We are happy to announce to our colleagues and friends in the Sustainable Tourism Certification Network of the Americas, that Colombia's national forum is up and running, which will help to unite and solidify sustainable tourism efforts across the country. Fundación Natura has been designated the forum's national liaison and will be responsible for channeling information from the Network to other forum members and vice versa. We also recognize the efforts of members of the Colombian Federation of Eco Parks, Ecotourism and Adventure Tourism played an important role in the process leading up to the forum's establishment.

"We decided to take on the challenge of being the liaison organization as we feel that this is an opportunity for Colombia to take advantage of the immense potential our country has to develop tourism with a vision of sustainability," comments Elsa Matilde Escobar, executive director of Fundación Natura.

The Fundación will focus on supporting the forum and will encourage other organizations to join the movement.

Our congratulations to all of the Colombian members for taking this key step in solidifying the Network in your country.

Thanks to the collaboration among members of the Sustainable Tourism Certification Network of the Americas, we now have our Organizational Structure and Membership Protocol finalized and accessible through the Virtual Center (for members only).

The protocol allows us to visualize where we are as an organization, our strengths and areas that need improvement. It also helps to clearly define the roles of organizations that make up the Network: their purpose, function and responsibilities.

We invite you to consult the document and take advantage of all that it has to offer.

A new tool will help entrepreneurs to self-evaluate the social, environmental and economic successes of their businesses.

The Brazilian Association of Technical Standards has introduced the Brazilian Sustainability Norms for Accommodations, which contains parameters and objectives related to sustainability in hotels and lodges and helps them measure their progress against social, environmental and economic benchmarks.

This new standard was developed by the Brazilian Tourism Committee which used the standards developed by the Programa de Certificação em Turismo Sustentável (PCTS) as a reference.

This month, we celebrate the first anniversary of the Eco-Index of Sustainable Tourism, the online database of sustainable tourism businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean.

With 116 businesses from 13 countries listed, we have almost tripled the number of daily visits received during its first days of operation. Most visitors to the Eco-Index of Sustainable Tourism are based in the United States, but Latin America and Caribbean-based travelers are also taking advantage of this resource.

More than 30 international publications have written about the Eco-Index Sustainable Tourism. The New York Times has reported on the site twice, and Harry S. Pariser, author of the guide Explore Costa Rica, acknowledges that it helped him write his book.

Participating businesses also sing its praises. Fernando Figueres, representative of Costa Rica's Hotel Belmar, considers the site to be "a great asset in bringing the concept of 'progress' to a deeper and more useful level - one that takes into account the total impact of human activities on their surroundings."

We invite businesses committed to sustainability in the tourism industry in Latin America and the Caribbean to take advantage of this opportunity and sign up.

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This bulletin has been produced with financial support from the Ford Foundation, The Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank (BID/FOMIN) and the Rainforest Alliance.

© 2006 Rainforest Alliance