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Trends Report, March 2002. This year, sustainable tourism gets some big press from the United Nations with several global projects launched.

2002 is, at last, the United Nations International Year of Ecotourism, a period earmarked to develop sustainable tourism in a number of the world's most fragile natural environments.

At a March 2002 press conference, Klaus Toepfer, the United Nations Environment Programme executive, announced that the natural cosmetics company, Aveda, and the U.N. Foundation have offered a combined US$1,000,000 for a project linking conservation and tourism at six World Heritage sites.

"Let's hope that this project will become a model for environmentally sound tourism around the world;" he stated, "a blueprint that shows how ecotourism can be a means of avoiding environmental degradation while sharing the economic benefits with local people."

The first six sites selected are the Sian Ka'an and El Vizcaino Biosphere Rreserves in Mexico, Tikal National Park in Guatemala, the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve in Honduras, and the Komodo and Ujung Kalon National Parks in Indonesia.