The scientific consensus is clear: we cannot collectively address climate change without protecting and restoring nature. Nature and biodiversity are essential to both drawing down greenhouse gas emissions and helping communities adapt to climate change—from coral reefs’ ability to provide critical shelter from storm surges to tropical rainforests’ essential role in carbon storage. The tourism industry, representing 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, must prioritize quick and effective climate action in support of global climate compacts.

The Role of Nature-based Solutions

Effective climate action in the tourism sector requires rapid decarbonization of the tourism supply chain, which means small businesses must begin to measure and mitigate emissions as part of their business operation. Travel businesses also have a strong capacity to address climate change through Nature-based Solutions (NbS)—actions that manage, protect, and restore nature. The Glasgow Declaration has identified this Regeneration work as one of the five shared pathways, aligning tourism around climate action. Utilizing the IUCN Nature-based Solutions Standard as a research framework, 30 tourism businesses around the world were surveyed and interviewed to understand how they have incorporated regenerative theory into their businesses, and the challenges and opportunities they faced while developing and implementing Nature-based Solutions. This report highlights how a shift that prioritizes nature and climate is possible in the tourism sector. By identifying projects, initiatives and programs that effectively prioritize Nature-based Solutions, travel businesses—even those that are small—can unlock the power of regenerative climate action.

Five Principles for Developing Effective Nature-based Solutions in the Tourism Sector

To accelerate the ability of small businesses in the tourism sector to take climate action via regeneration, five principles were identified as essential elements of Nature-based Solutions in the tourism sector. Alongside each principle, the report identifies key actions that travel businesses should take to embrace the principle in their work. The report is meant to serve as a guide for businesses who wish to integrate regenerative frameworks and tools more fully into their business operations.

Principle 1 - Center Community Needs First

Key Actions:

• Understand and document societal challenges, prioritizing the most pressing needs for community stakeholders.
• Adopt a living systems approach that recognizes complex interactions between the economy, society, and ecosystems within the destination.
• Document changes and trade-offs in human well-being outcomes as a result of tourism interventions.

Principle 2 – Improve Ecosystem Integrity and Biodiversity

Key Actions:

• Monitor ecosystem changes over time and adapt as needed.
• View tourism as a tool to finance and facilitate ecosystem restoration and protection.
• Engage residents, visitors, and employees in ecosystem and biodiversity work through educational opportunities, citizen science, and sharing lessons learned.

Principle 3 – Embrace Diverse and Inclusive Business Models

Key Actions:

• Improve the viability of your business and Nature-based Solution by diversifying revenue streams.
• Retain and support talent through enhanced training and employment opportunities.
• Embrace inclusivity and diversity in partnerships, employment, and marketing strategies.

Principle 4 - Develop Transparent Governance Structures Accountable to All Stakeholders

Key Actions:

• Continuously engage stakeholders and establish processes for soliciting and incorporating community feedback.
• Respect and uphold indigenous and community rights to land and resources.
• Ensure communities have access to vital natural and cultural assets.

Principle 5 – Enhance Regenerative Partnerships

Key Actions:

• Be a bridge between communities and government to enhance social and ecological regeneration.
• Partner with NGOs and government to inform management, monitoring, and reporting.
• Contribute to national and global targets for human wellbeing, climate change, biodiversity and human rights to scale best practices out and up.

Recognizing that regeneration is a process rather than a final objective—that is place-based, environment-centred and community-led-case studies in this report highlight how small businesses around the world are working to embody these principles.

1. Climate Change and The Role of Small Businesses in Travel and Tourism
2. What Is a Nature-based Solution?
3. How Can Tourism Be More Regenerative?
4. Enabling Small Businesses to Embrace Climate Action and Regeneration through Nature
5. 5 Principles for Developing Effective Nature-Based Solutions in the Tourism Sector
6. Research Methods and Affiliates