Why Conservation Should Be Part of Every Alaska Adventure

We believe extraordinary wild places deserve more than admiration — they deserve protection. That is why every World Untouched journey gives 5% back to the ecosystems that make these experiences possible.

When I started building World Untouched Adventures, I knew I wanted to create something fundamentally different from the traditional tourism model.

Travel has become increasingly transactional.

You pay for an experience. You consume a place. You leave with photographs, memories, and stories to share.

But too often, the places making those experiences possible receive very little in return.

That never sat well with me.

After spending more than two decades working in some of the wildest ecosystems on Earth — from Alaska’s brown bear coast to remote corners of Asia and beyond — I’ve come to believe something very simple:

If we ask wild places to give us extraordinary experiences, we have a responsibility to give something meaningful back.

That belief became one of the foundational principles behind World Untouched Adventures.

We call it The Untouched Impact.

With every expedition we operate, 5% of every trip cost is automatically reinvested directly into conservation initiatives protecting the very ecosystems our travelers come to experience.

No opt-in donation boxes.

No guilt-driven fundraising campaigns.

No vague promises.

It is simply built into the cost of every journey because conservation should never feel optional.

We believe travel should leave places stronger than we found them.

This is not charity.

It is reciprocity.

But I also believe where those funds go matters just as much as the act of giving itself.

Far too often, conservation funding disappears into large organizations where donors have little understanding of how their money is actually being used.

I wanted something more direct.

More local.

More transparent.

Organizations doing real work on the ground, fighting for wild places under very real threat.

Having spent more than twenty years building my life around Alaska’s wildlife, I’ve seen how quickly extraordinary wild places can begin unraveling when long-term stewardship is treated as an afterthought.

That is exactly why we’ve chosen Alaska Wildlife Alliance as the permanent conservation partner for our Alaska expeditions moving forward.

We don’t believe travel should simply admire wild places. It should help defend them. Every World Untouched expedition directly funds conservation efforts working to protect the ecosystems that make these journeys possible.

For those unfamiliar with their work, Alaska Wildlife Alliance has spent decades standing at the front lines of wildlife advocacy in Alaska.

They are not passive observers.

They are willing to fight for Alaska when Alaska’s wild places need defending.

And increasingly, Alaska needs organizations willing to fight.

In recent years, Alaska has found itself at the center of deeply troubling wildlife management decisions that directly threaten some of the ecosystems and species that make this place extraordinary.

The ongoing Mulchatna predator control program has resulted in the aerial killing of nearly two hundred brown and black bears in southwest Alaska, including mothers with dependent cubs, under a highly controversial state management program.

Elsewhere, proposals like Johnson Tract Mine threaten one of the most ecologically important wild landscapes left in coastal Alaska — critical habitat supporting salmon systems, coastal brown bears, migratory birds, marine mammals, and local communities whose livelihoods depend on healthy ecosystems.

These are not abstract conservation debates.

These are real, immediate threats happening right now.

The wild places we ask people to fall in love with do not protect themselves. Conservation is not optional — it is part of the journey.

And organizations like Alaska Wildlife Alliance are doing the difficult work of pushing back.

This is exactly the kind of organization I want World Untouched to stand beside.

Because I believe tourism cannot simply extract value from wild places while pretending neutrality when those same places come under threat.

If we guide travelers into these landscapes…

If we build businesses around these ecosystems…

Then we carry a responsibility to help defend them.

That is what The Untouched Impact exists to do.

Starting immediately, 5% of every Alaska expedition booked through World Untouched Adventures will directly support Alaska Wildlife Alliance and their ongoing efforts to defend Alaska’s bears, wolves, salmon, and the wild ecosystems that sustain them.

Because conservation is not an add-on.

It is the entire reason these journeys exist in the first place.

Travel can extract.

Or travel can restore.

At World Untouched, we have chosen our side.

Every traveler who joins us is choosing that future too — proving that exploration and conservation do not have to exist separately.

— Justin Gibson

Founder, World Untouched Adventures