When we launched the Climate Friendly Travel Registry in 2020, we had anticipated that through collaboration with the World Travel and Tourism Council we could attract the interest of the large hotel chains, airlines and cruise companies. It was not to be, as we discovered that many of these have developed their own “green and clean” initiatives. During the last year, however, it has become clear that the CFT registry and our overall system of Climate Friendly Travel is particularly useful for the myriad of small and medium enterprises, looking to link small and medium sized enterprises to the evolving global framework of SDG and Climate action and needing support on their journey. These businesses are said to make up 80% of Travel and Tourism industry – and the have become our primary point of focus.  We have had a lot of interest especially from Africa.

Several coastal resorts in Africa - particularly vulnerable to seawater level rise, and the impact from more regular and stronger typhoons -have Registered.  And there are small islands, they are also particularly concerned about water availability.

Tourism in southern and eastern Africa is closely linked to the health of the local wildlife, so increased droughts and landscape fragmentation are the main concerns.  We have several registrations of wildlife tourism companies and our link with the IUCN Tourism and Protected Area Specialist Activity is particularly helpful in this respect.

A number of hotels in Zimbabwe have joined, and we recently signed a partnership agreement with the Zimbabwe Hospitality Association to work towards a national CFT programme in the country. We are confident that there is a CFT hub emerging in this brilliant Tourism destination.

In West Africa, we are in touch with several tourism enterprises in Ghana, and we have registrations from Nigeria, Cameroon and RDC.  In Nigeria we have created an SDG 17 Partnership with WAGEDI GUU West African Green Economic Development Institute to bring a culture of Climate Friendly Travel to Nigeria and the West African Region. West and Central Africa are particular at risk from climate change effects on crop production and food security, and this will impact tourism as well.  We will be working with our registered partners to review their resilience to the effects of climate change and to look for innovative solutions to the challenges.

Hans Friederich