Palawan resort bags top award for environment

Manila, Philippines - The environmental campaign of El Nido Resorts in Palawan province, dubbed as “Be G.R.E.E.N. (Guard, Respect, Educate El Nido)” won the prestigious Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award 2011 Environmental Education Program.

In its recent website posting, PATA announced that among the Asian entries in the 2011 PATA Grand and Gold Awards held recently at the PATA Travel Mart in Beijing, El Nido’s “Be GREEN” grabbed the gold award. The resort was cited for being conscious in its commitment to preserve and develop its environment while pursuing its tourism activities.

PATA, a regional tourism association which focuses on outstanding activities in the tourism sector in the region, received this year 223 entries from 102 organizations and individuals worldwide.

“Be GREEN” is a five-course environmental practices training seminar that educates El Nido Resorts’ staff and employees in biodiversity conservation, environmental legislation, ecological solid waste management, water conservation, and energy conservation.

Since “Be GREEN” was launched in 2007, more than 800 full-time and part-time El Nido employees have completed the training modules to make sure they understand their role in upholding the company’s environmental principles.

It was also learned that El Nido Resorts provides trainings on “nature interpretation” for its marine sports guides, who are then better able to share their knowledge of El Nido’s unique biodiversity with guests.This increased awareness leads to better appreciation, stewardship, and conservation of the environment.

Other projects undertaken by Ten Knots Development Corp., owner and operator of El Nido Resorts, include marine turtle conservation, coastal and underwater clean-ups, installation and maintenance of mooring buoys.

As part of the recent 7th Kalugtan Arts Festival, El Nido municipal officials laid anchor buoys in Bacuit Bay to provide safe anchorage for pumpboats and prevent accidental destruction of coral reefs. The activity is part of the Eco-Tourism Development Fee (ETDF) program of the municipal government.

The ETDF ordinance requires visitors to pay a P200 environment fee for access to all tourism sites for 10 days. ETDF funds are used for environmental protection, resource rehabilitation, solid waste management and tourism development projects.

Situated in the northern Palawan, El Nido was declared a Managed Resource Protected Area in 1998, and currently has 13 community-managed Marine Protected Areas. It has 2,645 hectares of mangrove forests, 114 bird species, 447 coral species, 888 fish species, vast tracts of tropical rainforest, and five endemic mammal species, including the dugong (manatee), the world’s rarest marine mammal.