Never before with an LT&C-study tour to the North of Svalbard did we have to navigate that far North to reach the sea ice for observing polar bears in their natural habitat. Also, the 100-passenger ship, M/V Plancius, has never been before up to 82.47 degrees North. While our 9 members at this year’s autumn tour to Svalbard were privileged to study the impressive LT&C-Example, where once the cooperation of tour companies and conservation organizations has lead to the establishment of new national parks, they were deeply touched to see the polar bear’s homeland shrinking. The more awareness it has caused that caring for climate change is urgent. Therefore we urge our members and other travelers to compensate for their own climate footprint as a minimum to do: https://bit.ly/2wWJisT Continue reading →

WWF Adria has invited LT&C to participate in a conference in Croatia, which is organised in the framework of the project “Central Europe Eco-Tourism: tools for nature protection˝ and aims to establish an innovative sustainable tourism management system in protected areas and Natura 2000 sites in Austria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Slovenia. The Conference is creating an opportunity for the representatives of national-level decision makers and agencies in the field of nature protection and sustainable tourism, managers of protected areas and Natura 2000 sites and other experts to discuss and share experience about the most successful measures of reducing the negative impact of tourist visits in protected areas and Natura 2000 sites as well as inclusive conservation governance models. If you are interested, read more on the LT&C-Calendar, and get registered. Continue reading →

LT&C reported earlier about Raet national park, Norway’s so far largest marine protected area. After the shortest planning time of any Norwegian national park (only 4 years), the park on the Skagerrak coast of Southern Norway was established in December 2016. Another record was achieved with the several thousand participants at its inauguration in summer 2017. This summer, the main initiator of the park, former Aust Agder governor Øystein Djupedal, opened Raet’s first information center, which is situated in the basement of the building (Kunnskapshavn) in Arendal, where also LT&C has its office. Our involvement in the further discussions about the development of Raet national park, therefore, is a given. For the German readers, we can in this context point to an article in the recent edition of the magazine “Nationalpark”. Download it here: Themen Continue reading →

Arendalsuka, which happened last week, has been called the “Dancing-floor of Democracy”. Just after summer holidays and copied from a similar event in Sweden, Almedalsveckan on Gotland, each year it is THE political event in Norway. All the top leaders of the government, the political parties, numerous organisations and civil society are discussing top issues of the time. This year the record of 1100 different events took place over the week. As LT&C has its main office in Arendal, we were of course most interested to participate in events related to our mission to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and issues of tourism, nature conservation and protected areas.  Continue reading →

When the word “tourism” is mentioned, most people have its negative impacts in mind and point fingers to others but themselves. It is high time to focus more on the positive potential of tourism and make any efforts to learn from good examples and inspire others to make their own contribution. The most important and world-wide agreed frame for a future we all want is working for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And tourism has the potential to create support for all the 17 SDGs. Therefore it is great news that UNWTO has just come out with an online platform to achieve SDGs through tourism. Have a look and see how you can contribute yourself. Continue reading →

Already June 22, the Norwegian Minister for Climate and Environment announced the intention to establish a national park on the Lofoten. The Lofoten Islands are both, one of the most outstanding tourism destinations and highly valuable nature areas in Norway. The present proposal intends to cover only a minor part in the South-West Lofoten mountains (86 km2) and very little of the important marine surroundings (13km2). For those reading Norwegian have a look on kongelig-resolusjon-forslag-til-verneplan-for-lofotodden-nasjonalpark-i-moskenes-og-flakstad-kommune-nordland-fylke-180622.  Continue reading →

That the 193 UN-member countries agreed in 2015 on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the aim to reach them by 2030 counts as one of the most important decisions the entire world community ever took. Now the 2018 SDG Index and Dashboards report presents for the first time an assessment of all 193 countries’ distance to achieving the SDGs. It includes detailed SDG Dashboards to help identify implementation priorities for the SDGs.  Continue reading →

Denise Landau is one of the founding members of LT&C and Member of the Board from the organization’s beginnings. The Aspen Daily News and numerous other media outlets have recently featured her for her work on a monumental success story in the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, where she helped to eradicate human-introduced rats and mice, thereby saving two species of endemic birds from extinction.

In the following interview, Peter Prokosch asked about her views and experiences in linking the fields of tourism and conservation: Continue reading →