot of guilt money here,” he said. “But I can’t find people to pour concrete. They’re shitting in streams, and they all want to be Java programmers.”

It’s fair to say that Ritchey’s project combines both practical and whimsical ideas. There’s no question that his coffee bikes can have an impact on small farmers. And while the bike team is not a utilitarian venture, it can afford Rwandans the luxury to dream.

Indeed, helping Rwanda dream again might wind up being Ritchey’s true legacy, which is kind of amazing when you consider that he’s one of the main reasons people on this earth ride singletrack on wide, knobby tires. A man who made his name doing something a little insane a few decades back has been reborn by doing something a little insane again.

Which, naturally, brings us back to that wooden-bike race.

“ARE YOU READEEEEEE?!

“Get …

“Set …”

Oh, we’re going, all right. The first biker bolts off the line early, and a stampede follows. The Rwandans shriek as they sprint past a French television crew. “Zis is a crazee bike race!” the host will say to Ritchey later.

Frozen, I look up at the field ahead and the race just, well, explodes. I’ve seen stuff in races before, but I’ve never seen a half-dozen bikes fly eight feet into the air, wheels shooting off the back, handlebars bouncing by my head. It’s probably dangerous as hell, but everyone is laughing.

When I finally get going, a bike in front of me disintegrates, its rider falling to the ground and opening up a bloody gash on his forehead. (He’ll get stitched up by one of the Blackwater medics.) I watch Cusack roar by, feet in the air, being pushed by two kids. Then it happens to me, too. One moment I’m flailing; the next, four Rwandan kids are pushing me and my bike down the road. I feel the seat warping underneath me, and common sense tells me to tell them to slow down, but I just can’t. The adrenaline is too intoxicating. I think of one of Ritchey’s many Ritcheyisms: “There’s a lot of fun on the other side of risk.”

Yes, zis is a crazee race. But maybe it’s crazy enough to make a difference. None of this makes sense, after all. A country that’s endured what Rwanda has is not supposed to turn right around and become a tourist destination. People like Tom Ritchey are not supposed to restart their lives at 50 with a second act that may wind up dwarfing the first one. And as my groin can tell you, wooden bikes are not really supposed to be raced.

“People ask me, 鈥榃hy do you have the wooden-bike race?'” Ritchey says later. “And, really, I just think it’s funny.”

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Tom Ritchey Behind The Scenes
(1:30)

Rwanda bike race

Wooden Bike Classic racers run in the streets of Butare.

Video

Watch clips from Rwanda’s Wooden Bike Classic and listen to the 51-year-old bike builder talk about the country’s potential, in this clip put together by .

To see more videos from Project Rwanda, .

The Wooden Bike Classic
(11 photos)

Gallery

Almost fifteen years after the genocide, photographer traveled to Rwanda to take pictures of the Wooden Bike Classic and the country’s emerging cycling scene.

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Get ready for the new age of adventure on the world's wildest continent. Whether it's the Ugandan National Kayak Team leading raft trips on the raging White Nile or entrepreneurial young guides building stylish bush camps with an eye toward helping local communities, a fresh generation is redefining travel in Africa. Leave your pith helmet at home.

Mozambique: The New “It” Country

South Africa: The New Paradigm

Safari Camps: The New Aesthetic

国产吃瓜黑料 Guides: The New Adrenaline

Thrill Seekers: The New 国产吃瓜黑料s

The Isles Have It

After 16 years of civil war, Mozambique is back in the bliss business, with 1,500 miles of Indian Ocean coastline, thriving coral reefs . . . and peace at hand

“Tem for莽a,” said Abudo, in Portuguese. “O vento h谩-de soprar.”

Have strength. The wind will come.

