Industry project "Biodiversity in tourism - preserving to experience"

An intact natural environment is of particular importance

The global populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined by more than 70 percent in the last 50 years. Around one million out of eight million species are currently endangered - and humans are contributing significantly to this through the conversion and destruction of ecosystems and the overuse of resources. The protection of biodiversity secures our essential resources such as clean air, water and fertile soil.

It is therefore crucial that all sectors of the economy develop decision-making and management tools for dealing with biodiversity. As a travel industry, we bear a special responsibility to preserve biodiversity – not only as a basis for authentic travel experiences, but as a globally indispensable pillar of healthy living. At the same time, tourism itself can become a burden through resource consumption or interference with nature – and this must be actively counteracted.

The aim of Futouris members is to maximize the contribution of tourism to the conservation and restoration of biodiversity in tourist destinations, to reduce negative impacts and to anchor concrete measures in all processes of the tourism core business.

Development of biodiversity strategies as a basis

Biodiversity strategies form the basis for the contribution of Futouris member companies to the protection and conservation of biodiversity.

In Phase 1 of the industry project, WWF, in cooperation with its partners WWF Germany and mascontour, is developing a guideline for the development of biodiversity strategies and action plans, specifically tailored to the tourism value chain. Based on this, Futouris is developing a toolkit with in-depth information and best practice examples from pilot companies. Both the WWF guideline and the Futouris toolkit will be made available to the tourism industry.

The Futouris member companies participating in the project will develop their individual biodiversity strategies and action plans using the developed guideline. Mascontour will support the participating pilot companies in applying the steps from the guideline and in developing the action plans.

The biodiversity strategies and action plans will form the basis for the implementation projects in Phase 2 of the industry project. These will be coordinated with the Futouris member companies based on the results of Phase 1.

The biodiversity strategies and action plans should be aligned with the requirements of CSRD reporting and be usable by companies subject to CSRD reporting.

Project activities

• Development of a guideline for the development of company-specific biodiversity strategies and action-plans by WWF.

• Application of the steps described in the guideline by the participating pilot companies.

• Implementation of hot spot analyses in the participating pilot companies and derivation of generic results for the sector.

• Support for the participating companies in developing their individual biodiversity strategy and action plan.

• Collection and evaluation of feedback from the participating pilot companies on the application of the guideline.

• Development and implementation of pilot projects based on the analysis results and the developed biodiversity strategies and derived measures in phase 2 of the project.