Driving Regional Sustainability Practices

Driving Regional Sustainability Practices

Spearheading a movement towards more sustainable tourism in Finnish Lapland - through protected areas, training programmes and a common language for responsible travel.

One of our ongoing aims has been to spearhead a movement towards more sustainable tourism in our region of Finnish Lapland. Part of this is helping policy and decision makers and service providers appreciate why it matters - in part by setting high personal standards and showing why they pay off - and building a dialogue that leads to further cooperation between the Northern companies.

  • Helped Pallas-Yllastunturi National Park gain Europarc status in 2013
  • Region signed up to the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism
  • Finnish partner of the Leave No Trace alliance since 2011
  • Working towards European Ecotourism Network accreditation

Supporting protected areas

We support the establishment of protected areas such as national parks and reserves to safeguard the finest wildlife and scenery, and aim to help integrate local community and tourism needs into their long-term plans. To this end we joined an EU Village to Village project to develop cooperation between the villages and service providers near the area's national park.

This in turn led to Pallas-Yllastunturi National Park gaining Europarc status in 2013. Our region is now signed up to the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism, raising the international importance of nature tourism here - one of the original goals of Enontekio's marketing group when we first arrived.

Voluntary standards and accreditation

We support the development of voluntary regulatory arrangements and training programmes for tourism operators. We have taken part in various EU-led projects (with Pasi often on the steering group or board) covering everything from sustainable tourism in the National Park to cross-border cooperation and quality and safety practices. Through this, we were among the local guides who completed training workshops to earn accredited National Park Guide status, qualified to communicate about nature and sustainability in the park.

Having reviewed a number of environmental accreditation bodies, we decided first in 2011 to become a Finnish partner of the international Leave No Trace alliance (built on 7 principles of outdoor ethics) and then to work towards European Ecotourism Network accreditation.

Building a common language

We live in the heart of Europe's last great wilderness, where many environmental 'best practices' are simply part of everyday life. Yet many local companies do not speak the language of 'responsible travel', nor realise it is a growing part of the market that will eventually be the base standard. So we have much to do locally: building a common language around responsible travel and showing how closely people here still live to nature.

Enontekio has been planning for a future in which individual adventure travellers are a welcome target group, since their respect for the land and love of nature-based tourism is the ideal fit for the wilderness location, outdoor products and natural lifestyle holidays the area offers.