Burlington, VT, March 9, 2010 - Megan Epler Wood, the founder of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), is initiating a new short-course, Global Sustainable Ecotourism Development (http://learn.uvm.edu/ecotourism/), at the University of Vermont, July 12-16, 2010. This course is being launched in honor of the 20th anniversary of TIES (http://www.ecotourism.org/).
Distinguished speakers include; Bruce Poon Tip, CEO of G Adventures http://www.gadventures.com/; Richard G. Edwards, Director of nonprofit Planeterra Foundation http://www.planeterra.org; Ann Nygard, Associate Director of the National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations; Seleni Matus, Director of the Belize Tourism Board and former Ecotourism Manager for Conservation International; and Erika Harms, Executive Director of the Tourism Sustainability Council and Senior Advisor at the United Nations Foundation.
In the past 20 years, ecotourism has emerged as one of the most dynamic and discussed tools for sustainable development. In the last 10 years, the field has been much enriched by a broad array of disciplines, particularly economic development and social/pro-poor development techniques. Ecotourism is now broadly and appropriately applied as a rural economic and sustainable development tool. Its successful application is based on a set of methodologies that all students and development practitioners require to be successful.
Ecotourism is a business, which requires business approaches to deliver sustainable development benefits. It therefore needs to be studied as a business model first and foremost. A full evaluation of private sector business financial and market requirements in the local context are necessary due diligence for any practitioner to develop ecotourism in the field. Economic impact analysis including review of ecosystem services is required. Participatory development practices must be applied based on international guidelines and best practice. Biodiversity benefits are a key bottom line, leveraged via legal and concessionary arrangements in protected areas. Market opportunities for rural communities must be based on specific tourism supply chain methodologies. And triple-bottom line monitoring requires the presentation of valid data on economic, environmental and social benefits.
This course will look at the big picture of tourism development impacts and approaches to deliver low impact development. It will teach a holistic approach to planning and tourism development that reviews governments’ and international donors’ role in rural land development, stressing bioregional planning as a key tool for governments and their donors to move rural areas into a more thorough process for sustainable regional development.
This 5 day intensive seminar will be held on the University of Vermont campus as a professional certificate program, or for three college credits. Fees depend on the enrollment option selected. All information on the course can be found on the University of Vermont website at http://learn.uvm.edu/ecotourism. Accommodations on campus can be acquired in a Leed certified facility for a modest fee. Off campus housing also includes “green housing” options.
In 2009, Vermont was rated as the 6th most sustainable destination in the world by National Geographic Traveler magazine and Burlington, Vermont’s largest city (with just 40,000 residents) is at the center of the sustainable development movement in the state.
The State of Vermont supplies a vibrant location for students from around the world to see how sustainability practices can transform an economy and create a sustainable destination that is based on a wide range of sustainability practices. Field trip opportunities will be available to learn more about Vermont’s well-known sustainable agriculture movement, recently featured on the Discovery Channel’s Emeril Green Program.
Students attending Global Sustainable Ecotourism Development will learn new, more sensitive field based approaches that rely on a broader set of academic expertise and disciplines than associated with the topic in the past. It will help students to understand how tourism can play a broader role in sustainable development, and help transition economies away from destructive development practices.
Megan Epler Wood founded The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) in 1990, the oldest and largest non-profit organization in the world dedicated to making ecotourism a tool for sustainable tourism development worldwide. She was President & CEO from 1991-2002. Since 2003, Megan’s firm EplerWood International has devoted itself to aiding some of the poorest countries in the world with sustainable tourism development; including the nations of Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Mexico, El Salvador, Brazil, and Honduras.
Her published works includes; Ecotourism: Principles, Practices and Policies for Sustainability for UNEP in 2002. She has lectured at Columbia Business School, Harvard University, Wellesley, Duke University, University of Vermont, and The George Washington University. She was named a Senior Fellow at the Institute at the Golden Gate in 2010 where she is developing next generation thinking on the development of tourism as a sustainable economic development tool in collaboration with leading universities, NGOs, and business professionals.
Richard G. Edwards is the Director of Planeterra www.planeterra.org, the foundation launched in 2003 by G Adventures. Planeterra is a global non-profit dedicated to sustainable community development through travel. Planeterra evolved out of a long history of travelers committed to finding ways to give back to the people and places they visit. Planeterra selects the projects and works with them to arrange voluntour travel programs worldwide. For information please go to http://www.planeterra.org/pages/voluntours/4.php or call 416-260-0999
CEO, Bruce Poon Tip founded G Adventures in 1990 (http://www.gadventures.com/) in order to deliver an authentic travel experience to travelers, like himself, who craved adventures that went beyond all-inclusive resorts. Since then, G Adventures has grown to become the largest independent adventure travel company in the world, offering more than 1,000 small group experiences, safaris and expeditions on all 7 continents to more than 70,000 travelers a year. The company’s worldwide adventures focus on cultural interaction, wildlife encounters, and active travel.
For more information contact: University of Vermont, Continuing Education, learn@uvm.edu, 802-656-3131.