Sustainable development and eco-tourism are getting a welcome boost from two quarters: the Banyan Tree Group and the Eco Flores Network. Nina van Toulon is the driving force behind the first ever Eco Flores Congress will be held from 26-29 September in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, providing a forum to stimulate sustainability efforts throughout the island group. And Banyan Tree has renewed its partnership with EarthCheck, to achieve the highest level of sustainable operations, incorporating scientific reporting to an international standard. Read More

Media announcement (31 August 2011):

Banyan Tree Group, a leading developer and manager of premium resorts, hotels, spas, galleries, and golf courses signed two key agreements today, reaffirming its commitment to sustainable tourism development.

The commercialised arm of Banyan Tree, GPS Development Services (GPS), which provides development and technical expertise internally within the Group as well as to external parties, signed a memorandum of understanding with EC3 Global, the international environmental management and certification company that owns and manages the EarthCheck program.

As the first Singapore-based company to officially partner with EC3 Global, GPS is now able to deliver end-to-end sustainable tourism development services and expertise to external parties, overseeing the entire process.  Through their successful implementation of sustainable projects for Banyan Tree’s portfolio of properties, GPS will leverage on their expertise in project planning, development management, green technical advisory and engineering technology, while EC3 Global will contribute its expertise on engaged destination management, building and precinct planning and design standards, community and destination master planning and certification.

Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Stewart Moore, CEO of EC3 Global and EarthCheck, said, “The sustainability challenges of tomorrow will demand a new set of professional design skills and innovation. The partnership with GPS will offer our clients an integrated set of planning and design solutions.”

This partnership represents a key milestone for Banyan Tree as it enables GPS to leverage on EC3 Global’s extensive portfolio of over 1,300 hospitality and travel clients in 73 countries, bringing additional revenue streams to the Group. “With this alliance, GPS is able to ramp up its pipeline of external clients in new markets and work together with EC3 to offer a multidisciplinary team that can provide end-to-end solutions for our clients,” said Ms. Lim See Bee, Executive Director of GPS. She added, “This partnership also enables GPS to provide confidence to development approval agencies that all aspects of the project have been considered through an independent assessment of sustainability performance.”

In the second agreement signed, Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts renewed their partnership with EarthCheck, confirming an ongoing commitment to the highest level of sustainable operations with year-on-year performance measurement verified by a third party and scientific reporting to an international standard. EC3 Global owns and manages the EarthCheck benchmarking and certification program that assists businesses in the travel and tourism sector to monitor and reduce their environmental impacts in the core areas of energy, water, waste, community, paper, cleaning and pesticides.

Building on its existing sustainability programme, Banyan Tree will continue extending the Group’s participation in EarthCheck, with a view to have Banyan Tree and Angsana branded resorts certified and supported by expanded capacity building frameworks. As of August 2012, 16 resorts are already part of the EarthCheck program.

In April 2012, Banyan Tree Lijiang became the first resort in China to achieve EarthCheck Gold Certified status. Five resorts have achieved Bronze Benchmarked status (Banyan Tree Ungasan, Banyan Tree Ringha, Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru, Angsana Velavaru, and Angsana Ihuru) and are pursuing Silver Certification.

Seven more resorts are working towards achieving EarthCheck benchmarked status including Banyan Tree Mayakoba in Mexico, Banyan Tree Bintan in Indonesia, Banyan Tree Madivaru in Maldives, Banyan Tree Seychelles, Banyan Tree Bangkok, Angsana Bintan, and Maison Souvannaphoum Hotel in Laos. Additionally, Banyan Tree Phuket, Angsana Laguna Phuket, and five other elements of Laguna Phuket are pursuing EarthCheck Benchmarked status as part of the precinct of Laguna Phuket’s sustainability efforts.

Proudly commenting on the renewal of the partnership, Mr. Abid Butt, CEO, Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts said, “We are encouraged by the performance of our resorts respective to industry baselines and best practice levels, and are proud of their dedication to bettering the community and environment in which each resort resides.  We are enthusiastic about the market intelligence EarthCheck’s data provides which allows us to continue working to be a leader within sustainable tourism.”

“This collaboration reinforces our commitment to engage stakeholders of all levels within the development process, and deliver sustainable solutions regardless of the project’s scale or the level of local regulatory infrastructure supporting sustainable development, “ summed up Ms. Claire Chiang, Co-Founder of Banyan Tree Holdings and Chairperson for Banyan Tree Global Foundation.

Congratulating Banyan Tree on their continued commitment to sustainable development and triple bottom line reporting, Stewart Moore said, “Banyan Tree is regarded as a market leader and we are proud to maintain our partnership with the company and have more properties certified with the EarthCheck program.”

Source: www.banyantree.com

Gaia Discovery (26 August 2012):

Turning big dreams into reality is never easy particularly when you’re talking about the complex subject of sustainability. One lady who’s not letting this deter her from her mission to build a more sustainable future for Flores, Indonesia is Nina van Toulon. Sam Tyers reveals the story behind this inspirational change-maker.

