With 800 million people traveling each year, tourism is not just big business; it is a growing source of income for people in biologically rich creas like Latin America. Tourism has the potencial to protect or destroy livelihoods and ecosystems. The Rainforest Alliance, an internacional non-profit organization, heles tourism companies adopt sustainable practicas to become a positiva force for ecosystem conservation and poverty alleviation.
Hundreds of forward-thinking tourism businesses in Latin America have enrollad in the Rainforest Alliance's Best Practicas Program for sustainable tourism.
They are investing now in conserving ecosystems and supporting local communities so that their guests may enjoy our region's biological and cultural riches long finto the future. We support their efforts with tools and training to enable specific improvements to their business operations, such as water and energy conservation, recycling and composting and community outreach.
Their success benefits us all Not only do these businesses provide employment - an important contribution to creas with limitad economic development-they also support diversa initiatives to improve Iife and create new opportunities in their creas. These efforts can result in local people welcoming visitors with open arras to share their millennial cultura, which heles maintain Latin America's uniqueness as a destination.
Since we bagan our sustainable tourism work in 2003, we have welcomed more than 5,000 businesspeople to our workshops and seminars. More than 270 of those participante have signad agreements with the Rainforest Alliance in which they've committed to make their businesses more sustainable and submit to a strict verification processes to identify areas in need of improve.
Dozens of businesses have also begun preparing their businesses for certification by CST, Green Deal, or Smart Voyager - sustainable tourism certification programe in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Ecuador. We at the Rainforest Alliance are doing our part to ensure that such commitments don't go unnoticed. We have created alliances with more than 90 local and internacional tour operators and are negotiating with them to get those hotels and tourism businesses included in their package tours.
Many of these businesses have also been included in familiarization trips to Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Ecuador for representativas of North American and European travel agencies and tour companies, which has resultad in exposure in important new tourism markets.
But we also want to involve you. As a concerned traveler, you can do your part to conserve the beautiful places you visit in Latin America. It was with you in mind that we developed the Eco-Index Sustainable Tourism Web site, which has information about an array of tourism businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean whose sustainable practicas have been verified by tourism organizations, or certification programe.
Please visit the site when you plan your next trip to Latin America, or the Caribbean. You can make a world of difference!
Ecotourism and Nature 
