University of Aarhus ECOTOURISM AS A WAY TO PROTECT ...

Ecotourism as a sustainable way to protect nature
2.5. Certification of ecotourism
Summarising the conclusions from the previous parts, there is a strong
need for some kind of regulation within the ecotourism industry to achieve the
aims properly. The ecolabeling (Buckley, 2001) or environmental certification
in tourism (Font, 2002) would be a one way to regulate ecotourism from the
international level to the national or the regional levels.
At first sight, the easiest and most commonly used level, at which
regulations may be set up (e.g. in the form of economic instruments), is the
national level. But there are several reasons why this scheme is not always
applicable for ecotourism purposes:
• The definition of ecotourism is still not clear for governmental
negotiation
• And even in the case they are taking an active attitude towards
regulation, this is limited to national boundaries, which makes it
inefficient due to the international nature of the tourism industry
(Font, 2001).
Consequently, some kind of volunteer agreements at the international
level – such as ecolabels - are the most appropriate. The voluntary approaches
are certainly the best way to ensure long-term commitments and improvements,
and putting the tourism industry on the path of sustainability. And the
international volunteer agreements are generally a very good way to motivate
the national governments to take action (Töpfer, 1998).
The purpose of the ecolabels is to certify that specific efforts have been
made to reduce environmental impact (UNEP, 1998), more specifically that the
ecotourism provider (travel agency) is actually behaving according to the rules,
which were set by ecolabel certification schemes.
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