The sail flapped listlessly as we drifted in the sun's growing heat. We'd hired the 70-year-old fisherman to sail us in his wooden dhow across a channel from Ilha de Mo莽ambique, a tiny speck off the northern coast, to a nearby isthmus of the mainland. Soon the wind did come, billowing the patched sails of nearby fishing dhows and winging them to sea. Beaching at a thatch village under coconut palms, we waded through tidal inlets to a spectacularly empty, several-mile-long curve of white beach. After snorkeling in the quiet shallows, avoiding enormous sea urchins, we hiked back to discover our dhow sprawled on its side on a sandy flat at least 500 yards from the water's edge.

“What do we do now?” I asked Abudo.

“Now we wait for the sea,” he replied.

听

Back in the fifties and early sixties, Mozambique then a Portuguese colony was on its way to becoming the Caribbean of Africa for white South Africans, landlocked Rhodesians, and others. After Portugal granted independence in 1975 commemorated in Bob Dylan's song “Mozambique” a new black socialist government came to power. Then came 16 brutal years of civil war.

Now, after more than a decade of peace, Mozambique is rebuilding, and tourism is one of its brightest spots. But you don't go there to zoom your crystalline lenses across the African savanna and zing off photos of the Big Five. During the war, bush fighters slaughtered many animals for food, and, as a result, there really isn't much big wildlife in the scrubby interior. Where you do find stunning wildlife is among Mozambique's palmy archipelagoes, coral reefs, and 1,500 miles of Indian Ocean coast that the civil war paradoxically kept pristine from development. Some 700,000 visitors arrive in the country annually (nearly double from 2001), many of them eco-tourists who've quickly spread the word.

During our year's stay in the capital city, Maputo, where my wife, Amy, was doing research on dance, we took advantage of the coastline most weekends. On our children's five-week Christmas school break, we flew deep into the subtropics, 12 degrees south of the equator. It was here, in 2002, that the World Wildlife Fund helped Mozambique establish Quirimbas National Park. This encompasses 11 of the 28 islands of the Quirimbas Archipelago, plus a large swath of the mainland's mangrove and miombo forests and the St. Lazarus Bank farther offshore, considered one of the world's premier diving and sportfishing locations.

The park is an experiment in eco-tourism, approved by the area's traditional fishing villages in order to preserve their way of life, manage marine resources, and develop basic services in a region with a life expectancy of less than 40 years. Rather than bringing in the masses, the park emphasizes limited, high-end tourism. Opened in 2002, the Quil谩lea Island resort offers elegant thatch-and-stone villas with access to empty beaches and some of the archipelago's best diving right offshore. The Medjumbe Island Resort, also on its own small island, gives easy access to bonefishing and scuba diving. At the Vamizi Island lodge, outside the park on a seven-mile-long island, you can luxuriate in a house-size villa. Backed by European investors, Vamizi collaborates with researchers from the Zoological Society of London to preserve the area's sea turtles and the mainland's elephant habitat.

In the clear waters of another island group, the Bazaruto Archipelago, off the southern coast and protected by a national park, you can swim (if you're lucky) with the threatened dugong a shy sea cow that supposedly inspired the mermaid myth. Upscale lodges here include the Benguerra and the Marlin.

My 51st birthday happened to find us on Ilha de Mo莽ambique, which lies partway between the Quirimbas and the Bazarutos. The Portuguese built their stronghold in East Africa on this tiny, 1.5-mile-long sliver of old coral and shipped out the interior's gold and ivory from here. Today there's still no place on earth like Ilha, which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. Tree roots sprout from the broken walls of old coral-and-stone villas in its narrow streets, rusted cannonballs lie about the massive fortress, the tiny chapel of the Southern Hemisphere's oldest church overlooks the sea, and the ornate St. Paul's Palace seems untouched dusty furniture and all since the time of the Portuguese.

European artists and architects are rehabilitating old villas into small hotels. We stayed at the Escondidinho, which had been renovated by an Italian doctor. Under its portico, looking onto a courtyard where it's rumored slaves were once sold, a French ballerina and her computer-engineer partner who chucked it all to move to Africa run a bistro featuring a delicious cuisine that, like the island itself, takes its accents from Africa and Europe, Arabia and India.

