The sustainable tourism is a moral conscience to tourism and one of three forms that make up the responsible tourism. It respects the principles of sustainable development: preservation of the environment, social progress, economic development. It promotes the involvement of the inhabitants of the region in the discovery of its natural, cultural and historical resources, and injects into the local economy a significant part of the income from its activity. In short, tourism that seeks to reduce its ecological footprint preserves and contributes to the well-being of local populations.
Travel is among the largest sources of greenhouse gases. More and more travelers are concerned about the carbon footprint they leave when they travel. Aware of this strong negative environmental footprint and to offset the effects directly, a travel agency has committed to plant a tree on behalf of its travelers for each reservation made.
Sustainable travel can refer to two similar travel concerns:
Ecotourism — being mindful of the environmental impact & sustainability of travel. Ecotourism typically involves travel to environmentally-sensitive areas, where flora, fauna, and the landscape are the primary attraction.
Responsible travel — being mindful of the economic, environmental, and cultural impact/sustainability of travel. Responsible travel encompasses: the cultural impact of travel on locals, how travelers’ money is injected into/distributed in local communities, and the environmental impact of travel.
Ecotourism
Ecotourism deals with how to best avoid negative impacts on the global and local natural environment while traveling and how to best preserve the places you visit for future generations to enjoy. Ecotourism, or responsible travel, entails not only ecological but also social and economic aspects.
Understand
Travelling can be fun, and it broadens the horizon. Seeing some place on TV is one thing, but being there in person can give deeper insights and understanding that go beyond prejudice and cliché. For others, travel is a necessity either for business, to visit friends and family or for myriad other reasons. However, travel can also be harmful to the natural environment of the places travelled to as well as (mostly through CO2 emissions that know no border) the world at large. Any responsible traveller must want to ensure future generations can enjoy the world the same way they did and thus everybody should contribute their share in preserving historic sites, and reducing harm on nature. Obvious things like switching off the light when you leave a room probably don’t have to be mentioned here, but there are a few other things, that you should keep in mind.
Prepare
Before you leave, unplug all electronic devices that don’t have to keep running. Not only does this save money and electricity, it also eliminates the risk of lightning strike destroying your appliances, TV or the likes. If you can and it’s feasible, turn off power entirely. When leaving home for a larger period of time, consume your frozen and refrigerated food, thus you won’t have to keep the fridge plugged in, saving both money and electricity. Furthermore, refrigerated or frozen food does spoil after some time, so eating it before you go is the best way to ensure this does not happen. Turn off the main water supply and drain the pipes – they can’t freeze and leaks won’t flood your house that way. Depending on how your heat and hot water system works, you might wish to switch it off entirely, but take care that subzero frost can do no damage to your house or anything in it.
Get in
As a rule: don’t fly, if you don’t really, really need to. In most cases, flying is the least environmentally-friendly way of getting to wherever. Also, just flying from one place to another is the surest way to miss everything interesting in between.
And do you really need to get that far away to experience something new? Exploring the places close to home can be quite interesting, too.
If you want to go far, do not go often, but prepare well and stay a longer time instead. If you are travelling for your job or for similar reasons, use the opportunities to stay for a holiday before or after, instead of always doing separate trips for that.
Get around
Walking, cycling, rail travel (including urban rail) and bus travel minimize emissions per distance and passenger. Electric trains are almost always less loud and emit less pollution. When you must ride a car, consider ride-sharing, or low-emission vehicles. While most populated regions in Europe and East Asia have great public transportation, travelling the United States without a car is more of a challenge. Don’t fly unless there is absolutely no alternative (e.g. boat or rail transport). General aviation has an enormous environmental footprint. Occasionally aircraft may actually consume less fuel per person than a car with only one person in it, but both are highly inefficient.
Cycling is the most efficient form of transportation in terms of energy use per passenger kilometer (yes, this includes walking). If you are comfortable on a bike and the local environment allows it, a bike is a superb way to see urban and rural areas. One big benefit of a bike is that it is slow enough to let you see landscapes you are driving through, but fast enough to enable you to go large distances. If something interests you, finding “parking” for a bike is rarely a huge problem.
