By Diana Körner

In December 2022 at the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) in Montréal, parties are convening to decide on the future protection of our planet. Our “LT&C Examples” illustrate the important role of tourism in supporting effective protected areas and achieving sufficient global coverage of these areas. We envision that at COP15 the world will decide to protect 30% of our globe by 2030. Our members play a vital role by showcasing how this goal can be achieved concretely with the support of tourism.

To achieve our mission of linking tourism and conservation, we continue to expand and build our network and partnerships. We would like to give you an update on the latest news from LT&C as we work towards our vision in line with the 30×30 goal.

Meet our board: Diana Körner, Michael Meyer, Greg Bakunzi, Denise Landau, Oliver Hillel, Harald Förster and Sergio Chiarandini. Our board members are all experts in both tourism and conservation. They help us carry our message out into the world and work passionately toward our mission.

Peter Prokosch is now our Honorary President and continues to actively support the board. 

We also had Emma Meehan join our team as a communications advisor. She is always on the lookout for news and stories from our network so please message her at: emma.meehan@ltandc.org if you have any newsworthy insights.

Preparing for CBD COP15 – a crucial event for the future of our planet

With Oliver Hillel present at COP15 as part of the CBD Secretariat and Michael Meyer representing LT&C, we are actively preparing for this important meeting and exploring partnerships to increase our possible contributions.

You can read more here about what we aim to achieve at the COP.

And please get in touch if you are planning to attend COP15.

We are hosting a side event, ‘Tourism business cases supporting nature conservation’ (working title), together with members of the IUCN TAPAS Group, to showcase examples of how best to support protected areas. At this event, we will present LT&C Examples to illustrate how this is already successfully being put into practice. 

We will share more information on the side event closer to the date.

Update on the merger with Ö.T.E.

As communicated before, we are working on a merger with Ecological Tourism in Europe/ Ökologischer Tourismus in Europa (Ö.T.E.), for the following reasons:

• We want to join forces with a well-functioning, recognized, and trustworthy partner; gain administrative capacities; build on the established legal framework of Ö.T.E.; and have a solid base in Germany, a world leader in linking tourism and conservation.
• We want to increase the ability to engage in larger 30×30-targeted projects by transitioning from a purely voluntary to a more project-based organization, allowing for paid personal and financial stability.

Importantly, our vision and membership structure will stay the same. The statutes need to be officially approved to finalize the merger, a process we hope to have completed soon.

Membership – we need your support

LT&C is only as strong as our members. We need you to sign up or renew your membership today to enable LT&C as an organization to continue to lobby internationally, list examples, and share the wealth of knowledge of our network in these important times. Your membership directly supports our virtual, lean organization, especially our contribution to COP15. And more generally, it provides value to our members (exchange forums, sharing of valuable information, contributing to industry research, reports, etc).

Membership benefits:

• Feature your national park, ecotourism business, project, or initiative as an LT&C Example and promote it to the world through our channels.
• Take part in LT&C study tours to experience unique conservation examples and biodiversity sites, all at reduced rates for our penguins.
• Be part of a global network of penguins – interact and exchange on social media or in our member forum.
• Be part of our LT&C projects, where we seek expertise from our network
• Use the LT&C logo to show that you are committed to our cause.
• Offset your emissions through our partner South Pole and contribute to selected, verified offsetting projects.

If you are not yet a member, we encourage you to join our global network here!

For our existing members who have not already renewed their membership this year – now is the time!  You can renew here.

Your feedback helps us grow, so please reach out to us. We are more than happy to schedule calls or exchanges via email.

Diana: diana.koerner@ltandc.org

Michael: michael.meyer@ltandc.org

Peter: peter.prokosch@ltandc.org

Emma: emma.meehan@ltandc.org