The organisation, which like TTG is a signatory to the Glasgow Declaration, published its second collaborative white paper, Climate Action through Regeneration: Unlocking the Power of Communities and Nature through Tourism, this week (6 June) detailing how tourism businesses can take action to support sustainability and regeneration.
Drawing on work by University of Edinburgh researcher Chloe King and using the IUCN Global Standards for Nature-based Solutions, the white paper outlines practical examples, available support and clear steps that travel businesses can take towards reducing their carbon footprint and participating in the restoration of nature.
“When Chloe approached RT to engage our members in her academic work, we saw an opportunity to work collaboratively together with her and O’Shannon Burns, who has worked closely with our hotel members on best-practice sharing, to create a framework and actionable recommendations for small businesses seeking to take climate action through regeneration,” said Regenerative Travel’s chief executive Amanda Ho.
The findings are underpinned by five core principles businesses can adopt, with the emphasis on prioritising human wellbeing and nature through a destination-specific, community-led and environment-centred approach. The five principles identified in the white paper include: putting community needs first; improving eco-system integrity and biodiversity; embracing diverse and inclusive business models; developing transparent governance structures accountable to all stakeholders; and enhancing regenerative partnerships.
In practice this includes interventions to help the local community and protect and conserve the local environment, and the paper gives examples of how this has been done successfully by hotel and tourism businesses.
Case studies include Chole Mjini eco-lodge in Tanzania, which used tourism revenues to put local residents through school and employ them in the business, and Chumbe Island Coral Park in Zanzibar, which established a marine park to successfully regenerate the coral reef.
Elsewhere, Misool eco-resort in Indonesia has reduced fishing pressure on a marine reserve by providing alternative revenue streams for the local community and creating fruit orchards and vegetable gardens where products are processed into consumer goods.
Other businesses are spotlighted in the white paper for investing in local employees’ skills and wellness and actively recruiting employees from marginalised groups.
There is also advice for developing resorts in harmony with the local environment and population, including how hotels can help bring back jobs to ailing communities or support conservation areas to protect endangered animals.
“A growing number of travel businesses are acknowledging the important role they can and must play if we as a sector are to effectively address the climate crisis," said white paper co-author O’Shannon Burns.
"But tourism has lagged behind other industries and we need to quickly build stakeholders’ capacity to evaluate impacts and solutions. The white paper seeks to shine a light on the important role nature can play and to identify which factors make nature-based solutions to climate change successful, or not.”
