About us

What is a Kodama?

kodamas from princess mononoke — Image Source: Studio Ghibli

Kodama is a travel marketplace that prioritises wildlife welfare. We work exclusively with high-quality suppliers committed to responsible travel. However, we are not a wildlife-only marketplace. Our offerings encompass a diverse range of travel experiences, including wildlife encounters, outdoor adventures, city breaks, and authentic cultural experiences. We can also design tailor-made tours to selected destinations.

In Shintoism, Kodama are spirits believed to inhabit ancient and sacred trees. Their presence signals healthy forests and a deep connection with nature. In popular culture, they are best portrayed through Studio Ghibli's film Princess Mononoke, where Kodamas lived and died with the Forest Spirit, and reappeared when the land is healed.

We chose the name Kodama for its symbolic meaning. We believe the planet is only healthy if all lives can thrive on it - and what better way to represent this belief than the little creatures who symbolise the spirit of life? Our goal is to make booking responsible travel experiences easy for fellow travellers, and we hope you'll join us on this journey.

Our conservation mission

We are founded by conservationists. We believe true luxury in travel lies in connecting deeply with a place and its people, appreciating and protecting its ecosystem and biodiversity, and returning home with a renewed appreciation of the world and a motivation to protect this planet. We hope you will enjoy the experiences we lovingly curated.

We advocate using income from responsible travel to support local conservation efforts, incentivising the preservation of ecosystems rather than their exploitation for unsustainable economic activities. Whilst there is an urgent need to repair this planet, it’s equally important to do no harm during our travels. That's why we also advocate that travellers avoid exploitative activities, as outlined in detail in our policy and not featured on our marketplace.

photo of snow leopard on a mountain top in Qinghai, China — Snow leopard, Qinghai, China

Curation Process

You can find our detailed curation process here

Step 1: We rate an experience's risk level

Not all tours are the same. A simple city walking tour doesn't have the same wildlife exploitation risk as a wildlife encounter experience, such as a safari tour. Within wildlife encounter experiences, some have more widely accepted guidelines or nationally enforced regulations, while others remain unregulated. Therefore, we rate tours' risks based on their type and destination.

Step 2: We review digital evidence

“Every activity leaves a digital trace”. Although we do review a supplier's ratings and any certification they may have, we put more emphasis on reviewing trip photos from different sources. We've rejected or moved on from many suppliers using this method, including some that are endorsed by major certification bodies, or are listed on other marketplaces, which supposedly follow wildlife welfare guidelines. You can find our Wildlife Welfare Policy here, which was written in collaboration with World Animal Protection. You can also find a detailed guide in terms of what we look for in different wildlife tours through our blog post here, which is being updated regularly.

Step 3: We discover and test tours on the ground

For high-risk tours, we only list them once we've tested them on the ground. You can find our field notes under these trips, in the country page, or in our blogs. We also discover experiences during our own travels, and introduce them to our guests. If you can't find a destination or a type of experience, it could be due to:

The mistreatment of animals is widespread across the industry, or current practices have fundamentally altered animals’ natural behaviours, to the point that we believe there is no room for ethical experiences, such as the feeding of whale sharks to lure them for tourists in the Philippines.
Widespread privatisation leaving local communities with little to no access to “tourist” places, such as beachfront
It is not an area that we currently focus on