September 2009 marked the completion of the successful GSTA Project in Ecuador. Over the past two and a half years, the Alianza Ecuatoriana para el Turismo Sostenible (AETS) has made significant gains in developing sustainable tourism as a means to improve protected areas in Ecuador while demonstrating social, cultural, and economic benefits to rural populations as a result. The AETS management established the first tourism program office within the Ministry of Environment (MAE) to help govern sustainable tourism development in protected areas; implemented a national marketing strategy with the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR) to support the new protected area tourism program; and to demonstrate tangible results, succeeded in eight key protected areas to build visitor infrastructure, implement state of the art monitoring tools and mechanisms to mitigate tourism impacts; create and strengthen four innovative community-based enterprises, increase market access for over one hundred businesses and communities, and gain widespread public support for protected areas in Ecuador. The eight protected areas that benefited directly from the program include: Cotopaxi; Chimborazo; Mangalares Churute; Machalilla, Cotocachi-Cayapas, Cayambe-Coca, Yasuni-Cuyabeno and the Galapagos.


GSTA Managing Partner, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), recently announced the completion of a comprehensive study on the valuation of tourism in Peru's protected areas. The Spanish-language document is now available for downloading and is called Valoración Económica del Turismo en el Sistema Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas por el Estado (Economic Valuation of Tourism in the National System of Protected Areas of the State of Peru). The most important partners for the study were the Ministry of the Environment (for the ownership and presentation of the study), the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (during the study), the National Service of Protected Natural Areas (during all stages of the study) and the private tourism sector (represented by the President of the Hotel Association of Peru).

November 10, 2009    

Since the Friend-A-Gorilla program launched on September 26th, there has been an unprecedented amount of media attention promoting this innovative campaign. The friendagorilla.org website allows users to track a gorilla for a donation of $1 minimum and then helps donors stay connected with  social networking sites including facebook.com and twitter.com. Almost 13,000 followers have befriended gorillas thus far and the number continues to grow rapidly each day. Read more background information about the GSTA supported Friend-A-Gorilla program.

For an overview of the celebrity trip to Uganda and the warm reception by the local communities view this video

WORLD’S ICONIC DESTINATIONS RATED

In conjunction with the National Geographic Society's Center for Sustainable Destinations, National Geographic Traveler Magazine National Geographic Traveler has devoted its sixth annual “Places Rated” Destination Stewardship survey to the world’s most celebrated and iconic travel destinations and how well they have weathered the pressures of mass tourism and other threats. The survey is the cover story of the November-December 2009 issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine, on newsstands Nov. 3rd.

A total of 133 destinations were surveyed by a panel of 437 well-traveled experts in a variety of fields related to sustainable tourism. Chris Seek and David Brown of Solimar International, a Managing Partner of the GSTA, were among the experts in the panel.

The National Geographic Society, is one of the GSTA's Implementation Partners.