Photo: DestiMED Project
Background
Ecotourism respects the resources of a Protected Area (PA) destination and the well-being of the people living in and around it whilst also, providing incentives for conservation and operating in off-season. In order for this sustainable development model to be a feasible alternative in Mediterranean PAs, enabling conditions around governance and policy-making must be strengthened to foster a balance between the sometimes conflicting interests of the conservation and tourism sectors. Currently, these conditions are weak at both the local and regional levels for Mediterranean PAs: governance is often fragmented and tourism and environmental agendas rarely align, meaning ecotourism has little opportunity to thrive. Furthermore, Mediterranean conservation efforts continue to struggle over key anthropogenic drivers such as mass-tourism and at the other end of the spectrum, private sector skills and political support are insufficient for sustainable alternatives such as ecotourism to blossom.
This is where DestiMED PLUS comes in!
Main Objective
DestiMED PLUS is the next step on a journey to promote integrated planning in coastal tourism, where regional policymakers apply holistic policies that link tourism with conservation. They will do so, by jointly developing ecotourism itineraries in Mediterranean Protected Areas (PAs), as a concrete example of ICZM application.
The project builds on the success of MEET and DestiMED, and will support 9 Mediterranean regions and respective Protected Areas through enhancing cross-sectoral local and regional policies, improving integrated planning strategies, and providing stakeholders with effective training and tools to manage, measure, and promote ecotourism.
Expected Results
Establish of a Mediterranean Ecotourism Consortium (MEC): A Mediterranean Ecotourism Consortium (MEC) gathering the regions participating in the project, representing the interests and the political agenda of both the tourism and conservation departments will be set up.
DestiMED PLUS Standard for Ecotourism in Mediterranean PAs: This result will support Regions and related Protected Areas to holistically measure and monitor the impacts of their actions to foster ecotourism in their territories. Thus, providing decision-makers with better data to prioritize actions and policies which reduce negative impacts and increase the positive contributions of ecotourism.
Mediterranean Ecotourism Roadmap for Regional PAs: Jointly overseen by Regional Ecotourism Coordination tables (RECs), pilot actions will be implemented to test the joint coordination, planning and promotion of ecotourism products in PAs. The results from pilot actions will be be synthesized into a policy road map for each region, as well as, being integrated into a single Mediterranean policy document.
IUCN-Med’s Role
IUCN-Med has previously played a central role in implementing initiatives from DestiMED and MEET projects. In DestiMED PLUS IUCN Med will be responsible for:
(i) Coordination of the Communication work package, where it will ensure smooth communication within and outside the project as well as the promotion of the DestiMED ecotourism packages.
(ii) the coordination of the Transferability work package, to make sure that the methodologies and results applied by the project are known and used in the respective territories, and also at a national and regional scale.
IUCN Med will also play an important role in: the establishment of the Mediterranean Ecotourism Consortium; the definition and monitorization of governance indicators for the DestiMED PLUS Standard for Ecotourism; and supporting the coordination of pilot actions for the Mediterranean ecotourism roadmap for regional PAs.
Partnership
This project is led by Lazio Region and involves twelve other partners from the Mediterranean, IUCN Mediterranean Centre for Cooperation, Government of Catalonia’s Department of Territory and Sustainability, Institute for Tourism Croatia, Fundacio Universitaria Balmes, Development Agency of South Aegean Region Energeiaka S.A, WWF Mediterranean, Corsican Tourist Agency, Autonomous Region of Sardinia Department for Environment, Region of Crete, National Agency of Protected Areas in Albania, Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe, Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fishing and Sustainable Development of Andalusia.
Budget
Total project budget: 3.076.225 Euros
IUCN contribution: 635.750 Euros
EU Med Programme Structural Funds (85%)
Photo: Interreg MED Programme
