SUSTAINABLE TOURISM ACHIEVEMENTS WITHIN PROARCA/APM
Tapping Green Markets to Encourage Corridor Conservation
Many of the most innovative conservation initiatives in
Central America and Mexico have focused on the
Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. The corridor, which
stretches from southern Mexico to the border of Costa
Rica and Panama, holds a treasure-trove of flora and
fauna.
It encompasses terrestrial and marine
protected parks and reserves, along with privately
owned wild lands.
Programme for Belize; Technoserve and the
Honduras Tourism Institute in Honduras;
ACEPESA, COOPRENA, Costa Rica Tourism
Institute/Certificate for Sustainable Tourism, and
National Clean Production Center in Costa Rica.
2.
Tools for Tourism
a.
Five Coastal Gems in Central America:
The
Promise
and
Potential
For
Sustainable Tourism
In conjunction with Turismo & Conservación
Consultores, we have completed diagnostic
study of existing development and the
potential for sustainable tourism in the target
sites. The study holds a treasure trove of
information and analysis available for free to
tourism businesses, community groups,
national and local governments, nongovernmental
organizations,
academic
institutions, investors, and the general
public. It examines each site’s natural
attractions, tourism infrastructure, potential
for sustainable tourism development, current
initiatives for promoting best practices and
certification of tourism enterprises and
surveys of legislation, policies and regional
strategies
relating
to
tourism
and
conservation in the seven nations of Central
America. The information is organized in
three,
easy-to-browse
sections:
Site
Surveys,
Regional
Analysis
and
Recommendations.
Available on-line at
www.proarca.org
b.
Certification as a Strategic Alliance
between Tourism and Conservation:
Study for analyzing existing certification
schemes in Central America
A study of the certifications initiatives and
schemes available for the tourism industry
(www.proarca.org) have been updated,
based on the one developed in 1998 for
PROARCA/CAPAS.
Our certification-related work will be
performed in alliance with consolidated
certification programs operating in the key
functional landscapes.
c.
Compilation of Best Practices and
Certification Materials
To facilitate better understanding of tourism
certification process and to familiarize
stakeholders with the different certification
tools available in the region, a compendium
of certification materials was prepared.
d.
Best Management Practices for Eco and
Sustainable tourism
To establish a framework to identify the best
management practices in tourism-related
activities in a way that responds to
With today’s growing emphasis on corporate
responsibility and in view of consumer demands for
environmental and social accountability, a number of
local, national and international programs to certify
tourism operations according to widely varied
standards are emerging. To find a common ground
among these programs so that operators, tourists and
conservationists can support the implementation of a
best management practice, from October 2001 to
September 2004, Rainforest Alliance leaded the
Sustainable Tourism Sub-Component of the
Environmentally Sound Products and Services
Component of PROARCA/APM.
Tourism has become one of the world's largest
industries, yet it can overwhelm small, often
impoverished communities and surrounding natural
areas with insensitive development, pollution and
challenges to traditional cultures. Nature-related
tourism is a fast growing market segment of the
industry, making developing countries with beautiful,
species-rich natural areas extremely vulnerable. By
providing market incentives that encourage tourism
business to meet environmental and social standards,
we can enhance the potential that tourism business
have in becoming an ally in conservation, social wellbeing and sustainable development.
Over the past 3 years of work within PROARCA/APM,
the
Sustainable
Tourism
Component
has
accomplished some important achievements:
1.
Developing Alliances
To identify opportunities for collaboration, we setup coordination agreements with other regional
programs such as the Mesoamerican Barrier
Reef (MABR) and the Central American Project
to Support the Development of Tourism
(FODESTUR, financially assisted by the German
Cooperation Agency – GTZ). Both have tourism
components working on certification efforts. Also,
we are complementing a work plan for the
development of training modules on best
management
practices,
certification
and
demonstration projects in conjunction with the
Environmental Management Systems component
(PROARCA/SIGMA, managed by ARD).
