Planning environmentally friendly tourism in specially protected nature territories

Tourism is marked out as one of the most perspective fields in several local authorities where pushful local residents might be employed in and, which would allow to develop and popularize in addition their destination on a larger scale.

Planning environmentally friendly tourism in specially protected nature territories

Tourism is marked out as one of the most perspective fields in several local authorities where pushful local residents might be employed in and, which would allow to develop and popularize in addition their destination on a larger scale. It is already mentioned in the national tourism sector development guidelines that the local tourism sector is to be based on natural and cultural resources and united by knowledgeable people.

The greatest natural values to be used in tourism are very often related to protected nature territories – sites of Natura 2000 or some particular protected nature site. Natural diversity is involved in the development of tourism products by creating great added value in both, educating people and providing recreation, as well as in obtaining income. There is a range of good and, unfortunately, also unsuccessful examples, how natural resources in Latvia are used for tourism organization.

In order to help in finding the right solutions, how to plan the development of territory, based on continuous use of resources and how to develop formation of environmentally friendly tourism products, the Latvian Fund for Nature with support of Administration of Latvian Environmental Protection Fund organized the seminar “Planning Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Tourism in Specially Protected Nature Territories and Sites of Natura 2000” on September 20, this year in the guest house “Rāznas līcis”.

The seminar uniting theoretical knowledge with practical examples, as well as providing information on money raising opportunities for development of sustainable tourism will be useful for tourism development planners in specially protected nature territories and for tourism service providers.

We are inviting you to take part in the seminar in order to obtain information how to use the natural resources in your neighbourhood more efficiently without harming to the natural diversity at the same time. Representatives of local authorities, tourism information centres and regional environmental boards are invited to participate in the seminar, as well as the entrepreneurs interested in this matter. The amount of seats is limited and application in advance is obligatory. A similar seminar will take place also on 18.09. at Zebrus lake in Kurzeme but there are still two free seats left.

Baiba Strazdiņa, project leader