Avoid taxis if there is public transport. In most European and many Asian cities there are public transportation lines running throughout the night. Although a taxi wastes less manufacturing resources and parking space than a private car, it still shares their other drawbacks. While the taxi business in some countries (such as Sweden) is an early adopter of green fuels, even such a taxi is much less efficient than the tram – and most taxis run on gasoline. Look for the way back to your hotel/hostel before heading out to avoid having to figure it out in the night (or having to find a taxi). If your mobile device works in the local network or you are sure to have Wi-Fi, download the local public transit app to check connections. Many of those apps even offer updates in real time.
Inner-city car traffic is one of the most inefficient (and often unpleasant) ways to get around. The fuel consumption of all cars goes up in city-environments as a lot of energy is wasted in repeated brake-acceleration cycles (even for hybrids and electric cars that have regenerative braking). You also contribute to congestion, which in turn has effects on fuel and land use. Other modes of transport might not only save the environment, but also time and money.
Also when driving on the road, the engine is most efficient when working steadily. Avoid unnecessary overtaking and driving near the vehicle in front. Choose days and times of day when the traffic is reasonably light and take a break when other traffic gets on your nerves.
When boating, efficient vessels are to be preferred. Slow, “hull speed” boats usually consume much less fuel than speedboats, at least when not driving near full speed (watch the waves: causing waves is what draws power) – and of course nothing beats sailing, rowing or paddling in terms of “green” motive power.
When good infrastructure is not available, consider leave-no-trace camping principles. The principles about not causing erosion are valid also when the infrastructure is good.
See
Research your destination beforehand — some places (both natural sites and human structures) cannot cope with the current stress of the number of visitors, making for crumbling steps or trampled flora. Consider avoiding a visit to such places. There are often equally nice less known alternatives.
Once at the destination, and this should go without saying; seeing means just that: seeing. Don’t take anything from a place that you shouldn’t. “What’s the harm in taking one small stone/flower?”, you might ask; multiply by a couple of thousand or even million and you have your answer. This is especially true for vulnerable ecosystems such as Arctic and subarctic regions where plants can take centuries to grow a couple of centimeters or coral reefs where the stroke of a swim fin can cause harm. Travel photography can be undertaken with the camera built into your mobile phone. If your ambitions require higher quality, read our guide on that topic. In general you should never take pictures of people without their express consent and respect all local prohibitions on taking pictures. Throwaway cameras produce worse quality than cell phone cameras and should be avoided.
The use of live animals as tourist entertainment can be harmful, as performing animals are sometimes held in captivity in unhealthy or miserable conditions. Even in their natural habitat, whales and dolphins may flee boatloads of sightseers in the same manner they flee predators, disrupting feeding or normal activity. Wildlife in the wild is best viewed at a respectful distance.
Do
Take all your trash with you, or throw it into the bins provided (if there are any). If possible, avoid using excess packaging in the first place. Even seemingly “natural” waste like banana peels or cigarette butts can take decades to decompose and cause major harm to ecosystems. To say nothing of the stench and ugly sight of slowly rotting biological waste.
Unfortunately many attractions and activities will bombard you with tons of fliers, brochures, advertising and the likes when all you wanted is a ticket. If you can, politely decline them and if you have an “online ticket” only print what you actually need to print (read the fine print, regulations differ widely from “we accept the QR code on a display we can scan” to “print all fifteen pages and have photo ID handy or we will treat you as if you had no ticket at all”). If there are brochures or maps of e.g. a museum or park at the entrance, try and keep them in pristine condition so that you can hand them back upon leaving. Don’t take more than one for your group and try to use digital alternatives over paper when possible.
Skiing in some areas can damage trees which in turn exposes the soil to (often catastrophic) erosion. If skiing is not permitted somewhere, there are usually very good reasons for that. The same goes for many other sports and driving with motor vehicles in the terrain.
Eat
Local food should go over imported food. The point of travel is to get to know other cultures, so step out of your comfort zone and try the local food, prepared by locals in a restaurant owned by locals. If you can’t for the life of you live without a certain product from “back home”, bring it with you on your trip in or try and find a local replacement. You’ll save money and reduce the harm done through imports. If you are retiring abroad and find you can’t stand the local food, you should ask yourself whether your new home is right for you after all.
In some countries “novelty” foods are offered that often include endangered species; examples include turtles and their eggs, shark fins, whale meat and various types of monkeys. Do your research beforehand to avoid those foods, and on the other hand, to learn which local dishes you can eat without problems.
