Conservation International (CI) is pleased to announce its latest publication, A Practical Guide to Good Practice for Tropical Forest-Based Tours, incorporating input from biologists and travel experts from Australia, Belize, Ecuador, the United States and the United Kingdom.

 

Conservation International (CI) is pleased to announce its latest publication, A Practical Guide to Good Practice for Tropical Forest-Based Tours. The guide was developed through a collaborative process by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Rainforest Alliance, CI, the Adventure Travel Trade Association, Responsibletravel.com and other partners. It incorporates input from biologists and travel experts from Australia, Belize, Ecuador, the United States and the United Kingdom.

For access to this guide and other CI tourism publications please visit the following webpage: http://www.ecotour.org/xp/ecotour/resources/publications_factsheets.xml.

Tropical forests are some of the most biologically diverse areas on Earth, harboring many of the world’s plant and animal species and providing important ecological services such as climate regulation.

They are also home to hundreds of millions of people who live in or near tropical forest areas, and the pressure to develop these areas, particularly in developing countries, is intense. By adopting good environmental and social practices in their tropical forest tours, tour operators can help protect the integrity of the unique wildlife and communities and facilitate high-quality visitor experiences, thus contributing to the continued viability of nature-based tourism to these regions.

This guide provides practical recommendations for tour operators to assess and improve their sustainability performance. Some of these recommendations include visitor education, outreach to local communities, interacting with wildlife and good practices for specific tourism activities such as hiking, caving or boating.

CI workswith partners and key industry actors in Belize, Ecuador, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom on both the supply and demand side to facilitate the adoption and monitoring of these good practices. Additionally, CI will disseminate the guides and support good practice implementation with their tourism experts working around the world. This guide is an essential tool for operators and purchasers of tropical forest-based tours who care about sustainable tourism development and understand that sustainability is the only way forward.