Linking Tourism & Conservation (LT&C) is a support organization of the UN goal (the so-called “Aichi target 11” of the Convention for Biological Diversity) to reach by 2020 a well-managed and representative global network of protected areas, 17% on land and 10% of the marine environment. We profile for replication cases – LT&C-Examples -, where tourism – as the main user and benefiter of nature – is supporting the establishment or development of national parks or other types of protected areas. In 2020 the UN has to assess, how far their goal has been reached and has to agree on a new set of goals in order to safeguard the ecosystems of our planet. In this context, we like to republish a message of the WILD Foundation, which has its focus on wilderness areas, as an important and interesting contribution to the upcoming discussions of the UN: Continue reading →

Explore the new website of our collaborator, PANORAMA. Despite the fact that some of our LT&C-Examples, such as Chumbe Island or the Wadden Sea as part of the East-Atlantic Flyway Partnership, are also profiled as PANORAMA Solution, there is certainly much more potential for synergy between LT&C and PANORAMA. We like to encourage our members and providers of LT&C-Examples to have a look at this new website and find out, whether they would like to expose their case also within this wider community. We all have an interest that good examples or solutions are widely seen and find replicators.

Raet, “verdens fineste nasjonalpark”, was the original vision of the “fathers” of the new marine national park on the Skagerrak-coast of Arendal, Grimstad, and Tvedestrand. At this workshop, we invite local LT&C members (including GRID-Arendal), “Friends of Raet National Park” (as found on Facebook), as well as representatives of such tourism businesses, which are interested to support the further positive development of the park. Also, marine experts from the local Flødevigen Marine Research Station as well as the manager of Raet national park, Jenny Marie Gulbrandsen, are invited to think with us about ideas, how Raet could at least become the leading example of a marine national park in Norway by developing towards international standards. Continue reading →

Giorgio Scala, the CEO of the media company Deepbluemedia, is one of our Emperor Penguin-members, and as an official photographer of FINA (International Federation of Swimming), LEN (European Swimming Federation) and of the Italian and Russian Swimming Federations, he supports LT&C and has his own view on what the organization is about and its desired future development. As we are highly keen on listening to different voices and opinions of people that are interested in the development of LT&C (see also the outcome of our recent 5th-anniversary meeting), Peter Prokosch had the chance to conduct an interview with Giorgio:

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As LT&C Partner Green Destinations reports: The World’s Top 10 Sustainable Destinations have been unveiled in the Awards Hall of ITB Berlin, at the end of its Opening day, March 6th. 44 Sustainable tourism stories have been submitted by the 100 top-sustainable destinations, available on www.sustainabletop100.org. Ten Award winners have been selected by a Jury representing 12 international organizations.  Continue reading →

The LT&C Example Wadden Sea celebrates the 10-year anniversary of its inscription on the World Heritage List and presents its anniversary programme at this year’s ITB Tourism Fair in Berlin. In cooperation with the UNESCO World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme and within the framework of the Interreg project “Prowad Link”, the Wadden Sea World Heritage organizes two stands at the world’s largest tourism fair, the ITB. Under the motto “People. Protecting. Places.” (see press release of the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat). Continue reading →