In general food served on ceramic dishes with real forks and knives is better for the environment than the same food served on throwaway dishes or in disposable wraps. Take particular care when it comes to Asian restaurants, as they often use disposable chopsticks. Just keep a pair you are comfortable with and leave the ones you are provided with unopened, so they may be used by the next customer.
If you have some utensils, you can make your own snacks from what you buy on the market (or supermarket), not resorting to ready-packed things with extensive one-portion wrapping. While a local restaurant or a bunch of bananas may be the best alternative, you do not always have (or want) that option. If you need dispensable bowls or spoons (because there is no water for washing the dishes, or whatever), you can wash suitable packages and dispensable spoons from when you could not avoid them, and throw them away only after the later use.
Drink
If the tap water is unsafe to drink, try buying bottled water in larger quantities. Not only will you (usually) save money, but there will also be less damage to the environment through packaging and transportation. If you want to reduce the weight you carry, leave the large container in the hotel and take a smaller bottle with you that you refill once you’re back in your room. Do take into consideration that people tend to sweat – and drink – more in hot and humid weather, especially when they’re not used to it. If you travel in a high income country, tap water can actually be safer to drink than bottled water regardless of what advertising may have led you to believe. The Wikivoyage article on water spells out the details.
If there is a deposit on your can/bottle, return it. Chances are it will be reused or recycled that way. When there is no deposit, the material may still be reused if you use waste bins specifically for glass or metal. Plastic bottles (even if they are recycled) are less often reused than glass bottles, making them more ecologically damaging. Of course this only applies if you (can) return the bottles and they are indeed reused. Melting down a glass bottle and casting a new one uses more energy than the same process does for plastic bottles, but glass bottles usually are washed and refilled more times before that happens. For glass bottles, try to avoid breaking them. Glass shards are dangerous to both people and animals and they will never decay.
Local alcoholic drinks are usually both cheaper and better than the standard imported fare. When in Kentucky drink local whisky instead of imported vodka, when in Nicaragua drink local rum instead of wine that had to travel halfway around the globe to get to your table. Naturally, the same goes for non-alcoholic drinks.
Sleep
Consider what standard is necessary for you. Five star hotels in an otherwise less developed environment usually need much resources and may have a big impact on local nature. They are also more likely to import (next to) everything, leaving much less money in the local economy than more modest or local owned accommodation. When out in the wilderness try to stick to the rules of leave-no-trace camping. Camping can also be an environmentally friendly way of accommodation even if you visit a big city; look beforehand if there’s a camping site accessible by public transport at the outskirts of the city.
If your hotel lets you, dry and reuse your towel as long as you’re comfortable with it. This might require some firm but polite insistence in some places, but even using the same towel twice instead of once reduces the need to wash towels by 50%.
When you travel in places where electricity is not centrally provided (very remote destinations and some third world countries in general), hotels with solar panels on the roof are to be preferred over those with a diesel fueled generator. Not only are they much cleaner environmentally, the solar panels are silent whereas a generator is not, so will have better nights and brighter days in a hotel with solar-based backup electricity.
Flora and fauna
If you ever had to fill out a customs or immigration declaration in countries such as the US, you might have stumbled over questions regarding visits to farms or contact with fresh soil. This has a very serious reason: Seeds and plant disease of all kind can easily be carried around in the nooks and crannies of hiking boots. As some invasive species or plant diseases can have devastating consequences (a soil-borne fungus has all but exterminated the once dominated Gros Michel variety of bananas for instance and similar things might soon happen to the now dominant Cavendish), you should really avoid carrying them under your feet. So clean your boots as thoroughly as you can, especially when you’re about to board a vehicle of some kind that will carry you (and your boots) hundreds of kilometers away to some region unaffected by whatever is on your soles.
While a certain amount of wildfires are healthy or even “natural” in certain climates, humans are both the main cause and the only thing that can prevent the most dangerous and destructive wildfires. Every year, fires consume untold amounts of valuable property as well as natural forests and sometimes wildfires even take human lives. Do not smoke in the forest during the dry months: Cigarette butts are a common cause of wildfires, matches thrown away too early are also a risk. Under certain circumstances even a piece of glass can become a lens and thus cause wildfires. In short: Don’t litter. If you make a campfire, make sure that local rules allow it in the time and place you intend to, and keep to the rules of fire safety described in the article. Also keep in mind the old saying “The bigger the fool, the greater the fire”.
