Using tourism to help the environment

At the Pacific Climate Change Roundtable Friday, Lelei LeLaulu said that one thing each island nation in the Pacific has an abundance of is tourists, and if each nation asked those tourists to calculate the cash value of their carbon emissions for the trip, the nations could use that money to combat the growing amount of emissions. The tourists would pay upon their arrival and they money would then be used to plant trees or mangroves, ultimately reducing emissions.

“It’s literally money from the air,” he said.

It would also bring the tourists back in the future, he said.

“You think they might want to come back and see those trees and mangroves?,” he asked the delegates at the Roundtable, which brought together representatives from Pacific islands and territories and other organizations to discuss climate change ahead of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, where the goal is to enter into a binding global climate agreement starting in 2012.

Although the Pacific Island Nations only account for 0.03 percent of the world’s carbon emissions, it’s important the region shows they are serious about reduction, said Espen Ronneberg, Climate Change Adviser for the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme. SPREP is a regional organization based in Apia that is charged with protecting and managing the region’s environment and natural resources.

Plus, LeLaulu said, studies have shown tourists are more likely to travel to places that are environmentally or carbon conscious.

A similar scheme has worked in a Mayan village, he added. Right when tourists get off the plane they are greeted with a nursery where they buy a tree. A Priest blesses the visitor and the tree before before leading the tourists to the planting site.

Most people think of businessmen in suits and ties in New York or Frankfurt, Germany, making money off of carbon emissions, LeLaulu said, but this is one way locations in the Pacific can profit off the issue.

In fact, he added, someone should have calculated the emissions used for the more than 100 delegates who traveled to the Roundtable and used that money to plant trees in Apia.

“We have to put our emissions where our mouths are,” he said.

The idea came as delegates were brainstorming publicity ideas and activities for 2009’s Pacific Year of Climate Change, which aims to showcase the region’s dedication to climate change adaptation and mitigation.

“This could perhaps assist in trying to get an agreement in 2009 in Copenhagen that will please the Pacific,” Ronneberg said.

One delegate in attendance said a long-term goal could be to get a well-known author to write about climate change and hopefully make the issue more mainstream.

LeLaulu said screenwriters are another group that could be tapped to help, especially if they are interested in shooting movies in the Pacific region.

“That way we can get Brad [Pitt] and Angelina [Jolie] for free,” he said.