Stories

From ground-breaking conservation initiatives to on-the-ground dispatches and stop in your tracks photography, nothing brings our work to life quite like the stories of the inspiring people and places which make up the Long Run community.

The Long Run Org 7/22/26 The Long Run Org 7/22/26

The Ultimate Show of Trust: Two CEOs Swap Everything for a Month

In April 2026, Louise Cottar, CEO of Cottar's Safaris in Kenya's Maasai Mara, and Andrew Dixon, CEO of Nikoi and Cempedak Private Islands in Indonesia, handed each other their businesses, their teams and their homes for a month. The story made international headlines, including this piece in Forbes. But the story behind the story is the one we can tell best: what it takes, and what it gives, to trust another founder with everything you've built.

The Long Run Org 7/20/26 The Long Run Org 7/20/26

Behind-the-scenes of our 2026 Asia Pacific Regional Hub Meeting

From the moment you arrive at Cardamom Tented Camp, a 40-minute journey upriver by boat, you are already part of the battle to save the forest around you. "Your Stay Keeps the Forest Standing," goes the camp's motto. This June, it is where our Asia Pacific members gathered to work through their hardest challenges as a community.

The Long Run Org 6/24/26 The Long Run Org 6/24/26

Behind-the-scenes of our 2026 East Africa Hub Meeting

For the first time, we're making the key learnings from our regional meetings public. Fifteen Long Run members gathered at Sirikoi in Lewa to bring their hardest problems into the room and work through them together. Here is what surfaced.

Billie Dumaliang 5/18/26 Billie Dumaliang 5/18/26

Billie spent her teens at a rock formation instead of the mall. Today, she protects this ‘last ark of biodiversity’ in the Phillippines.

How I turned a degraded limestone quarry into an award-winning conservation site and kept fighting when the Philippines pushed back.

The Long Run Org 3/19/26 The Long Run Org 3/19/26

Raising the Bar: How Global Consultation Shaped The Long Run’s Global Ecosphere Retreat® standard 3.0

The Global Ecosphere Retreat® (GER) Standard has always been designed as a living framework, one that reflects the realities of delivering conservation, community impact, cultural stewardship and commercial resilience through tourism.

In 2024, The Long Run undertook a global public consultation to review and strengthen the GER Standard. Version 3.0 is the result of that process.

The Long Run Org 2/20/26 The Long Run Org 2/20/26

What a decade with the same pangolins teaches you

Pangolins are known for being elusive. But spend ten years watching the same individuals in the same landscape, and you begin to see more.

Their clumsiness, their charm. Their quiet, “hardcore” way of surviving. As Tswalu enters its next chapter as an official release site for rescued pangolins, this decade of observation becomes the foundation for what comes next.