Communities along coastal areas and remote destinations, where leading adventure travel company Hurtigruten Group explores, are encouraged to apply for funding through the Hurtigruten Foundation.

Hurtigruten Foundation aims to create a lasting, positive impact in the remote places Hurtigruten Group operates by empowering guests to engage with communities long after they return home from an expedition cruise experience or land-based adventure.

Despite the pandemic, Hurtigruten Foundation was able to donate to several projects across the world in 2020 and is looking to support even more initiatives that help local communities, endangered species or lead to the reduction in plastics and marine litter.

“Our mission is to invest in the local communities our guests’ visit. As the world locked down due to the pandemic, we scaled-up and continued to support communities that needed urgent assistance on various projects. In fact 2020, was our second highest year in terms of sizeable donations from the Foundation so we are very proud of what we have achieved and want to support even more projects now that we are moving out of the pandemic and returning to full operations,” said Henrik A. Lund, Managing Director of Hurtigruten Foundation.

So far, Hurtigruten Foundation has invested in initiatives like the Oceanites Antarctic Site Inventory project that monitors penguin population changes in Antarctica.

Ron Naveen, President of the Oceanites said: “Hurtigruten Foundation funding is critical for us, especially at a time when data collection was more difficult than ever, when the world was at a standstill due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, we were able to continue to collect data at penguin breeding sites and to update our analyses aimed at distinguishing the direct and interactive effects of climate change, fishing, and tourism. The project ensures that the best and most up-to-data and scientific information are freely available to all Antarctic Treaty stakeholders and we are hugely grateful for Hurtigruten Foundation’s support in enabling us to continue our critical work.”

Ron Naveen, President of the Oceanites. Photo: Oceanites

Other recipients of funding include the South Georgia Heritage Trust, the Association for Greenlandic Children, Norwegian Search and Rescue Dogs and Climate Sentinels.