BIODIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS
ANIMONDIAL offers tourism businesses the opportunity to work with experienced animal and nature protection organisations on the ground, in their destinations, which can unlock the local knowledge, expertise and opportunities you need to protect animals and restore and enhance nature.
left: BECT c. Barbados Environmental Conservation Trust | centre: Girl with sapling – Nature for Change c. Nayli Azmi | right: Coral reef restoration c. FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute
This is a vital component of Nature Positive Tourism, providing travel and tourism businesses opportunity to compensate for unavoidable negative impacts on nature resulting from their operations.
Finding ways to protect and restore nature in your destinations may seem like a huge challenge – but it doesn’t have to be. ANIMONDIAL, which has decades of experience working with animal and nature protection organisations, can help by:
- Connecting businesses with strategically-chosen, destination-specific organisations that fulfil a particular need. For example, Nature-based Solutions that specifically address climate change mitigation through natural sequestration and storage of carbon, or specialism in the conservation of a specific animal species.
- Providing access to the Animal Protection Network, a directory of pre-approved organisations that are ready for partnership and will benefit from ANIMONDIAL’s partnership support services.
IDENTIFYING A BIODIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP
The key to forging a meaningful partnership is to take a strategic approach. This should consider the environmental priorities identified in your policy commitment and implementation strategy (see our COMMIT service page), or your NATOUR IMPACT assessment outcomes, alongside national and local biodiversity goals. This ensures that the partnership has a clear purpose that simultaneously meets the needs of your business and nature in the destination.
A well-prepared partnership can support your nature positive strategy in many ways, including:
- Understanding how your operations impact nature in destination
- Identifying context-sensitive opportunities to reduce impact
- A mechanism for meaningful action to benefit biodiversity
- Supporting measurement and monitoring activities
- Providing insight into local nature protection issues and opportunities
- Connecting with local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and institutions
Tree Planting c. APE Malaysia / Mark Louis Benedict
Wildlife Rescue Center, Peten c. ARCAS Guatemala
Forming a long-term partnership with a local environmental group can also have a range of business benefits, including:
- Unique, meaningful activities to offer clients
- Improved relationships with communities in destinations
- Local engagement to enrich client experience
- Communications / public relation content
- Enhanced appeal to environmentally-conscious clients
- Increased motivation for environmentally-conscious staff