At the hour Abudo predicted, the ocean refloated our dhow. Soon we were broad-reaching amid flying spray. We would land just in time for me to join a fast-paced game with Ilha's men's soccer team near the fortress walls. Then I would meet my family in the bistro for kid-goat stew and birthday flan. But for now, it was just the wind and the sea.

Access & Resources
Getting听There:听Fly South African Airways () from New York to Johannesburg to Maputo for about $1,400 round-trip. From there, it's a two-hour flight on LAM () to Pemba, the launch point for charter flights to the Quirimbas. (For the Bazarutos, flights depart from Vilanculos.) Prime Time: April September, with crowds peaking in August. Where to Stay: The Quil谩lea Island resort has nine villas ($400 per person; 011-258-2-722-1808, ). There are 13 chalets at Medjumbe Island Resort (from $345 per person; closed for renovations until March; 011-27-11-465-6904, ). Vamizi Island lodge has ten beach houses ($560 per person; 011-27-11-884-8869, ). Escondidinho, on Ilha de Mo莽ambique, is a ten-room guesthouse (doubles, $50; 011-258-2-661-0078, ). Benguerra Lodge offers 11 chalets ($395 per person; 011-27-11-452-0641, ). There are 19 chalets at the Marlin Lodge (from $213 per person; 011-27-12-460-9410, ).

Peter Stark's book Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson鈥檚 Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival will be published in March 2014 by Ecco.

国产吃瓜黑料 Capital

More than just the darling of Bono and the Bills, South Africa is breaking down barriers鈥攆rom cosmopolitan Cape Town to the wild superparks of the future

IT'S THE DREAMLIKE, cinematic power of Africa unfolding yet again. This time, it's late afternoon when the leopard emerges from the bush, 20 feet away, crossing the sandy wash with a lazy stride, pelt rippling in the golden light. Then the radio crackles and we're fishtailing across the 54-square-mile Ngala Private Game Reserve, on Kruger National Park's western edge. Another cat's been spotted, and Jimmy Ndubane, our Shangaan tracker, leads us straight to it. This one is anything but lazy; seconds after we see the white tip of its tail twitching in the grass, the beast leaps forward and zigzags explosively through the meadow. We hear its prey, a mongoose, screaming and, finally, silence. It's awful, it's beautiful, it's what you came for: Africa forever.

However unforgettable, such classic safari epiphanies explain only part of South Africa's allure. You could come for the climbing or surfing, to dive with great white sharks, or to experience the spectacular two-ocean sailing. (The sleek black hull of Shosholoza, South Africa's 2007 America's Cup challenger and the race's first African entrant, was hauled out on the dock across the harbor from my hotel room in Cape Town.) You could come to beat the crowds flooding Johannesburg for the 2010 World Cup soccer finals聴though you'll probably miss Oprah's glittery 2006 New Year's Eve bash.

The best reason, however, is hope聴the dream that things can get better in Africa, that South Africa is leading the way, and that you can be part of it. A dozen years after the nightmare of apartheid, South Africa can still be a tough, bitter environment. But Mandela's vision of a democratic, multiracial African nation is alive and well, and tourism, once the target= of a global boycott, is the fastest-growing area of the economy, providing 1.2 million jobs for the country of 47 million.

On a wide-ranging journey through the nation's wild and urban landscapes, my goal was to max out on the abundant pleasures on offer while witnessing that transformed face. This meant obligatory visits to sprawling, hustling Jo'burg and laid-back, spectacular Cape Town, cities where the street life is set to a booming kwaito beat and revolutionary history is so fresh it's like 1776 was yesterday. South Africa, of course, remains happy to outfit you in khaki, mix you a gin-and-tonic, and make your Hemingway fantasies come true. But in the bush, too, big ideas are taking shape. The first is black empowerment, the integration of economic realms long dominated by whites. The second is South Africa's role in the global movement to create vast “transfrontier” parks that transcend borders while restoring wildlife routes.