Other local stakeholders are Asociación Alianza
Verde, Guatemalan Development Foundation
(FUNDESA), Guatemalan Clean Production
Center, APROTUR, and the Guatemalan Tourism
Commission
(INGUAT)
in
Guatemala;
sustainable development, a preliminary
document was prepared. This compilation
provided a starting point in the development
of the training modules that will be
implemented on the key functional
landscapes in the following years.
e.
A Comprehensive Manual Facilitating
Improvement of Tourism Business:
Sustainable Tourism BMP for Small and
Medium Lodging Enterprises
By explaining Best Practices in a systematic
way – including the justifications for them
and actions necessary for achieving them –
the guide acts both as a stimulus for
positive change and a tool for solving
specific problems. It is packed with the
practical information small and mediumsized tourism businesses, and community
projects need to become sustainable,
qualify for certification, and better position
themselves within the marketplace.
This useful and insightful manual is the
perfect tool to help tourism businesses
become more efficient, improve their
relationships with their natural surroundings
and neighbors, and do a better job of
attracting clients.
f.
Prepare Central America to compete in
“Green Markets”
Planting Seeds of Certification
Two 3-day regional workshops in and Costa
Rica (46 participants); two 3-day regional
and one local workshops in Guatemala (43
participants); four 1-day seminars in
Guatemala (217 participants); one 2-day
workshop in RAAN (16 participants)
The workshops begin with an introduction to
guide to best management practices, move
on to examine examples of businesses that
have adopted those practices and the
evaluation process required for certification.
Environmentally and socially responsible
tourism businesses are eligible to earn a
seal of approval that can help them attract
conscientious tourists. These workshops
are an excellent opportunity not to offer new
ideas to tourism entrepreneurs and to learn
from them, their day-to-day challenges and
help them find creative solutions. There has
been notable participation by business
people, who show a lot of interest. We’ve
planted seeds, so they started working on
ways to put into practice some of the ideas
we presented.
By working with El Salvador’s government
tourism office, the Corporación Salvadoreña
de Turismo (CORSATUR), and the nongovernment organization TechnoServe, the
component has provided material support
for workshops that reached over 200
tourism business owners and communitybased operations in El Salvador and
Honduras.
g.
3.
Partnership for Sustainability: Waves of
Positive Change
By establishing comparable impacts on the
implementation of BMP, improving quality of
services and strengthening business and
market strategies, we are offering training
and direct technical assistance to key local
operations whose efforts can be replicated
in their community.
Bocas del Toro, Panama
Three lodging SME are receiving direct
technical
assistance
to
strength
competitiveness by promoting responsible
tourism practices, identifying market niches,
and support a local movement to conserve
the province’s natural and cultural assets.
Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
Two
local
entrepreneurs
and
one
community-base lodging are receiving
training and technical assistance on BMP,
preparation for certification, monitoring of
impacts through clean production strategies,
and sustainable marketing.
Puerto Barrios, Guatemala
Five small hotels and restaurants are
receiving support and technical assistance
of the joint-effort between Alianza Verde and
the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Tourism
Program, to achieve the Green Deal
certification.
Marketing Opportunities for Sustainable
Tourism
a. Study to identify opportunities of eco
and sustainable tourism
How do travelers and Central American
tourism businesses find each other? What
you need to know to reach the clients you
want?
The Study of the Commercialization
Chain and Market Opportunities for Eco
and Sustainable Tourism includes this
information and more. While our research
focused on two destinations that have huge
potential for ecotourism – Costa Rica’s
southern Caribbean coast and the Gulf of
Honduras, which is divided between
Honduras, Guatemala and Belize – our
conclusions identify important factors and
trends for the entire region. To inform our
analysis, we examined seven outbound
tourism markets and 187 tour operators, and
interviewed dozens of hoteliers and
ecotourism experts.
b.
