From October 28th to 31th, 2024, the NOAA Climate Program Office’s Adaptation Sciences (AdSci) program and the NOAA Marine Protected Areas Center convened a workshop to build capacity for climate resilience through sustainable and regenerative tourism in the South Pacific. Held in Nadi, Fiji, the training workshop was designed and carried out in partnership with the South Pacific Tourism Council (SPTC), The Ocean Foundation (TOF), and the Local2030 Islands Network. The U.S. Department of State supported the workshop under the Island-Led Resilience 2030 program.
Sustainable and regenerative tourism are emerging concepts that can have a large impact on how tourism shapes island economies, ecosystems, and cultures. When employed properly, these innovative forms of tourism can make an island’s ecosystems and communities more resilient to climate impacts and help reverse the damage of traditional tourism. This workshop aimed to increase awareness of these tourism concepts, understand climate impacts that islands face, and build strategies for employing sustainable and regenerative tourism techniques. The workshop served as a platform to share experiences among tourism, climate, and conservation practitioners. It was also an opportunity to develop principles, good practice, skills, and tools to facilitate regenerative tourism projects. Workshop sessions focused on understanding climate impacts and defining climate resilience in the context of one’s community or island. The sessions also reviewed climate adaptation strategies that can be integrated into tourism, including ways to reduce one’s environmental footprint through waste reduction or limiting carbon emissions, how to support local communities that are vulnerable to climate impacts, and how to incorporate nature-based climate solutions (NbS) into tourism initiatives.
This workshop was intended to address priorities and needs identified by participants in the Local2030 Island Network’s Community of Practice of “Sustainable and Regenerative Tourism.” It targeted participation from several island nations around Fiji, and the 37 participants represented a variety of islands including Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, American Samoa, and the Cook Islands. This workshop brought together members of the private tourism sector, including representatives of hotels, resorts, and trekking experiences, government officials from tourism, climate, and energy agencies, and local community members. Representatives from Conservation International, The Pacific Community (SPC), and the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) also joined the discussion.
For more information, contact Scott Shatto.
