Sustainable Tourism Law

676 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW • Promote the increase of forest cover and the system of protected areas. ·• Include Environmental Education for Sustainable Development within the Public Education curriculum. It also seeks international action to lead an environmental protection campaign against the effects of climate change. The most significant challenges, in this scope, are: • Create and lead an international network of carbon-neutral countries; • Promote financial mechanisms for the protection of primary forests; • Promote the Debt Exchange for the protection of the environment; and • Support an international canon for carbon emissions. V. CERTIFICATION FOR TOURISM SUSTAINABILITY The Certificate for Tourism Sustainability is a programme of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), designed to categorize and differentiate tourism companies according to the degree to which their operation approaches a sustainability model, in terms of natural, cultural and social resources management. The main objective of the Certification for Sustainable Tourism is to convert the concept of sustainability into something real, practical and necessary for the country’s tourism competitiveness. It implies improving the use of natural and social resources, promoting active participation by local communities and offering a new support to the business sector so its competitiveness can grow steadily. For the tourist activity, sustainability means a form of development that makes it possible to solve the current risk situations of the industry and to avoid the dynamics of growth that are generating economic, social, cultural and ecological imbalances. In operational terms, this definition results in a balanced interaction of three basic factors of the tourism industry: 1. The appropriate use of natural and cultural resources; 2. Improvement of the quality of life of local communities; and 3. Economic success, which can contribute to other national development programmes.