Travel in developing countries entails getting up close with local fauna, even if you stay in a midrange hotel in a major city. If you can’t handle the thought of geckos or spiders in your dwelling, maybe those places are not for you. For the record, both are (for the most part) harmless to humans and keep the most dangerous animals there are in check – mosquitoes. When trying to control pests stick to the less harmful methods. DDT is right out, but permithrin treated fabrics or a repellent containing DEET shouldn’t do too much harm. Let animals you don’t know live (unless they are an immediate threat to life and limb), because many of them are threatened and protected by local law. Use nets around your bed to keep the risk of tropical diseases like Malaria to a minimum.
Buy
Take care what you buy and buy local whenever and wherever possible. The tacky souvenir you buy at the airport for twenty dollars may be available at the local market for five bucks and there will be more money going to the common people rather than some corrupt government official taking their cut. A surprisingly large amount of “authentic” souvenirs will be made in China (even in places about as far as you can get from China!), which is not what you want unless you actually are in China and even then, there can be a huge difference between tacky throwaway crap and stuff you would genuinely enjoy having on your mantelpiece.
Being eco-friendly by buying local does however not mean that products made from rare or “exotic” species are OK — quite the contrary. In addition to often being illegal under local law, you incentivize the hunt, unsustainable collection and even possible extinction of those organisms and as many of those are protected by international agreements such as CITES or prohibited under the law of your country of origin, they will likely be confiscated by customs and you may be in for a heavy fine or even a prison sentence.
Economic issues
Tourism can be both boon and bane to the local economy. On the one hand, tourist dollars can lift rural communities out of poverty and the dependence on varying harvests or the ups and downs of world market prices for cash crops. On the other hand, tip heavy tourists can severely distort local wages and if a waiter at a cocktail bar can make more in tips on one good evening than a doctor does in a month, young people will wonder whether they should even study to become a doctor in the first place.
On another note, the more “developed” the tourist infrastructure of a place, the more money will end up in the hand of multinational investors, with the locals getting surprisingly low paying jobs in luxury and all-inclusive resorts if that. Not all foreign investment in tourism is bad or evil, and the investors often do have a genuine long term interest in keeping the nature and culture of the place they invest in intact and the tourists coming, but more often than not, soulless hotel complexes built with little regard to local architecture destroy the very “authentic unspoiled exotic place” feeling they are trying to sell to tourists.
Often (not always) the dividing line is between speaking the local language and not speaking the local language. If you are in a tourist facility where everyone speaks your language and you have no contact to the locals beyond the cocktail bar, you are unlikely to perceive the problems inherent in mass tourism. If on the other hand, you stay in a small guesthouse where you talk to the (local) owner on a daily basis and take a tour with a local guide trying to make ends meet, your trip will likely be both more rewarding to you and better for the local economy.
Responsible travel
A growing number of travelers want their journeys to be less invasive and more beneficial to the local community. They want to better understand the culture of the people they meet in the places they visit. Visitors should be mindful that we are entering a place that is someone else’s home. Sounds complicated? Try this — imagine what irresponsible tourism looks like and then imagine its opposite.
Protecting the planet we live in is everyone’s responsibility. Future travelers should be able to enjoy it as much as we do. This guide teaches you to travel ecologically.
Understand
Do not kill anything other than one of the usual “pests” (mosquitoes, etc.). Not all insects are pests, some are even protected and may have to pay a heavy fine if you kill one of them.
Clean your hiking boots when moving from one area to another Sometimes some seeds get caught in the soles or elsewhere in the shoes. These seeds can be easily transported from one area to another where they do not grow spontaneously, creating an invasive species and a natural catastrophe. Take special care when passing through an area where there is a wide variety of ecosystems, such as the Galapagos. Washing the soles of your shoes also reduces the risk of spreading diseases.
Fires are a very serious risk in certain areas of the world (eg California, Portugal, Australia,…). Although fires sometimes occur naturally and are necessary in certain ecosystems, human activities can greatly increase the amount of fires that occur and can cause serious ecological damage. When making a campfire, make sure it is in an ungreased area and do not leave it unattended while lit.
What exactly is responsible travel?
Responsible tourism has several goals: sustainability, environmental integrity, social justice and maximum local economic benefit. Responsible tourism asks individuals, organizations, governments and businesses to take responsibility for their actions and the effects of their actions. Everyone involved must be responsible for sustainability.
Most principles of responsible tourism were put forth in the Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism in Destinations (Responsible organization).