Both ideas are being enthusiastically enacted at Tembe Elephant Park, a 190-square-mile preserve just south of Mozambique. The co-owner of Tembe's serene lodge compound, former Durban private detective Ernest Robbertse, manages the operation in partnership with the Tembe tribe. And walls will be coming down: In 1989, war in Mozambique led South Africa to erect an electric border fence, cutting off Tembe's massive 220-strong elephant herd from much of its range. The goal is to remove that barrier, reuniting Tembe's herd with their relatives in Mozambique's Maputo reserve.

An even grander expansion is planned at Kruger National Park, where I took a revelatory, weeklong game drive with naturalist Mike Stephens, experiencing close encounters with lions, rhinos, and a fantastic array of birds. Vast as Kruger may be (it's bigger than Israel), it's part of a pipe-dream-in-the-making called the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which will one day unite Kruger, Mozambique's Limpopo, and Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou in a superpark the size of Maine. “Hopefully,” one official told me, “we'll get herds the size of the Serengeti.”

For now, nothing I saw matched the luxurious wildness of Ngala. The lodge's 20 cottages are unfenced, so you must summon an armed guard if you want to leave your room after dark. This frisson of danger, along with manic four-wheel sprints cross-country looking for game (not allowed in Kruger), adds a keen adrenaline edge. Yet here, too, Ngala quietly preaches the transfrontier vision and, via its support of the Africa Foundation, social justice. In nearby Welverdiend, I saw the foundation's work: new schoolrooms and families piloting “hippo rollers,” easy-to-roll barrels, to the well.

Small steps, small connections. Will South Africa's future include prosperity, huge parks stretching over the horizon, and all its people experiencing Africa's riches, traveling in the footsteps of the wild herds of long ago? All I know is that I'm going back.

Access & Resources
Getting There: Fly to Johannesburg from New York on South African Airways () for about $1,200 round-trip. From there, fly to Durban to see Tembe Elephant Park. Conservation Corporation Africa's Ngala Private Game Reserve () is a two-hour flight from Johannesburg on Federal Air (011-27-11-395-9000, ). Prime Time: 狈辞惫别尘产别谤耸惭补谤肠丑. Where to Stay: Tembe Elephant Lodge offers ten safari-tent suites for $162 per person (011-27-31-267-0144, ). Ngala's 20 thatched chalets start at $280, including an overnight walking safari (011-27-11-809-4300, ). In Cape Town, try the hip little Kensington Place Hotel (doubles from $190; 011-27-21-424-4744, ), on the slopes of Table Mountain.

Bed, Bush, and Beyond

The latest safari camps aren't only rediscovering the rugged glamour and extravagance of canvas; they're also letting the community in on the action

Africa

Apoka Lodge // Uganda Good-quality digs were in short supply in Uganda until locals Jonathan Wright and his wife, Pamela, opened the remote Semliki Safari Lodge and Kampala's Emin Pasha Hotel. Now comes their latest addition, Apoka, in the northeast's Kidepo Valley National Park聴the choice place to see cheetahs. Ten elegant tent-cottages outfitted with locally made furnishings look out on the savanna聴a landscape traversed by the Karimojong, seminomadic pastoralists who receive a percentage of the lodge revenue and sell their crafts in the lodge store. Doubles from $640; 011-256-41-251-182,

Naibor Camp // Kenya The Art of Ventures, the company that started the groundbreaking Zen-like lodge Shompole in partnership with a group of Masai in southern Kenya, created nearby Naibor in 2004. The camp has recently been moved to the banks of the Talek River in the heart of the Masai Mara Game Reserve, flush with rhinos, cheetahs, hippos, zebras, and tons of birds. Its eight opulent canvas tents with verandas sit in a riverine forest, close to a wildebeest migration route. Doubles from $860; 011-254-20-883-331,

