The 10 Charter principles

The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected is based on the 10 Charter Principles for sustainable tourism and comprises a set of guidelines, check-lists and methodologies.They involve working in partnership, preparing and implementing a strategy and addressing key issues. The principles can be downloaded here.

Charter Part I is a management tool for protected areas of all kinds. Implementation by the protected area authority entails diagnosing the needs of the area recognised and accepted by local partners. The aim of this approach is to find the most appropriate future direction for tourism throughout the whole area. The strategy must be developed and implemented in partnership with local tourism representatives, other business sectors, local people and authorities. A flowchart demonstrating the application and verification process to achieve the Charter status can be obtained here.

The benefits/opportunities for protected areas who are implementing the Charter Part I are:

• a basis for establishing relationships with tourism stakeholders
• a controlled sustainable tourism development in the area
• a higher profile as an area devoted to sustainable tourism;
• public-relations and awareness-raising
• working in and exchanging experiences within the Charter network
• helpful internal and external assessment
• greater credibility

Further information on how to gain the status, which key issues to address and how to perform the evaluation can be found here: www.european-charter.org. Please also have a look at the Guide to sustainable tourism in protected areas providing input on Charter-related topics such as the application and verification process as well as cyrrying capacity, sustainable transport and marketing of eco-tourism products.

Implementing the Charter Part I in pilot parks of the Baltic Sea Region

7 protected areas of the Parks & Benefits project are actively working with the Charter instrument. 2 have already been awarded as Charter park: the Dovrefjell National Park in Norway and the Müritz National Park in Germany. Five protected areas have already submitted their applications - the verfication visits are taking place in spring 2012. The status of the implementation of the Charter accreditation process in Parks & Benefits partner parks can be found in the following Charter Barometer which also also provides an overview of the steps that need to be taken to achieve the Charter status.