We are pleased to announce the winners of the first TIES Innovation Leadership in Sustainable Tourism Award! Congratulations – Winner, Individual Category: Ron Mader, Planeta.com, Winner, Organization Category: Rainforest Alliance, Runner-Up, Individual Category: Wayne Sentman, Director of Field Education Programs, Oceanic Society, Runner-Up, Organization Category: Rios Tropicales, and to all the finalists. Thank you very much for everyone who participated in this year’s Innovation Award with much support and enthusiasm.

In October 2009, WildChina’s educational travel department launched a new sustainable tourism initiative to improve local practices and standards of living in rural southwest China. This initiative involved organizing service learning projects for student groups in which they helped villages in Sichuan province, still recovering from the devastating May 2008 earthquake, build eco-friendly, waterless toilets.

In 2009, Intrepid Travel became the first adventure tour operator to announce that we would carbon offset all of the trips that we operate across the globe. This accounts for 80% of our entire trip portfolio (we sell some trips operated by partner tour companies)! As a result, all of our trips operating in 2010 have the cost of carbon offsetting included in the trip cost. This move not only cemented Intrepid’s position as a leader in tackling climate change, but it marked a significant milestone in our journey to become a carbon neutral company.

The project to help develop El Tigre into a sustainable community tourism destination met the goals of the Programme for South-South Cooperation (PSC). These goals include: Sustainable tourism, Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity, Access to Sustainable Energy and Efficient Energy Use, Sustainable Chains of Production and Consumption, and Gender Equity. The three guiding principles of successful PSC project candidates are Equality, Reciprocity and Participation.

The Rainforest Alliance provides tourism entrepreneurs and community-based businesses in Latin America with the tools and training they need to become more environmentally and socially responsible, to compete in the marketplace and to contribute to the conservation of the local cultures and nature. Last year, we launched the Rainforest Alliance Verified program.

Inability of small and medium sized accommodation providers to purchase services they really need like clean energy technologies and/or market access/e-commerce services. Typically it is hard for small businesses, primarily in the hospitality sector to collateralize their assets (i.e. their rooms stock) and/or gain access to finance from traditional lenders (especially in the developing world). High energy costs and a lack of market access due to insufficient e-commerce/online competitiveness are critical constraints to their long-term financial sustainability.

An owner of the Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort in Lake Placid, New York, Jennifer Holderied has established herself as a recognized global leader for her visionary environmental GREEN programs and initiatives on a state, national and global level. She has pursued green travel innovations, helped protect the Adirondack Mountains: one of the earths only Carbon Sinks, is a recognized leader for her environmental leadership, champion of the environment for her educational leadership to guests and everyone worldwide who visits Lake Placid, New York.

Darwin’s Enchanted Isles are one of our planets most precious and unique ecosystems, home to an extraordinary profusion of exotic, often endemic flora and fauna. Tourism to this remote volcanic archipelago is both part of the solution and also part of the problem. Humans have unwittingly brought alien species that compete with native plants and animals. The growing number of settlers migrating from the mainland of Ecuador to the islands has put pressure on a fragile environment that imperils the entire ecosystem. As a result in 2007, UNESCO declared Galapagos as a World Heritage Site at risk.

TIES Innovation Award has been created to recognize and honor individuals and organizations who demonstrate leadership in innovative actions that effectively promote sustainable tourism and bring tangible benefits to communities and conservation. The Award winners – one individual and one organization – will be honored for their best practices and innovative actions, judged based on one example of an innovative project, product, or program developed in the previous year that supports the goal of uniting communities, conservation, and sustainable travel.

The Resort at Isla Palenque is a private island resort located in Panama’s sparkling Gulf of Chiriqui. The resort has recently been recognized for its creative planning, innovative foresight and original thinking in the areas of sustainable design and development. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has presented Isla Palenque with the 2010 ASLA Professional Award, recognizing the resort’s development process outlined in its master plan as a model for sustainable and responsible development for others to follow.