Onguma Camp // Namibia Built just outside Etosha National Park on a 50,000-acre private reserve, the luxury camp at Onguma has seven spacious tents incorporating wood, steel, and stone, all under billowing canvas ceilings. The U-shaped layout of tents, lodge, and a pool allows 24/7 views of a central watering hole. As in Kruger National Park, plans are afoot to remove fences between private reserves alongside Etosha to create one greater park. Doubles from $500; 011-264-61-232-009,

Nkwichi Lodge // Mozambique So lavishly remote is Nkwichi, the only way to reach it is by boat. Hidden on the eastern shore of the vast white-sanded Lake Malawi聴one of the world's largest freshwater lakes聴Nkwichi's six chalets (each with secluded open-air baths) are surrounded by the 370,000-acre Manda wilderness reserve, the perfect setting for exploring, canoeing, sailing the cerulean waters, or hammock time. The owners have helped the community with everything from growing vegetables to creating the reserve and developing a sustainable environment for tourism. Doubles from $320;

Marataba // South Africa Opened in 2005 on a private concession in Marakele National Park, a few hours north of Johannesburg, this 15-suite camp is owned by the Hunter family, which also runs the excellent Gorah in Addo Elephant Park, in the Eastern Cape. Set in a malaria-free landscape that quickly changes from veldt to mountain, Marataba has stonework reminiscent of African ruins聴and huge windows to take in the expanse of Big Five habitat. Doubles from $1,000; 011-27-44-532-7818,

Edo's Camp // Botswana In a 300,000-acre private reserve in the western Kalahari Desert, the four twin-bed tents of Edo's Camp overlook a water hole frequented by antelope and are the latest offering from esteemed outfitter Ker & Downey. Resident guides or the indigenous San people can help you track the seven endangered white rhinos relocated to the reserve from South Africa. Doubles from $660 (closed December through February); 800-423-4236,

Mequat Mariam // Ethiopia A two-bedroom tukul聴a round thatch-roofed hut of stone and mud聴sits at the edge of a cliff at nearly 10,000 feet, overlooking endless canyonland. This small piece of nowhere is Mequat Mariam, some 400 miles north of Addis Ababa. Mequat and its sister property, Wajela聴a seven-hour trek away, with photo ops of baboons聴are the work of Tourism in Ethiopia for Sustainable Future Alternatives, which supports nearly 300 local families. From $35 per person; 011-251-11-122-5024,

Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge // Rwanda Virunga Lodge, with its gorgeous vistas of the lakes and volcanoes of Parc National des Volcans, set the standard for comfort in gorilla-watching country, and it will soon have company: the Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge, set to open this spring. The brainchild of the people behind Governors' Camp, in Kenya, Sabyinyo is owned by a trust that helps support 6,000 households in the area. Doubles from $600; 011-254-20-273-4000,

Lupita Island Resort and spa // Tanzania The 14 open-air suites, each with a plunge pool, are carved into a hillside on lush Lupita Island with views across Lake Tanganyika. For off-island awe, take a four-hour drive to Katavi, one of the mainland's most remote savanna parks, or try a two-day trip on a lake cruiser to chimp-filled Mahale Mountain National Park. Doubles from $1,300; 011-255-27-250-8773,

Shumba camp // Zambia Wilderness Safaris, winner of multiple conservation and community-involvement awards, never does things in small measures. So it's no surprise that it opened four camps at once in Kafue National Park, one of the biggest reserves in Africa. All are intimate; the best of the quartet is Shumba, in Kafue's remote northwestern corner. Its six immense safari tents on raised platforms have four-poster beds and inviting couches looking onto sweeping savanna and wetlands. Doubles from $1,480; 800-513-5222,

