Encouraging sustainable business practices in Samoa’s tourism industry and enhancing support of local initiatives. 

Located in the Pacific, Samoa is comprised of ten islands, the largest and most known being ‘Upolu and Savai’i. Each island features distinct landscapes from tropical rainforests and volcanic landscapes to crystal clear lagoons and sandy beaches. The tourism industry is critical to the prosperity of Samoa’s economy and the livelihoods of the local people. According to the South Pacific Tourism Organization (SPTO), over 139,000 tourists visited the islands in 2015. Despite the influx of foreign visitors, authentic cultural traditions and values still dominate every aspect of life on the islands.

As a small island nation, Samoa’s ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to environmental challenges brought on by climate change, unplanned development, and natural disasters. Impacts from mass tourism can also threaten traditional knowledge and cultural expression, which play an integral role in the Samoan way of life.

Sustainably managed tourism has the potential to address these threats by enhancing climate change adaptation, strengthening community resilience, and funding environmental conservation. In addition to environmental protection, tourism also represents an opportunity to conserve the island’s cultural heritage, improve community well-being, and create career options for the Samoan youth.

Samoa has been a regional leader in sustainable tourism interventions, but there is still potential for the destination to further engage tourism businesses and travelers in destination stewardship and be a model for other destinations in the region to follow. Sustainable Travel International is collaborating with the Samoa Tourism Authority to help small and large businesses play a more active role in ensuring sustainable tourism development.

Sustainability Charter

Hotels, tour operators, and other tourism providers have the power to either harm or benefit the destinations where they operate. Their impact depends largely on how they run their business – from who they hire to how they dispose of their waste.

Part of our work in Samoa is focused on guiding these businesses—through the development of a Sustainability Charter—to identify and adopt more sustainable business practices. That is, practices that are respectful of the local people and environment, such as composting food waste and sourcing products locally. Giving local stakeholders and community leaders ownership of this process will ensure that the practices are feasible, appropriate, and impactful within the destination context. The Charter will also help to reinforce business innovation by highlighting and providing recognition to those businesses that are finding creative ways to incorporate sustainability. Widespread business commitment to these practices will contribute to community well-being, economic development, and environmental conservation.

Foundation for a Sustainable Samoa

In addition to encouraging business sustainability, our work in Samoa is also focused on using the power of the tourism industry to strengthen support for local conservation and community development efforts. To accomplish this, we partnered with the community to develop a travel philanthropy fund for Samoa.

The travel philanthropy fund, the Foundation for a Sustainable Samoa, was launched in 2017 with a mission of maximizing community benefits from tourism in Samoa by creating opportunities for local people to improve their well-being and safeguard their natural and cultural resources. The Foundation is dedicated to supporting small-scale destination stewardship initiatives that contribute to the following four priority sustainability causes: youth career development, environmental education, community economic development, and waste management.  By capturing a largely untapped donor base of travelers and tourism businesses, the program will create a new funding mechanism for projects in need of financial assistance. In addition, the fund will raise traveler and resident awareness of key environmental and social issues facing the islands. By educating and uniting destination stakeholders around common causes, the fund will inspire collaboration to more effectively solve these problems. The fund will also be a way for stakeholders to highlight and share Samoa’s commitment to sustainability. By sharing stories of Samoa’s success, not only will the fund inspire activism locally, but it will also provide a sustainability model for other Pacific destinations to follow.

With the abundance of natural attractions, it may come as a surprise that most of the 2.3 million annual visitors to the country rarely venture outside Panama City. However, until recently, Panama had not actively developed or promoted tourism in its parks, protected areas, and more rural areas. Sustainable Travel International partnered with the Republic of Panama Government to use this opportunity for tourism development as a means to increase conservation and create benefits for local communities.

Rural and Indigenous Communities

In Panama and elsewhere, responsibly developed ecotourism holds the potential to stimulate local economies, benefit indigenous communities, and combat rural poverty. By creating alternative livelihoods for communities in and around protected areas, ecotourism presents an opportunity for indigenous people support themselves and their families as tour guides, food service providers, or handicraft vendors.

Biodiversity and Conservation

Because tourism often flourishes in biodiversity hotspots, ecotourism also has the unique ability to contribute to the protection of some of the earth’s most valuable natural areas and ecosystems. The revenues from park entrance fees and tourism concessions provide added funding that can be channeled into conservation activities and park maintenance. In addition, the income generated by ecotourism provides an economic incentive for local people to protect the natural environment so that it remains a valuable tourism asset. By educating travelers on the ecosystems they visit and their role in environmental stewardship, ecotourism can also increase traveler activism and support of conservation.

In 2015 and 2016, our team worked with local stakeholders to analyze regional opportunities and challenges and map out a country-wide action plan for developing ecotourism in Panama’s protected areas. The resulting plan includes specific strategies for developing ecotourism in a manner that will enhance protection of Panama’s sensitive habitats and wildlife, promote inclusion of rural and indigenous communities and local culture, and foster capacity building and skills development. In March 2016, the Government of Panama and private sector officially adopted the plan and implementation is already underway.

Increasing the perceived value of forest conservation through ecotourism development

Made up of over 17,000 islands dotting the Pacific and Indian Oceans, Indonesia is a country with rich natural and cultural wonders. From dense rainforests and towering volcanoes, to picturesque mountain valleys and secluded stretches of beach, Indonesia possesses some of the world’s most spectacular biodiversity. Indonesia has the third largest expanse of tropical forest in the world. At least 30 million people depend directly on Indonesia’s forests for their livelihood but deforestation rates are some of the highest in the world.

The areas most at risk include the carbon rich peat forests in Kalimantan (the Indonesian portion of Borneo) as well as areas of northern Sumatra and Papua. From sequestering carbon and combating climate change, to providing freshwater for local communities, these forests represent a precious and vital resource. In addition, these forests are home to a number of critically threatened species such as orangutans and Sumatran rhinos and elephants. Reducing deforestation will help conserve the environment, protect rare species, safeguard the community’s livelihood, and preserve the destination for years to come.

Our Role

In 2015, USAID launched the LESTARI project to combat Indonesia’s growing threat of deforestation. LESTARI means “everlasting” in Indonesian and the project aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve protected area management in Central Kalimantan, northern Sumatra, and Papua.

LESTARI  is a five-year project implemented by a variety of partners under the leadership of Tetra Tech and funded by the United States Government. Sustainable Travel International’s role in this project focused on identifying and developing alternative livelihoods through ecotourism.  Our specific goal was to develop a series of small scale ecotourism partnerships in Central Kalimantan and Aceh that have high conservation value, bring community benefit and are economically viable, appealing to domestic and international markets. Areas of particular focus are Sebangau National Park, Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park, Gunung Leuser National Park, and the Trumon-Singkil Wildlife Reserve.

LESTARI targets a 41 percent greenhouse gas emissions reduction in its landscapes by project completion in 2020.