SANTO DOMINGO – The Pro-Pedernales Trust, in its commitment to making the tourism development of Cabo Rojo a regional benchmark for sustainability, has signed the Glasgow Declaration for Climate Action in Tourism, thereby committing to implement the tools and guidelines of the World Tourism Organization and support the global effort to halve emissions by 2030 and reach net zero as soon as possible, and always before 2050.
The Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism is a global call to develop processes that will help implement responsible actions to reduce gas emissions in the next decade and achieve carbon neutrality before 2050.
The executive director of the DGAPP, Sigmund Freund, stated that “the Pro-Pedernales Trust, which works under the responsibility of making Cabo Rojo a sustainable, eco-friendly tourist destination in harmony with the environment, committed to the conservation of biodiversity and the improvement of the living conditions of local communities, has signed the Glasgow Declaration and with it, we assume its multidimensional sustainability guidelines to incorporate climate measures that allow us to reduce gas emissions and contribute to the Net Zero goal around 2050,” according to a press release.
Freund explained that, since the beginning of the Cabo Rojo-Pedernales Tourism Development Project, they have taken responsible actions in line with sustainability, such as moving the project back 160 meters from the coast, a larger space than established by law, in order to recover and protect the existing ecosystems, promoting greater resilience to climate effects.
He added that another action consistent with this commitment is that “a large part of the energy to be used will come from the Juancho wind farm and a solar park is planned, as well as the green areas will be irrigated with treated water from the wastewater treatment plant and the landscaping will be designed with endemic and native species of flora.”.
According to Lourdes Russa, environmental advisor for the Pro-Pedernales Trust, this initiative will lead to the development of an action plan to address greenhouse gas emissions in Cabo Rojo-Pedernales based on mitigation strategies such as: using less energy, improving energy efficiency, using renewable energy, and carbon sequestration through sinks.
He added that, based on the lines of action defined by the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, the measures to make the Cabo Rojo-Pedernales tourist destination more resilient will be based.
He highlighted that the lines of action focus on the following aspects:
- Identity, Social Equity and Cultural Heritage
- Protection, conservation and regeneration of ecosystems and increase biodiversity through the sustainable use of natural resources
- Strengthening monitoring systems and adaptation measures to extreme events resulting from climate change
- Supporting local governments in their planning process
- Sustainability and Circular Economy. Accelerating the decarbonization of the sector
- Urban Regeneration and Creative Economies
“We are aware that it is necessary to transform the climate impact of tourism, its competitiveness, sustainability and resilience, and that is why we are working to be signatories of the Glasgow Declaration, with which we reiterate our commitment to take sustainable and coherent actions in the tourism development of Cabo Rojo-Pedernales,” Russa highlighted.
The Glasgow Declaration is a catalyst for greater urgency regarding the need to accelerate climate action in tourism and to ensure firm actions and commitment to support global goals of halving emissions over the next decade and achieving net-zero emissions as soon as possible before 2050.
