UNEP Launches Green Passport Campaign
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has just launched an internet-based campaign to raise awareness on how tourists can contribute to sustainable development. The campaign offers green travel tips for the world’s growing number of international tourists.
By using the Green Passport web site travelers will be able to find practical tips to help them reduce their environmental and social footprint while they are on vacations and will learn that traveling green is not as difficult as they imagined.
Tourism is a booming global industry, one that UN-Under Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said: “brings the prospect of income and economic development to countless tourist destinations in rich and poor countries alike. The challenge is to manage this growth sustainably. Governments have a key role to play, but so too do individuals and families when planning and going on holiday,” he said in a UNEP press release.
The green travel tips address many aspects of tourist trips from travel planning and packaging to the way back home. A few examples of what the campaign encourages tourists to do:
- Choose responsible service providers
- Reduce the consumption of energy while on the road or in their hotel
- Buy locally made and environmentally friendly souvenirs
The Campaign has been launched by UNEP, jointly with and the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning and the Brazilian Ministries of Environment and Tourism. It is an initiative of the International Task Force on Sustainable Tourism Development, firmly rooted in the move to accelerate a global shift towards sustainable consumption and production (SCP) that emerged from the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in Johannesburg in 2002.
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Tags: Berlin, ecotoursim, Green Passport, responsible travel, sustainable development, sustainable travel, tourism, tourism industry, UNEPPOSTED IN: Climate Change, Eco Travel
1 opinion for UNEP Launches Green Passport Campaign
Ultimate Vacation Guide
Mar 10, 2008 at 12:15 pm
What a fantastic idea!
I have just written a Top 10 Tips article on responsible travel on my site, but this Green Passport web site will surely be the next step forward for like minded people to read and share.
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