Raising environmental awareness of tourists

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

Agenda 21 recommends the formulation of environmentally sound and culturally sensitive tourism programmes as a strategy of sustainable development of urban and rural settlements and as a way of decentralizing urban development, and of reducing discrepancies among regions; In 1993, publications in several languages were widely distributed in the Mediterranean countries. They included a Code of Conduct for Tourists, a leaflet giving advice to boat and yacht owners on how to avoid environmental damage, and a series of questions to ask a travel agent when choosing a holiday. An exhibition on Tourism and Environment in the Mediterranean was displayed in several tourism centres along the Mediterranean coast.

The Traveller's Earth Repair Network (TERN) is a networking service for tourists who wish to make a positive contribution to the environment in the course of their travels. TERN links travellers with hosts and other contacts working in reafforestation, forest preservation, sustainable agriculture, permaculture and other areas related to trees and earth repair.