As director of the Global Heritage Fund, Jeff Morgan climbs through ruins in the Guatemalan jungle and investigates the dusty remains of a 7,000-year-old city in Turkey .
Then he comes back to his office in Palo Alto and asks rich people for money.
Morgan, who lives in Menlo Park , runs a nonprofit that seeks to preserve and protect threatened ancient cultural sites around the world.
The organization, with a $2 million annual budget mostly raised through foundations and individuals, is working on about 10 projects around the world. They range from a 2,500-year-old citadel in Bam , Iran , to the oldest wooden temple in China dating to the Tang Dynasty, to its most recent endeavor in Iraq .
The sites must meet two criteria: They must be designated as world heritage by UNESCO, the United Nations Agency charged with protecting cultural and natural treasures, and they must have tourism potential.
The number of these sites are dwindling, threatened by poor conservation, natural disasters, unchecked urban growth, war, looting and neglect, Morgan said.
To preserve them, they fund partners with local specialists, helping them with conservation and master planning, and training them so they can continue the projects on their own. Local governments and companies match the organization's donations.
"I really think what we're doing is building bridges," Morgan said. "If you want to build friends, you invest in their culture. You don't try to shove McDonald's down their throats."
But preserving these treasures often means a fierce battle.
At Mirador Basin in Guatemala , Morgan had to fend off 28 lawsuits from loggers who wanted to cut down the rain forest around the ruins of the oldest Mayan cities in the Americas . In Iraq , Morgan had to hire 250 armed guards to protect some of Iraq 's archaeological treasures from tribal looters.
Despite the challenges, Morgan is an optimist about Iraq, believing it will stabilize in the next year and will go on to become "the next Egypt," drawing billions of dollars in tourism to its ancient sites.
And Morgan's ambitions go well beyond ensuring cultural and natural assets are protected.
By intelligently developing the sites for tourism, he hopes to transform local impoverished Third World villages into thriving viable communities. And, Morgan believes that jumpstarting the economy, in turn, helps to protect the environment. Once local people have a livelihood, they no longer must rely on logging, mining or slash and burn agriculture - all environmentally destructive - to make ends meet.
Morgan said through these small projects his organization has a big impact on specific communities.
"It's stuff we can do something about," he said. "It's something finite, as opposed to saying, 'I'm going to stop all poverty.'"
Please direct media inquiries to:
GHF Press press@globalheritagefund.org
or (650) 325 7520
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