See also ecotourism, volunteer, leave-no-trace camping, and the do instead section of our article on begging.
Responsible travel vs Ecotourism
Events
There is an annual Responsible Travel conference, held in a different country each year.
World Responsible Day is celebrated in Europe on June 2.
Responsible Tourism Day is held on November 7.
Economic impact
Community-based tourism
Community-based tourism (CBT) is a form of sustainable development where small, rural communities set up accommodation & activities to generate tourism. CBT allows travelers to experience life in such communities—taking part in language or cooking lessons, eating freshly-prepared meals, experiencing local music and dance, and venturing with a local guide to nearby nature/landscape attractions—while the community gains much-needed revenue. NGOs and aid organizations (like the U.S. Peace Corps) help villages establish CBT facilities, organize appropriate activities, and establish governance of the project to ensure that revenue is shared with the community. Local villagers earn money for providing homestay accommodation, becoming guides, providing lessons, growing extra produce, and creating art/crafts for sale, while a portion of revenue (20-50%) is typically reserved in a community fund that can be used to improve the CBT experience or be used for development purposes. The number of CBT projects is growing. CBT is established in Central America, Central Asia, & many countries in Africa; countries with well-established CBT projects are Guatemala, Costa Rica, Kyrgyzstan, Ghana, & Uganda.
Travelers who participate in CBT will typically book a package online for a stay of one day to one week. Bookings are handled by someone in the community, not a commercial tour operator. Accommodation is simple but sufficient by Western standards, with a private room, bed, telephone access, and a private bathroom (don’t expect a toilet & shower, but at least an enclosed room with a hole in the ground and water…you should not be left to do your business outdoors or in a grotesque community toilet). Food will consist of local snacks, lunches, and at least one meal will be a smorgasbord of local dishes to taste (a dozen or so dishes are prepared, but it’s there for everyone to share). Travelers can take lessons from locals in activities such as cooking, drumming, singing, dancing, body-painting, hunting/fishing (traditional methods), native medicines, or playing a traditional game with some of the village children or elders. A local guide will be able to take you to nearby attractions, like waterfalls or rainforest, or walk along trails or ride horseback. In some communities and especially during longer stays, travelers may have the opportunity to volunteer on development projects.
Cultural impact
Sustainability
Indigenous Tourism
In the development of many tourism projects, indigenous people have not been considered as valued stakeholders from the start. In the worst cases, they are not listened to in the development of ‘charitable’ projects. Adequate consultation is a must.
Indigenous peoples manage more than 40% of all IUCN-recognized protected areas in the world, and many of them – if not most – use tourism as a complement their economic benefits from these areas. Yet the challenge for travelers is finding which communities wish to be visited and with which protocols. In 2012 the Global Workshop for Indigenous and Local Communities: Biodiversity, Tourism and the Social Web took place at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Environmental impact
Climate change
By air
While nearly all forms of transport a traveler uses will release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, aircraft are especially notorious offenders and the aviation industry is the fastest-growing contributor to the acceleration of climate change. This is not just due to the vast distances traveled, but because they release greenhouse gases high in the atmosphere where their effects are more potent. On long-haul flights, the amount of carbon dioxide released is roughly equivalent to a car traveling the same distance with one passenger. A flight from London, UK to Perth, Australia releases the equivalent of 4.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide, or about half the average yearly emissions of a person in the U.K. Shorter flights have higher emissions than longer ones per km traveled due to the amount of fuel used taxiing, and during take off. (See: Environmental impact of aviation on Wikipedia). When travelling by air, flights flown by turboprop aircraft tend to be slightly slower and more noisy in the cabin than turbofan or jet aircraft but turboprops are more fuel efficient, emit less greenhouse gas and less noise pollution on the ground. Newer aircraft are also more fuel efficient and less noisy. Also, aircraft produced by Western manufacturers such as Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier tend to have higher fuel efficiencies than formerly-Soviet (e.g. Antonov, Sukhoi) or Chinese (e.g. Comac, Xian) manufacturers.
