The Biodiversity Foundation joins World Tourism Day by promoting more than 20 environmental projects underway. The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, pointed out that “we are a country rich in biodiversity and tourism, and this binomial is an opportunity to conserve our environment and generate employment”.

The Biodiversity Foundation joins World Tourism Day by promoting more than 20 environmental projects underway. The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, pointed out that “we are a country rich in biodiversity and tourism, and this binomial is an opportunity to conserve our environment and generate employment”.

Spain is the European country with the largest area protected by the Natura 2000 Network and the second country in Europe as a tourist destination. The competitiveness of tourism is closely related to its sustainability, as the quality of tourist destinations depends a lot on their natural and cultural environment.

The 22 projects underway aim to improve the marketing of tourism products and companies linked to protected natural areas, maintain and generate rural employment, promote green employment with a vision of sustainable economy or promote fishing tourism, among others. Some projects are developed around the attractiveness of protected natural areas or biosphere reserves. Such as the project on Ecological Agricultural Practices and Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas carried out by the Fernando González Bernáldez Interuniversity Foundation (Fungobe) that addresses the potential for socio-economic development in protected areas, the primary sector and tourism in the Natura 2000 Network. Also noteworthy is the project developed by TUREBE, which aims to improve the marketing of products and services of tourism companies linked to Biosphere Reserves. But in addition to protected natural areas, there are other attractions, such as greenways or tourism linked to astronomy. As well as the ECO-UNION project to promote green employment in the tourism sector focusing on rural tourism, nature tourism and cultural tourism.

Others find in biodiversity a tourist attraction linked to specific species, such as the project of the Spanish Ornithological Society, which seeks to increase the tourist offer around birds and their habitats.

Organisations such as TUREBE, FUNGOBE, ANDANATURA, AVENIA or ECO-UNIÓN aim to promote this type of sustainable tourism through activities that make tourism and biodiversity compatible.