A Trans-Atlantic Alliance for Sound
Tourism Practices on Central America’s
Southern Caribbean Coast
Panama’s Bocas del Toro Province and
Costa Rica’s adjacent Talamanca region
together hold a magnificent mix of palmlined beaches, coral reefs, traditional
cultures and luxuriant rainforests inhabited
by toucans, poison dart frogs and hundreds
of other animal species. We have teamed up
with TUI Nederland, one of Europe’s biggest
travel companies, to strengthen the
management and marketing of sustainable
tourism there. The goal of this innovative
effort is to ensure the social, ecological and
economic sustainability of tourism in the
Talamanca-Bocas del Toro region while
providing Dutch tourists with travel options
that allow them to have a positive impact on
the places they visit.
c.
d.
Sharing information on Sustainable
Tourism
To promote sustainable tourism in the region
by strengthening certification initiatives, the
Sustainable
Tourism
Certification
Network of the America has born. The
certification initiatives participating in the
network shared environmental, sociocultural and economic criteria to create
conservation benefits for local communities.
Its work is based on mutual respect and
recognition, joint efforts, the harmonization
(balancing) of systems and the sharing of
information and experiences. Up-to-date the
network has 25 members representing 16
countries.
Creating Demand for Certified and BMP
SME Tourism Operations: Workshops
and Specialized Trade-Fairs
Taking advantage of the Rainforest Alliance
participation in several eco and sustainable
tourism
activities
information
about
PROARCA/APM
activities
and
pilot
operations assisted has been disseminated
at the following venues:
ƒ
International Tourism Day Celebration,
September 27, 2002 (San José, Costa
Rica)
ƒ
First
PECC
Ecotourism
Forum:
November
19-21,
2002
(Quito,
Ecuador)
ƒ
Caribbean Herbs Business Forum,
December 4-6, 2002 (Montego Bay,
Jamaica).
ƒ
International Seminar for Environmental
Certification of the Tourism Industry,
December 10-12, 2002 (Mexico, DF).
ƒ
Caribbean
Tourism
Planning
Workshop, February 4, 2003 (Puerto
Viejo, Limon, Costa Rica).
ƒ
13th Annual IATOS Expo and World
Congress
on
Adventure
and
Ecotourism, February 19-23, 2003
(Chicago, Illinois, USA).
ƒ
First Mesoamerican Congress of
Protected Areas, March 10-14, 2003
(Managua, Nicaragua).
4.
Expanding
Influence:
International
Counterpart to strength and enlarge
PROARCA/APM’s activities:
a. Tools for Promoting Sustainable Tourism
Development in Talamanca: A Joint effort
with Consultancy and Research for
Environmental
Management
(CREM),
financially assisted by the bilateral DutchCosta
Rica
cooperation
(FUNDECOOPERACION), to support the
development of sustainable tourism in Costa
Rica, the Sustainable Tourism program is
collaborating on a project specifically aimed
at improving the management and
marketing of tourism by entrepreneurs in the
Costa Rica’s Caribbean-Talamanca region.
Small tourism enterprises and communitybased operations will be strengthened
through best management practices training,
optimizing the quality of their supply and the
possibility of settling down businesses with
international companies.
b.
Sustainable Tourism Certification for
SME and CBO: A Latin America project
which main goal is to increase the
competitiveness and market access of
sustainable tourism SME participating in
internationally
acreditables
certification
systems in the Latin American and
Caribbean (LAC) region; and to increase
global awareness of these practices. To
achieve this purpose, the Project will
implement three components at three
different levels: local, regional and
international.
At the local level, proposes the development
of training modules on BMP, certification,
marketing and monitoring and evaluation,
tailored to address separately the technical
needs of SME, and indigenous groups and
community based operations.
At the regional level will engage
organizations working with certification in the
pilot countries to foster the participation of
SME, and indigenous and community-based
operations in certification.
The international level aimed at developing
an international cohesive marketing strategy
for organization working with certification
efforts that could participate in an
accreditation process. This strategy will
result in direct benefits to SME that had
implemented
harmonized
baseline
standards, by allowing them to gain
competitiveness and market access.