The day is growing near when tourists will have a reliable and independent resource for evaluating whether a tourism business's certification is a true guarantee of sustainability. All of us who believe in the importance of certification should be happy to know that 2009 is scheduled as the year in which the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council (STSC) will be established.

This goal was set during a recent meeting, held in Paris, of representatives from 40 organizations including the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Tourism Organization, the United Nations Foundation (UNF), The International Ecotourism Society and the Center for Ecotourism and Sustainable Development. The UNF has committed partial financial support for the next phase in the creation of the STSC.

At the meeting, a temporary organizational structure was agreed upon; it includes an interim board, with representatives from 15 different stakeholders and regions, which will be selected in June 2008 and guide the creation process until January 2009. Various organizations also expressed interest in having the STSC form a partnership with the United Nations, which would allow the STSC to draw support from the various UN agencies whose work is relevant to tourism.

Have you filled out the survey to evaluate our proposed international baseline criteria for sustainable tourism? If not, don't let this opportunity to participate pass you by.

The baseline is the product of an exhaustive comparison of criteria, standards and guidelines used by more than 70 different tourism certification organizations. By identifying similarities and integrating them into a single tool, we created a baseline that can potentially serve various needs, including:

• Serve as basic guidelines for businesses of all sizes to become more sustainable.
• Help businesses choose sustainable tourism programs that satisfy the international baseline criteria.
• Help certification programs and other voluntary programs ensure that their standards include these criteria as a minimum measurement of sustainability.
• Serve as fundamental criteria for accrediting sustainable tourism certification programs.
• Serve as a point of departure for government, NGO and private programs to develop their requirements for sustainable tourism.
• Help promote mutual recognition and reciprocity among programs.
• Serve as a benchmark to help the media identify sustainable tourism providers.
• Serve as a guide for travel agencies when choosing providers and sustainable tourism programs.
• Help consumers identify truly sustainable tourism programs and businesses.

So don't wait any longer -- make sure your voice is heard!

Visitors to the white-sand beach of El Chileno in Mexico's Baja California Sur can play in crystalline waters, enjoy surf, sun and sand, and chat with the locals… all with the knowledge that this tranquil spot is clean and safe enough to have earned Mexico's first beach certification.

The Mexican Institute for Standardization and Certification has certified the beach, guaranteeing El Chileno's compliance with a standard established by Mexico's Sub-Secretary for Environmental Promotion and Regulation. Published in 2006, the standard establishes requirements and specifications for the sustainability of beach quality, covering recreational use as well as conservation goals. The standard includes such criteria as water quality, solid waste, coastal infrastructure, biodiversity, security and services, environmental education and noise pollution.

The certification "will help El Chileno attract more tourists who are concerned about the quality of the places they visit," said Mexico's secretary of the environment and natural resources, Juan Rafael Elvira. "This will translate into more jobs and better living conditions for the local community."

Ten years may not seem like enough time to produce significant change, but the Rainforest Alliance's hard work and enthusiasm in the promotion of sustainable tourism practices have borne impressive fruit. Our decade-long efforts to spread the word about environmentally friendly tourism were recently recognized by the Costa Rican Association of Tourism Professionals (ACOPROT). The organization honored us with its "Friend of Nature EXPOTUR 2008" award, which is given to organizations and individuals who contribute to the development of tourism in Costa Rica.

The Rainforest Alliance was commended for helping hundreds of tourism companies in Latin America transform their business practices while inspiring countless tourists to modify their behavior -- all of which has decreased tourism's negative social and environmental impact and increased support for biodiversity conservation and local cultures.

"This prize will serve as an inspiration for us to continue working for sustainable tourism development," says Ronald Sanabria, director of the Rainforest Alliance's sustainable tourism program. "The things that we've accomplished thus far prove that tourism has all the conditions necessary to be an effective tool for conservation and development in our countries."

More and more people who travel to developing countries are seeking to contribute something to the communities they visit. Likewise, many hotels, tour operators and airlines are interested in donating their time, talent and resources to schools, medical centers, conservation efforts, or other types of valuable local projects.

To address these concerns, The Center for Ecotourism and Sustainable Development (CESD) is organizing an international conference on traveler philanthropy in order to promote and strengthen this new form of development assistance.

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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.

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