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PARIS, 17 April 1995
- The Industry and Environment office of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) has issued another in its series
of Technical Reports -- this one dealing with Environmental
Codes of Conduct for Tourism.
Over recent years, voluntary environmental codes of conduct
have come to the fore as a new and promising tool to raise awareness
of environmental issues and improve behaviour and practices.
They provide an interesting complement to other tools such
as regulations and economic instruments. Chapter 30 of Agenda
21 encourages business and industry "to adopt and report on
the implementation of codes of conduct promoting best environmental
practice".
Within the tourism sector, codes of conduct are now sufficiently
numerous and widespread to warrant an interim review of their
content, implementation and effectiveness.
The UNEP report is based on the results of a survey and analysis
of existing codes developed by countries, industry associations
and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Highlights of the
report include:
The objectives and benefits of voluntary codes of conduct;
Examples of environmental codes for the tourism industry,
for host communities and for tourists;
Essential elements common to successful codes and some of
the most common pitfalls;
Implementation and monitoring tools and programmes currently
in use to activate codes and monitor and report on performance.
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