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The society was founded in Bonn, Germany, in 1991 as a forum
for national organisations supporting environmentally and
socially responsible tourism. Currently ETE has five member
organisations, which work in the fields of nature conservation
and environment protection, sustainable tourism, youth, leisure
activities and culture.
Ecological Tourism in Europe and its office in Bonn/Germany
is coordinating the GEF project, providing assistance and
advice to the country expert team through technical support
in different thematic fields. This support is based on experiences
gained in other ETE projects throughout the Central and East
European Countries, planning and implementing measures for
sustainable tourism. Further it implements the Monitoring
and Evaluation System for the effective management of the
project.
All correspondence at ETE regarding the project should be
addressed to Mr. Michael Meyer.
e-mail: m.meyer@oete.de
tel: +49-228-359008
fax: +49-228-359096
ETE has set itself the following tasks and goals:
- Offering specific information and education about environmentally
friendly and sustainable forms of tourism to providers of
tourism services and tourists
- Initiating, supporting and carrying out of model projects
designed to promote environmentally friendly and socially
responsible tourism
- Political and administrative lobbying
- Initiating and implementing an environmental award scheme
for the national tourism industry
In cooperation with other organisations, mainly from the
nature and environmental conservation sectors, ETE carries
out regional model projects designed to promote environmentally
and socially sustainable tourism as a basis for or support
of sustainable regional development in Germany and other European
countries. The organisers of one of these projects, which
promotes a sustainable regional tourism initiative in Gömörszolos,
Hungary, were awarded several times.
It is because of these regional projects that ETE has
broad and sound practical experience in the subject area of
environmentally and socially responsible tourism, in particular
concerning the needs for collaboration between the various
actors on the local level.
Moreover, ETE’s public relations activities allow for
the permanent representation of interests on the subject of
environmentally and socially responsible tourism in the public,
political and administrative sectors. It also provides specific
information for tourists interested in environmental issues.
ETE also organises conferences, expert meetings, information
events, seminars and workshops both on the national and international
levels.
Since 1998 ETE has been continuously working on the international
level on the tourism issue within the UN-Commission on Sustainable
Development and the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD). In both
processes, ETE supported the “Guidelines on Biodiversity
and Tourism Development”, which were adopted in 2004 by the
7th Conference of the Parties to the CBD.
In Germany ETE already is preparing model strategies
for the implementation of the CBD guidelines, including the
preparation of a special checklist, a manual for sustainable
tourism management in Natura 2000 sites and a project for
the implementation as a model in the German Alps.
ETE is supported by a regular team of experts from the
environmental and tourism sectors (some are independent, some
work for one of the member organisations). These experts are
integrated into the work of ETE according to individual
project needs.
In Germany, ETE has been leading an expert group within
environmental organisations, which had prepared and implemented
together with tourism organisations, federal ministries and
federal agencies the environmental award scheme for the national
tourism industry called “Viabono”.
For more information
check the website of ETE: www.oete.de
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