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.
Three LT&C-Examples have been among the winners:
- Chumbe Island (Tanzania) as Best of Africa
- Bardia National Park (Nepal) as Best of Asia
- Galapagos National Park (Ecuador) as Best of the Americas.
And two of the finalists, Tmatboey (Cambodia) and Filicité Island (Seychelles), also relate to LT&C-Examples.
The Republic of Palau is the winner of the ITB Earth Award. Over the years Palau has become well known for its innovative approaches. In 2009, Palau created the world’s first shark sanctuary and in 2015 the world’s sixth-largest marine sanctuary. In 2017, Palau was the first nation to change its immigration laws with the introduction of the “Palau Pledge”. The latest regulation relates to “reef-toxic” sunscreens: from 2020 onward Palau bans the sale and use of sunscreens containing toxic chemicals that can lead to coral bleaching. This is a world-first initiative to avoid the chemical pollution killing corals.
These great achievements of Palau had been already demonstrated at the side event, LT&C organized last November at the CBD COP14 in Sharm el-Sheikh. It is time that one of our members will describe the great case of Palau’s tourism supporting marine protected areas as an LT&C-Example.
