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Development of the Global Sea Turtle Friendly™ Tourism standards and certification program

  • Published on January 1, 2020
By partnering with local communities, the travel and hospitality industry, and on-the-ground conservation partners like the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WIDECAST), Sea Turtle Friendly™ Tourism acts to reduce impacts of development and recreational activities and provides new and sustainable livelihood opportunities to protect these species.
Sea Turtle Friendly™ encourages the tourism sector to take pride in their role as sea turtle stewards and in securing a long-term future for a turtle-based tourism economy. Certification also empowers tourists to select hotel and excursion options with the confidence that they are truly supporting conservation efforts. As this program scales up, it will help to mitigate threats to sea turtles that are related to the tourism industry. It also provides innovative opportunities for collaboration between private sector, civil society, and government agencies. Surveys of tourists have demonstrated a willingness to pay for resorts that are contributing to the protection of sea turtles, as well as a willingness to specifically seek out these businesses. Thus, as awareness of Sea Turtle Friendly™ grows, demand will also grow, and consumers will support the enterprises that have chosen to take a more sustainable approach. The Sea Turtle Friendly™ standards include criteria on: - Nesting beach management - Conservation of foraging habitat - Beachfront lighting - Guidelines for visitor behavior near sea turtles - Marine debris and plastics - Monitoring - Community involvement - Education and outreach Successes of this program include the strong interest and involvement of key actors in the private sector, governments, and NGOs throughout the Caribbean region and beyond. The first Sea Turtle Friendly™ resorts in the world are true leaders in sustainability and conservation, and their work in meeting these standards is tremendous and is a sentiment to the potential of this program. WFEN has also fielded interest in the project from a high-end luxury resort owned by a celebrity, as well as two well-known brands of resorts. A continuing challenge is finding the financial resources necessary to support new certification programs in their start-up phase. The initial stages of this program were funded through the Foundation of a well-known company. However, this company's funding priorities have changed and there are no resources to further scale up the project. As a result, the initial outreach and administrative work in reaching potential program applicants is very limited until which time there are sufficient numbers of certified entities that their collective annual fees are able to support this. WFEN's fees are based on a sliding scale and are much lower than comparable certification programs, but the high bar set by the standards means that the pace of scaling up is limited. Private sector entities are, at times, hesitant to invest in the work required under these standards. Granting organizations are often unwilling to fund certification programs as it is understood that these programs are self-funding, even though the self-funded stage only occurs once a program reaches scale. These challenges have been overcome mainly through keeping a very low organizational budget, but this also means that program development is slower than it could be.

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