Eco Announcements

Washington, DC (April 20, 2017) – The Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) announces the publication of two volumes entitled Coastal Tourism, Sustainability, and Climate Change in the Caribbean. Volume I is focused on Hotels and Beaches and Volume II on Supporting Activities: Golf, Sustainable Food Sourcing, and Airlines & Airports. The volumes contain essays and case studies by 33 different experts that look at how various tourism sectors both contribute to and are impacted by climate change. The twin volumes also highlight innovative tourism businesses that are providing solutions to addressing climate change. Two additional companion volumes on marine tourism will be published shortly. These four volumes grew out of the 2015 Think Tank on Climate Change and Coastal & Marine Tourism, which CREST and the Grupo Puntacana Foundation hosted in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

by Michael Howes, Griffith University

In 1992, more than 170 countries came together at the Rio Earth Summit and agreed to pursue sustainable development, protect biological diversity, prevent dangerous interference with climate systems, and conserve forests. But, 25 years later, the natural systems on which humanity relies continue to be degraded.

Madrid, Spain - 7 April 2017:  The 48th Session of United Nations Statistical Commission has supported the UNWTO-led initiative of developing an international framework for Measuring Sustainable Tourism (MST). The initiative, being implemented in cooperation with the United Nations Statistics Division, aims to develop a new statistical framework for tourism — one that integrates the various dimensions of sustainable tourism (economic, environmental and social) and across relevant levels (global, national and subnational).

London, UK - 20 March 2017: Travel & Tourism generated 1 in 10 of the world’s jobs in 2016 as the sector grew by 3.3%, outpacing the global economy for the sixth year in a row, reads a new report by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).

WTTC’s Economic Impact Report 2017, which is conducted in conjunction with Oxford Economics, researches the economic impact of Travel & Tourism impact on global level, for 25 regions, and 185 countries.

Montevideo, Uruguay - 21 March 2018: On 21 March, the International Day of Forests, 200 organisations are reminding the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) that its misleading forest definition dating back to 1948 must be changed. The definition has allowed the plantations industry to hide the devastating ecological and social impacts of large-scale monoculture tree plantations behind a positive forest image.

FAO’s forest definition has allowed the plantations industry to call their monoculture plantations of fast-growing species such as eucalyptus, pine, rubber or acacia “forests” because it defines a forest only by the number, height and canopy cover of trees on an area. The FAO forest definition has been used as a blueprint for over 200 national and international forest definitions since 1948.

Panama City - 18 March 2017:  Panama's Head of State announced a strategic investment of 25 million balboas, with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank, for the national parks of Coiba, Portobelo, San Lorenzo and Volcán Barú.

An important step in the development of nature tourism in Panama was launched with the signing by the President Juan Carlos Varela of two Decrees that will regulate concessions and services in the protected areas of the country. President Varela, who was with part of his team at the top of the Barú Volcano, said that this area has much to offer, even as a tourist destination and with the new measures it will be strengthened further at the global level.

Oakham, United Kingdom - 17 March 2017:  Blue Sky Wildlife, a unique, wildlife tours and ecotourism holidays portal, is celebrating its first anniversary. 

This evolving website, launched in collaboration with Tim Appleton MBE, co-founder of Birdfair, really offers something for all lovers of nature and wildlife. It has 60 established and award winning wildlife tour operators and companies already listed. These offer over 300 unique wildlife tours across 33 destinations worldwide.

Madrid, Spain - 1 March 2017: From the initiative of the ONCE Foundation, the Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE) and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the first working meeting for the development of an International Standard on Accessible Tourism for All was held in Madrid on 13-14 February. 

The Technical Committee TC 228, responsible for tourism and related services within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), will develop a global and transversal international standard that will include, initially, a systematic inventory of existing standards, technical criteria, recommendations and requirements in the field of accessible tourism. In addition, recommendations and requirements will be suggested for those segments of the value chain and related activities whose international standardisation in terms of accessibility is still pending.

Brussels, Belgium - 1 March 2017: EuroVelo, a project of the European Cyclists´ Federation which comprises a network of 15 long distance cycle routes that connect the European continent, is launching a new, improved cycling map.  Following the success of the previous edition, the 2017 map will be the main promotional tool for the network over the coming years, inspiring all those wishing to discover Europe by bike.

Athens, Greece - 22 February 2017: Paths of Greece, a Social Cooperative Entreprise, in cooperation with Green Evolution, an environmental consultancy, is launching a new ecolabel titled “Hikers’ Friendly” (Web: www.hikersfriendly.com). The ecolabel is initially offered to accommodation facilities in Greece that wish to be recognised as “Hikers’ Friendly Hotels” (HFH), but later on, it will also cover Hiking Destinations. The aim of the new label is to assist tourism professionals in upgrading their services to hikers. The label is currently in pilot stage, but it will soon be widely available.