Business Daily (Nairobi)
Solomon Mburu
11 March 2008
The tourism industry has been asked to include the concept of carbon offsets in its development plans to measure up to global trends.
Ecotourism Society of Kenya reckons that early adoption of the concept would enable the industry to avoid the looming threat of stagnation as environmental awareness rises in key tourist source markets.
"Businesses should not wait until the market starts to demand that they offset any carbon emissions arising from their operations," said Ms Judy Gona, Ecotourism Kenya's executive director.
The carbon footprints concept has been spreading in the tourism industry since the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) linked sector activities to climate change.
Tourism is considered a major contributor to climate change mainly through use of fossil fuels to power aeroplanes that transport millions of tourists every year.
Climatic change brought about by carbon emissions from planes are in turn thought to be destroying the environment that supports key tourist destinations worldwide.
Dick Sisman & Associates, a tourism consulting firm, reckons that air travel has become the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions that the industry must deal with for long term survival.
Virgin Atlantic, a major international carrier, has taken the lead in reducing the industry's exposure to climate change threat with the invention of biofuel-driven plane engines.
To forestall the climate change threat on the industry's operations, the Travel Foundation (TF), a tourist destination promotion organisation, is proposing the establishment of a carbon accounting framework for the industry.
In Kenya, plans are under way to carry out a tourism industry 'carbon footprints' audit before the end of the year. The concept, though new in Kenya, seeks to determine the amount of greenhouse gases that businesses in the tourism and travel industry contribute to the environment.
It is calculated in units of carbon-dioxide produced by various facets of the business like travel, energy use and waste management.
Ms Gona, said the audit will enable industry players to know their carbon emissions load and find ways of reducing or offsetting it.
Carbon offsets or the mitigation of carbon emissions is mainly realised through the development of alternative sources of energy such as use of solar or wind energy as well as the planting of trees that absorb the carbon.
Carbon footprints audits are, however, voluntary and businesses have a choice to implement or ignore them.
Most of Kenyan tour operators remain silent on the subject insisting that their contribution to global warming is negligible.
If applied globally, analysts say the carbon emission audit could have a negative effect on the economies of tourism-dependent countries such as Kenya.
Dr Ongong'a Achieng', the managing director of the Kenya Tourist Board, has recently accused the West of using the pollution concept to stifle development of tourism in the developing world.
"The biggest polluters are the US, Russia, China and the EU," he said, insisting that the world should exert pressure on these countries to cut their emissions.
Kenya is rated as one of the leading ecotourism destinations in the world where the country's lodges and hotels have embraced eco-rating; a number of players having acquired the Eco-Lodge labels. These logos indicate that a tourism organisation has verified that its products have consistently met a set of standards for environmental protection and social responsibility.
Most of these lodges and camps are located in prime tourism areas like Masai Mara, Amboseli, Laikipia and the Coast. Tourism operators in Laikipia District have also been a step ahead and have been creating and selling carbon credits in a bid to stay in line with international standards of practice in the industry.
"We have been trying to encourage each tourism operator to measure their carbon footprints and then look at ways of offsetting them," said Dr Anthony King, the Laikipia Wildlife Forum executive director.
Operators in the area are thus planting trees and are involved in conservation activities. Dr King says the concept has been widely implemented all over the world by tour operators.
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