We believe that the best environmental management comes from drawing on local knowledge and networks first, then empowering stakeholders with even more understanding, and then creating incentives to act responsibly. We provide technical assistance to introduce best management practices that can lead to certification.

Protected area management

We strengthen the technical capacity of national and regional protected area management organizations, particularly those that have or want a lot of tourism activity. Our focus has been on advice, workshops and training that helps national park managers better manage visitors and work more effectively with the tourism industry. We also prepare policies and plans, develop minimal impact codes and programs and build relationships.

Greening hotels and carbon offset

All accommodation can operate more responsibly, reduce environmental impact and create more benefits. Greening the tourism sector is now essential to reduce the impacts of climate change.

We can assist tailor carbon offset programs for organizations to tap into international opportunities.

We work closer with small, medium and large operators to become ’greener’. We propose and assist implement easy to implement staff and customer behavioural changes, first, followed by technology – this way stakeholders become educated and empowered that they can all make a difference.

We can prepare curricula for local education institutions to formally train the industry in environmental management on an ongoing basis.

We also prepare environmental policies, environmental management systems and carbon reduction and offset schemes to guide practices into the medium term.

We worked for the World Bank to assist InPaques better manage visitors to the World Heritage Canaima National Park, sequentially identifying visitor impacts along the route, so as to program the management responses to match the sequence.

     
 
We can assist small to medium sized businesses introduce cost effective water conservation devices that also make their supply more reliable, their operating costs lower and their carbon footprint smaller & we are linked to simple, cost effective energy systems suitable for remote areas

Making the most of certification

Our team have helped create certification systems from Australia to the Arctic. We often provide advice to regions and operators considering certification, helping them decide if they are ready and what they can do to create marketing benefits and more business.

We assisted create Australia’s nature and ecotourism certification program, which has now certified over 300 products

Monitoring and adaptive management systems

We set up systems featuring frameworks and monitoring techniques to check the health of tourism and the impacts that it creates. The health (or sustainability) of tourism is typically considered in terms of its economic viability, environmental responsibility and socio/cultural sensitivity. The systems are typically applied over local or regional areas with relatively well-defined boundaries (such as mountain ranges, coastal frontage or limited access points). Comprehensive and ongoing consultation is fundamental to the successful development of the systems, as this not only ensures that a wide range of values and perspectives are considered, but increases the opportunity for community support and involvement in the operation of the systems. Director, Simon McArthur, has a PhD in this field of work.

We created one of the longest running community-based monitoring systems in the World, at Kangaroo Island, South Australia

We have created and managed some of the World’s most successful monitoring and adaptive management systems. Our systems only monitor the most relevant and useful indicators and our reporting system is considered so pragmatic that it is now being considered by the World Tourism Organisation to be applied to the world’s first tourism observatory in China

You can view some of our systems in operation that we remain involved with at

• the private sector run IMAMS system at Q Station in Australia www.qstation.com.au/environmentalmanagement
• the community run Tourism Optimisation Management Model (TOMM) system on Kangaroo Island South Australia, typically applied for regional tourism communities interested in growing sustainable tourism www.tomm.info

We created and continue to assist operate Environmental index reporting from Q Station, Australia