The benefits of travel in increasing an individual’s cultural awareness and knowledge are immeasurable. Despite its effects, air travel is essential to the modern world and traveling. There are ways in which individuals wanting to travel responsibly can offset their impact on the environment. For example, they can use an airline that has been rated more environmentally aware or they can use carbon offset schemes. These schemes collect money which is transferred to projects, like installing renewable energy or planting trees, which generate zero/low-carbon energy or reduce levels of greenhouse gasses. By purchasing carbon offset “credits” through these schemes, travelers are investing in portions of projects which, over their lifespan, will reduce/eliminate carbon emissions (through the burning of fossil fuels) equivalent to the amount emitted on their flight. Reputable carbon offset schemes are independently verified and adhere to an international standard for measuring offset emissions.
Carbon offset can be calculated & purchased by individuals, through an agency like ClimateCare, or through your carrier. Airlines offering carbon offset programs for their passengers include: British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Delta Air Lines, easyJet, Lufthansa, Qantas, & United Airlines.
By boat/ferry
While boating is rarely in the climate change spotlight, its exhaust can accelerate the warming of cold environment in the form of black carbon. Black carbon is the result of incomplete combustion after the engine consumed the fuel. With large quantities of the microscopic black carbon exhaust falling to the ground, they increase the warming rate of ice and snow by decreasing the amount of sunlight reflected back into the sky. To minimize the impact, look for ships that use fuel with low sulfur content and those that installed exhaust scrubbers.
By car
Automobiles are suitable for travelling short to medium distance. However, it often contributes to traffic congestion (especially in the core of major cities) because most cars are single occupant. Instead, consider travelling by public transit (bus, train, subway, ferry). Not only is the carbon emission per capita lower because the emission is divided among all riders, you can also read a book, browse on the internet or take a nap while the driver navigates through the city. Without worrying about traffic jams or learning the local driving habits, you are less stressed when you arrive at your destination. Cities often encourage public transit usage by offering incentives (such as dedicated lane to cut commute time or bypass high traffic areas) or disincentives for automobile usage (e.g. tolls, congestion charge in London, restricted access, high parking fee or lack of parking spots).
If you are travelling with coworkers or friends, consider booking as a group for public transit. Some companies offer group discount. If your destination cannot be reached by public transit, consider meeting up at a designated location and carpool to the final destination to cut down on fuel cost of having everyone drive their own car to the final destination and pay parking fee for each car.
Prepare yourself
When leaving home:
Turn off heaters, water heaters, boilers and other water heaters. (If there is a risk that the pipes will freeze, turn on the water heater at least instead of turning it off).
Cut off the water supply. This ensures that you will not find the house flooded if there is an escape while no one is home.
Turn off all lights.
Turn off TVs, DVDs, and other devices that continue to spend power on standby.
Arrive and Circular
Cars are the most polluting means of transportation, and so they are out of the question. Apart from this, you have several options: airplanes – which also pollute a lot, and therefore should also be excluded, unless you are traveling very large distances -, buses and trains – the best choice, especially electric trains.
Within a city the best options are the metro – because it is electric – and buses – especially trams, already available in some cities around the world, such as Quebec, Atlanta and Viana do Castelo. Better than this, even walking – although this is difficult in large cities, in small towns where tourist attractions are concentrated in a relatively small area, there is no better mode of transportation. Another option is the rental of a hybrid or electric car, although few of these are available for hire. Trams are another great option with zero CO2 emissions.
See and Do
Do not use disposable cameras, the quality is bad and it is creating unnecessary waste. Advise yourself on a photo shop or a photo book to find out which camera fits your needs best – be digital, spend less paper.
Buy
Many species are threatened because they are killed specifically for tourist trade. Starfish and coral in coastal regions and elephants in Africa (for ivory) are good examples. Do not buy animal products when they were killed just to serve as a tourist souvenir, or if it is a threatened species.
Eat & Drink
If you go to a supermarket do not buy canned or packaged food – because of the garbage – and buy products from the country you are in – the distance to transport food is lower, so the truck emits less CO2.
Certain foods are against the ecological spirit. Eating meat from young animals (for example, small sardines are a very popular dish in Portugal ) is inadvisable because they have not yet grown to ensure the replacement of the generations. Species at risk of extinction, which are very popular in some countries (cod, popular in several countries, or gorilla meat, which is popular in certain African countries ).
Sleep
Find hotels and resorts that encourage ecology: ecologically designed to take advantage of wind and light, supports species protection programs, use of rainwater, etc. Some sites have ecological hotel listings, such as and.
Of course, turn it off when you leave your room.
From
When you get home, do not print all the photos, especially if you take them on a digital camera. Print only the best ones or do not print them – leave them in the computer’s memory or store them on a CD.