Additional reporting by Danielle Pergament

Access & Resources
Since these lodges are remote, it's usually wise to book them as part of a bigger, customized itinerary聴your best bet is to have a reputable outfitter plan the logistics for you. Lodges can direct you to favorite outfitters, or you can try these recommended companies (check out the Web sites to see what each specializes in): Abercrombie & Kent (800-554-7094, ), Bushtracks Expeditions (800-995-8689, ), Explore Africa (888-596-6377, ), Ker & Downey (800-423-4236, ), Mango African Safaris (888-698-9220, ), Maniago Safaris (800-923-7422, ), Micato Safaris (800-642-2861, ), Africa 国产吃瓜黑料 Company (800-882-9453, ), Uncharted Outposts (888-995-0909, ), Volcanoes Safaris (770-573-2274, ), Wildland 国产吃瓜黑料s (800-345-4453, ).

The Wild Bunch

Nine Stellar guides with new-school safari smarts鈥攁nd a commitment to conservation鈥攖ake adventure and altruism where they've never been before

Phil West
The Nairobi-based West, 31, who guided for Kenya's Lewa Wildlife Conservancy before striking out on his own, is as passionate about ethnobotany as he is about tracking leopards. His custom-designed East African safaris might include a six-day walk through the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and two Masai areas, Il Ngwesi and Lekurruki Masai, plus rafting down Kenya's Ewaso Ng'iro River. Like most outfitters, West has arrangements with local tribes and parks, so nights can as easily be spent in a tent or a lodge and days spent ambling or driving.

Grant and Brent Reed
The two South African brothers, Grant, 32, and Brent, 33, come from a family of naturalists聴which explains their safari savvy and bird and reptile expertise. (Grant has been collecting snakes since he was five.) Cofounders of Letaka Safaris, the brothers offer everything from walking safaris to birdwatching in Botswana. But for a triple shot of adventure, sign up for one of the nine-day Wildguides courses at their Okavango Guiding School. Participants of all skill levels learn how to handle rifles, track animals on foot, and find their way back to camp on their own, while becoming versed in geology, fauna, and conservation issues of the lush Okavango Delta. ,

Endale Teshome
Born in Ethiopia, Teshome, 31, herded goats in the remote Bale Mountains until his teens. After guiding on his own, he joined Ethiopian Rift Valley Safaris, studying his nation's ancient and cultural history along the way. If it's the vastly diverse flora and fauna of the south you want to see, that's his home turf. In the north, Teshome tours rock-hewn churches聴places few foreigners have seen.

Craig Doria
South African Doria, 44, guided for ten years in Zambia, where he helped create an anti-poaching unit in the national parks, a passion he's carried to Tanzania, his current base. He's written two books about snakes and also collects DNA for wildlife research. His deluxe tented-camp- and lodge-based safaris, tailored to clients' interests, include hikes, driving, sailing, and more.

Derek Shenton
The third generation of his Zambian family to go into guiding and conservation, Shenton, 41, has built two camps, Kaingo and Mwamba, deep in the game-rich South Luangwa National Park, the launchpad for his guided walks and drives. The stylish Kaingo offers big-game close-ups. (Shenton's forte is tracking cats.) Three hours away by foot is the simpler but equally wild Mwamba. Shenton is a founding member of the South Luangwa Conservation Society, which fights poaching, offers job training, and educates children about wildlife.

Peter and Tom Silvester
The Silvester brothers, from Kenya, merge hipness with high ideals. Peter, 42, runs Royal African Safaris, an ultra-luxe outfitter operating in East Africa, Botswana, and South Africa. Frequented by celebs, CEOs, and royalty, RAS specializes in custom itineraries. (Guides usually visit clients in their home country to iron out details.) Guests stay in tented camps or at lodges like Loisaba, a 60,000-acre community ranch run by Tom, 39, who works it in tandem with the local Laikipiak Masai and Samburu and offers clients everything from mountain biking and camel safaris to rafting. A portion of the profits goes to wildlife research and the community. ,

Corbett Bishop
Originally from Texas, Bishop, 35, moved to Tanzania in 1994 to lead trips up Mount Kilimanjaro and, two years later, started a safari company there, offering mobile luxury camping and camel- or donkey-assisted treks. Bishop's most recent project, the two-year-old Ol Tukai Conservancy, funds both community development and conservation projects; it's named for a village in a critical wildlife corridor between Tarangire and Lake Manyara national parks.