Entrepreneur, mother, long term environmental campaigner, Nina is the inspiration and Founder behind The Eco Flores Network. She is no newcomer to advocacy and humanitarian work, having previously founded an orphanage fund in Ningbo, China 1993-1997, and organized educational and green initiatives in her hometown in Enspijk, Netherlands. So it comes naturally for her to follow her dreams and start The Eco Flores Network to inspire a sustainable approach to the future of Flores.

When you dream big, realists, with every good intention, try to steer you away from failure, by reminding you of the difficulty, the risk, and the customary ways of doing things that ought to be followed. Since Nina began the groundwork for Eco Flores in 2011 she has listened carefully to these voices of concern and calmly replied, “Yes, but we just do it.”

Nina’s dream began when she first visited Indonesia over 20 years ago as a traveler. In awe of the beauty and nature she found she began dreaming of someday moving to Bali. Over time her vision changed after feeling disappointed with South Bali’s urban sprawl and her focus shifted to the more remote location of Flores.

Located in the Indonesian archipelago, the island Flores is part of the eastern islands, Nusa Tenggara Timur and offers a stunning ecosystem of mountains, jungle, sandy beaches and a vibrant and world renowned underwater world. With a rich cultural history and breathtaking natural wonders Flores is blessed with innumerable options for the development of eco tourism.

In 2010 Nina bought land along Waecicu Bay on Flores, with the hopes of building a small eco-hotel with twelve rooms that could support her and provide employment to young people from Indonesia who have come to call her “mom.” But as she planned to move to Flores from the Netherlands, she became concerned as she watched Labuan Bajo rapidly develop from a small fishing port to a tourist hub.

Many people were moving there with the hope of benefiting from the growing opportunities from tourism, but sadly rapid development was leading to concerns about waste management (particularly plastics), health care, and education. Instead of constructing a small hotel, Nina moved her attention and focus to establishing the Eco Flores Network. She hopes to build two or three family cottages on her land instead so as not to put the heat on the already fast moving tourism development on Flores.

Not one to sit back and just watch this happen, Nina began working with local community organiser Papa Joe to publicize his work with Plasticman, a volunteer initiative works to recycle Labuan Bajo’s growing plastic waste, and raise the profile of some of the challenges faced by the development of tourism.

While this partnership was making a difference, it wasn’t enough for Nina, or for Flores. She knew there needed to be coordinated action on a broader scale to change the course of development in Labuan Bajo, and Flores more broadly, hence the founding of the Eco Flores Foundation.

The aim of the Foundation is to promote networking, share expertise, and facilitate a coordinated approach for the long term sustainability of Flores. Nina’s vision was to achieve this through two main goals. The first, to identify and address the immediate issues that have emerged out of modern development on the island. The second, to promote a green movement based around ecotourism, which as the backbone of the island’s economy will underlie the extent to which sustainability is achieved on Flores in the future.

In the last year The Eco Flores Network evolved out of the Foundations work to promote and connect those interested in the long-term sustainability of the economy, environment, and cultures of the island of Flores. The Network now not only links hundreds of local individuals, communities, projects, organizations, businesses, and government offices, but also connects this local community with growing numbers of relevant Indonesian and International academic, research and technical experts.

While this was an incredible achievement over such a short space of time, Nina was very aware that she didn’t just want the Network to just be another talking shop, she wanted it to produce action. And so the Eco Flores Congress was born.

The Eco Flores Congress

The first ever Eco Flores Congress will be held from September 26-29, 2012 in Labuan Bajo to catalyse and officially facilitate the coordination of the work of The Eco Flores Network. The Congress hopes to provide a forum to mobilize green efforts on Flores by facilitating sharing of information, cooperation, and transparency about sustainability efforts.

To deliver this event Nina rallied support from individuals locally and internationally who love Flores and share in her commitment to sustainable development. Through this she has established volunteer support, sponsorship from the New Zealand Aide Program and World Wildlife Foundation, and added support from a range of corporate and international NGO’s, including SwissContact. And Gaia Discovery will be the events partner in media.

Approximately 200 local and international participants are now set to attend this event, let’s hope it’s the first step towards bringing Nina’s dream of a sustainable Flores to life.

Nina’s enthusiasm and relentless commitment to building a more sustainable Flores is incredible, especially when circumstances do not allow her to currently be based in Flores. Her ability to reach out, connect and engage with people is inspiring. As is her passion to not only conserve and protect nature, but also to empower the people of Flores to shape the long term sustainability of the island and ecosystem they live in.

I look forward to seeing Nina again at The Congress in September and also to hear more about her plans for the land in Waecicu Bay, which she now tells me will be kept mostly natural. Driving change and choosing a different way of doing things is not always the easiest path, Nina provides an inspiring example of how to follow your dreams and find a better way, let’s hope it pays off for Flores.

More Information

To find out more about the challenges faced in Flores take a look at the Eco Flores website, follow Eco Flores on Facebook and Twitter @ecofloresorg.

Source: www.gaiadiscovery.com