Meet the First Filipino Inducted as a Fellow Into the Century-Old Explorers Club

Filipino explorer and travel writer Gregg Yan has joined the ranks of Neil Armstrong, Jane Goodall, and Sir Edmund Hillary, at least through membership in The Explorers Club.

"For over a century, the mainstream narrative of global exploration has largely been viewed through a Western lens," Yan said in a statement. "Being inducted as the first Filipino Fellow is a deeply humbling experience, securing our country a seat at the table. The Philippines hosts some of the world’s most amazing but endangered biodiversity, but we’re also a hotspot for species loss. This recognition proves that local exploration and field research really are important to the global scientific community."

He noted that the spirit of discovery has always been innate among Filipinos.

"Pinoys are natural-born explorers. Our ancestors arrived across these islands aboard Balanghays—ancient, seafaring wooden boats that crossed open oceans using only the stars and wind to navigate. Exploration is in our DNA, in our blood. We have renowned Pinoy and Pinay divers, mountain climbers, and scientists. This fellowship simply brings our natural curiosity as explorers full circle on an international stage."

Founded in New York City in 1904, The Explorers Club is a multidisciplinary society dedicated to the advancement of field research, scientific exploration, and resource conservation. Its approximately 4,000 members, representing more than 90 countries, are organized into more than 37 chapters around the globe. These Chapters serve as local contact points for explorers, scientists, and student explorers throughout the world. They hold monthly dinners, lectures, and seminars, award field-research grants to students, publish newsletters, and organize expeditions, field trips, and educational events.

• Fellows - Have made documented contributions to scientific knowledge through field expeditions. Such accomplishments are often evidenced by regular scientific publication, but may also be documented in books, popular media, or broadcast media.
  
  

• Members - Have evidenced a sustained interest and participation in some aspect of field exploration and have contributed in broad terms to the cause of exploration and the furthering of scientific knowledge (for example, by participating in expeditions).
  
  

• Term Membership is open to full-time graduate students and teaching instructors that meet the same standards/qualifications that exist for regular Members. The maximum duration of Term Member status is five years (irrespective of age). The initiation fee is waived for Term Members applying for regular Member/Fellow status prior to expiration of the five-year term.
  
  

• Friends of the Club are individuals who wish to associate with The Explorers Club and support its mission. These individuals are crucial to the Club’s outreach as they create an extended network of awareness and support.
  
  

• Student Members are full-time students, between the ages of 16 and 30, who are enrolled in accredited institutions and are interested in pursuing exploration or field science as a future career or a vocation.

An applicant's membership category is determined by the Club's Membership Committee, not by the Sponsor or the Applicant. Membership in The Explorers Club, being a professional society, comes with annual dues, ranging from U.S. $985 for Member Resident to U.S. $95 for Students.

“This would never have been possible without the support of renowned global explorers Arnaud Humbert and Dr. Brent Stewart, international organizations like the United Nations and World Wide Fund for Nature, plus the local communities who instinctively know more about their home forests and coasts than we can ever dream of,” explains Yan in a statement.

Gregg Yan is an award-winning international freelance advocacy communicator. He has contributed to over 30 books and published in over 20 international journals with numerous citations. He has an undergraduate degree in Communications from Ateneo de Manila University and took up master's units in Media Studies and Journalism from the University of the Philippines. Previous stints included Communications Manager at WWF Philippines and Communications Director at Oceana Philippines.

He is also an Emerging League Member of the International League of Conservation Photographers, the founder of the non-profit environmental group Best Alternatives, and the first Filipino to be inducted as an honorary warrior by the Maasai Tribe in East Africa. Yan is a mountain climber with 200 peaks summited globally, including Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro.

"Since I was a kid, I always wondered what was beyond the next horizon. At 10, I walked from our house in Pasig to the shores of Manila Bay (I told my parents I would go to Megamall. I saved enough money for a meal and a one-way bus ticket back to Megamall).

At school, I learned from our profs about the 'faculty of wonder' or the ability to 'still find magic' in a world that had become way too literal.

First week on the job, I walked the four cardinal directions to discover eating places—that's how we found the Burger Machine behind our office," Yan tells Esquire Philippines.

Yan is inducted into The Explorers Club as a Fellow, which follows 20 years of rigorous fieldwork focused on photographing and writing about the world’s most endangered animals—from sharks and elephants to Filipino icons like the tamaraw and pangolin, all the way to undiscovered species like the Người Rừng of Vietnam.

"I share this latest distinction with every Pinoy and Pinay whose soul constantly yearns to know 'what lies beyond'—whose 'insides are always outside', even if they spend hours in air-conditioned offices. Here's to living curiously and being a 'little wild' inside," he tells us.

READ GREGG YAN'S STORIES ON ESQUIRE PHILIPPINES:

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Why Lake Malawi in Africa Is the Ultimate Species Factory

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How a Volcano Destroyed a City to Save Roman Culture

A Filipino Explores Vietnam in Search of the Legendary Bigfoot