Beyond Kakhi

Two-story rapids, hot, spouting lava, a frenzy of sharks, lions in the dark鈥攊f it's thrills you're after, you'll find them in Africa

Rafting
White Nile, Uganda
There's a simple way the guides at Nile River Explorers measure waves on the White Nile: If a 16-foot raft disappears entirely, the wave is about the size of a two-story building. But while the river's 30,000-cubic-feet-per-second flow (roughly three times that of the Colorado) creates monster rapids, there are swimmer-friendly calm spots in between, and NRE's guides include charter members of the Ugandan national kayak team. The 18-mile day trip begins with five Class IV聳V rapids, each with placid, crocodile-free pools below. Day trips, $95; luxury tented accommodations at the Nile Porch from $54; 011-256-43-120-236,

Hiking
Ol Doinyo Lengai, Tanzania
Allan Mbaga, Tanzanian owner of African Outdoor Expeditions, has worked with David Breashears and Imax film crews on Kilimanjaro, and he'll take you up Ol Doinyo Lengai, a 9,235-foot peak north of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. You'll spend two days climbing steeply through volcanic ash and lava rock; near the top, hikers pitch camp in the inactive south crater before exploring the north crater's steaming vents and magma pools. The five-day trek includes a visit to Lake Natron, where flamingos flock by the thousands. $1,900, all-inclusive; 011-255-744-263-170,

Surfing
Southwest Madagascar
This May through October, African Surfaris will guide clients around the planet's fourth-largest island聴considered one of the last undiscovered surfing outposts. The trip starts in the Toilara Reef region near the southwestern town of Toilara, just 25 miles north of Flame Balls聴a hollow 200-yard-long left reef break two miles offshore. Ten-day trips from $1,600, including airfare from Johannesburg, lodging, meals, and boat trips; 011-27-82-836-7597,

Fly-fishing
Zambezi River, Namibia
Cast a fly on the Zambezi, where 15-pound dagger-toothed tiger fish prowl. The posh Impalila Island Lodge, at the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi rivers, is not only the best place to find the ferocious fish; it's also within striking distance of Victoria Falls and beast-rich Chobe National Park. Seven-day trips with Aardvark McLeod from $4,000, all-inclusive, from Johannesburg; 011-44-1980-840-590,

Lion Tracking
Tsavo East National Park, Kenya
In 1898, two lions ate scores of railroad workers near what is now Tsavo East National Park. Today, area lions regularly kill livestock in nearby settlements, which is why in 2002 Earthwatch Institute launched its Lions of Tsavo program. Volunteers join American and Kenyan scientists to track and study the cats during night drives in order to help people and prides coexist. Thirteen-day trips from $3,249; 800-776-0188,

Horse Trekking
Malawi and Zambia
This fall, Malawi and Zambia are set to create the Nyika Transfrontier Conservation Area, a 13,500-square-mile international peace park. The best way to explore this remote region is by horseback on a mobile safari: two nights at the upscale Chelinda Lodge, followed by a week of galloping through montane grasslands and forested valleys, and hoofing it to the top of 8,553-foot Nganda Mountain. Ten-day trips from May through October, $3,090, including lodging, meals, and riding; 011-44-1-837-82544,

Diving
Port St. Johns, South Africa
Each winter, as the water temperature drops along South Africa's eastern coast, millions of sardines rocket the 300 miles from East London to Durban聴serving as the main course for sharks, seals, whales, and superpods of 5,000-plus common dolphins. June and July are the best months to catch the frenzy. Six-day dive trips from $1,800, including lodging, diving, and meals at iNtaba River Lodge; 011-27-21-782-2205,

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