Tomorrow, millions of people around the world will leave their jobs or homes to join the global climate strike on the streets and demand the end of the fossil fuel era.
The term “Murmuration” describes the phenomenon by which starlings gather spontaneously in the air to face a predator. Faced with the exponential growth of mass tourism and its negative effects on the environment, MURMURATION SAS’s approach is similar: to create an ecosystem of engaged actors from the tourist sector to quantify the environmental pressure on popular destinations and to limit its impacts in the context of climate change. It aims to create better conditions for the development of a sustainable tourism!
October 2018, the Philippines reopen Boracay, a paradise island previously soiled by mass tourism. December 2018, the famous Thai island Koh Phi Phi lacks water because of the number of tourists. April 2019, Dubrovnik tries to manage the overtourism. June 2019, deaths on the slopes of Everest increase because of overtourism …
Many stories like those ones demonstrate the effects of mass tourism. Over-frequentation? Bad tourism management? In any case, prevention is better than cure. While tourism accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions (according to the Allenvi 2019 study), it is also a socio-economic catalyst and a factor in preserving the environment through the development of new trends such as sustainable tourism.
All the stakeholders have to help safeguard the places that make us dream during our travels. Tourists, tourism professionals, local authorities, associations and NGOs, governments, … All must collaborate so that the tourism activity can be a real promise of economic and social development, while preserving biodiversity and local life in a sustainable way.
Study case : Bali, a tourism booming. How to deal with environmental pressure?
This inclusive approach is possible thanks to satellite data. Combined with various data from local authorities or even the tourists (eg tourism statistics), this innovative solution aims to set up environmental pressure indicators on a global scale. Indeed, the observation of a dedicated area thanks to high-resolution satellite data allows to give reliable and transparent indicators. The satellite data are factual and invaluable because they allow to go back in time, to identify the problems but also the solutions and to foresee future evolutions.
Copyright image : rawpixel de Pixabay
The #SDGsTourismTalks build on the strategic recommendations of the Baseline Report on the Integration of Sustainable Consumption and Production in Tourism Policies and provide Member States with an opportunity to disseminate their efforts and commitment to develop sound tourism policies and ensure their effective implementation.
In the Sustainable Tourism Policy Talks Ministers of Tourism shared their vision on the implementation of tourism policies and the contribution of the tourism sector in order to achieve SDG 12 goals on sustainable consumption and production and other connected SDGs.
You can’t manage what you can’t measure!
5 main indicators are outlined and they are related also to the climate action SDG13 :
– Biodiversity conservation
– Energy use efficiency
– GHG emissions reduction
– Waste reduction
– Water use efficiency
To know more about the report on sustainable tourism : UNWTO efficiency resources in tourism
