IMAGE: Getty
SUSTAINABILIT Y
Aside from plastic gathering, the GCT conducts research and educational programmes among local communities and schools. It's also working with local partners to restore the flora and fauna of Floreana Island, reintroducing locally extinct species and
eradicating invasive species such as rats. If successful, the GCT says “this will be the first large, inhabited island in the world to have its habitat completely restored, and will act as a template for other conservation projects globally”.
Best practice LATA members leading by example include Chimu Adventures,
whose ‘Pass it On’ programme has helped fund hundreds of local community projects. Since 2006 Chimu has also worked with Kiva, a local NGO, offering loans to local businesses. New properties raising the bar include actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s luxury ecotourism project, Blackadore Caye, a Restorative Island in Belize, opening late this year. Aside from being built to the highest sustainable standards, the project aims to reverse the recent environmental decline of the Caye itself. Others leading by example include the Sol y
Luna hotel in Peru’s Sacred Valley, whose recent projects include helping found a local school. Sol y Luna Intercultural School has 220 students, with a specially designed area for its 15 disabled students. Meanwhile, in Chile, Tierra Atacama has become the first 100%
solar-powered hotel in South America. It also removed all plastic bottles after installing a NASA-designed water system, which supplies both still and sparkling water. Awasi Patagonia is
Other milestones include the development of a model that
enables the state and community to co-manage the enormous Bosawás Biosphere Reserve, part of the MBC corridor, and the passing of the titling law for Nicaraguan indigenous territories, which the Nature Conservancy cites as the first of its kind in Central America. The country is also making strides towards its goal of sourcing 90% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 and currently has four Rainforest Alliance Certified Tour Operators, all of whom are members of the TOPS (Tour Operators Promoting Sustainability) programme, which begun in 2012.
Plastic Over in the Galápagos, where the formal designation of the Galápagos Marine Reserve (GMR) in 1998 created a protected area covering 51,000 sq miles, Stewart notes how the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD) and the Ecuadorian Ministry of Tourism strictly govern tourism companies which operate there to ensure their businesses are as environmentally friendly as possible. Right now, though, one of the key foes is plastic. According to UK-based charity Galápagos Conservation Trust,
which has set up a Marine Plastics Appeal, eight million tons of plastic enters the world’s oceans a year, contributing to the death of 1.5 million marine animals annually and placing delicate ecosystems such as the Galápagos under threat.
transforming a former sheep farming estancia into South America’s first Puma Foundation.
Future thinking While Stewart stressed that “amongst LATA members sustainability is already very high up the agenda” it’s clear that more action will be needed to move the sustainability struggle on further and ensure tourism delivers social and economic benefits to local communities while preserving the region’s precious environment and cultural and natural heritage. Popular misconceptions must also be challenged and debunked, such as the idea that sustainable tourism offerings are by nature prohibitively more expensive. “In terms of implementing change, one key focus is on education,” says Stewart. “We would encourage support from agents to help promote more sustainable behaviour, both amongst tourists and the travel industry, and we would also encourage travel agents to question their operator’s sustainability credentials.” As demand for sustainable tourism continues to increase, not
least among high-end travellers and experience-craving millennials, hopefully more operators and local organisations will stop believing they can’t afford to invest in putting sustainability at the core of their business — rather, they can’t afford not to.
crees-manu.org latafoundation.org nature.org conservation.org galapagosconservation.org.uk chimuadventures.com
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