December 11, 2020, Linking Tourism & Conservation (LT&C) signed a cooperation agreement with the German conservation NGO Nationale Naturlandschaften (NNL). Members of NNL are the administrations of the 16 German national parks, 18 UNESCO Biosphere reserves and several of the more than 100 nature parks. The government of Germany is also committed to protecting 2% of the country as wilderness reserves. NNL therefore debuted a new category wilderness areas of excellent quality to support this process. The common goal of NNL and LT&C, as partners, is to use the potential of tourism for the protection and conservation of biological diversity. Germany’s highest-quality large-scale protected areas, the National Natural Landscapes, are particularly suited to provide good examples of linking tourism and nature conservation (LT&C-Examples). Increased awareness-raising within the tourism industry about the importance and value of nature conservation could also raise general acceptance and support for protected areas, both globally and in Germany. Therefore, both partners pursue the common goal of creating a broad awareness within the tourism industry that the protection and conservation of biological diversity is an immanent basis for nature-related tourism and economic activity. Both partners are committed to winning stakeholders from the tourism industry for nature conservation. From the beginning of 2021, NNL and LT&C will develop joint projects in this context.
