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Box 9: Effectiveness of standards and certificationThe objective contribution of sustainable tourism standards and certification systems for the private sector in terms of biodiversitybenefits and risk reduction has been measured in a study published by the Rainforest Alliance, who has defined, with theGSTC, 78 criteria for sustainable environmental, social, and business practices, adopted by over 600 tourism businesses in12 countries. A survey of 106 businesses being trained and assisted in their certification process in Latin America between 2006and 2011 compared performance along 29 of the criteria most directly related to biodiversity conservation. Over a timeframe oftwo years, results show that the conformance to those criteria had a 31% overall increase. Substantial increases were observed inkey practices and outcomes including wildlife protection, support for nearby protected areas, improved waste management, reducedwater pollution, and improved environmental awareness on the part of visitors and employees. Improvements were greatestfor businesses in the lowest third of performance at baseline and smaller but still significant for those in the middle third. 61Box 10: Certification for Sustainable Tourism, Costa RicaThe Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) Programme was developed by the Costa Rica Tourism Institute to differentiatebusinesses of the tourism sector, based on the degree to which they comply with a sustainable model of natural, cultural andsocial resource management. CST certified business benefit from the marketing activity of the Costa Rica Tourism Institute:• CST certified businesses enjoy complete or partial exemption from registration fees to international fairs.• CST certified businesses are listed on the web site 62 available in Spanish, English, and French.• The CST label can also be used by a business in its own marketing promotions to identify them as sustainable.A further way of recognising good practice in sustainabilityamongst tourism businesses or initiativesis through award schemes. The possibility ofwinning an award can act as an incentive but thegreatest benefit from the schemes probably comesfrom raising awareness of sustainability issues,such as biodiversity impacts, and promoting goodpractice as an encouragement and guide to others.Sustainable tourism award schemes are run at aglobal level by various agencies and internationaltourism companies and a number of individualcountries have their own schemes. The majorityof them are associated with relevant internationaltourism fairs.Box 11: Examples of award schemesThe Secretariat of the CBD has collaborated with many of tourism-related award schemes in setting criteria and playing juryroles. Some examples of awards include the TODO! Award - International Contest Socially Responsible Tourism 63 , the WTTCTourism For Tomorrow Awards 64 , the World Responsible Tourism Awards 65 . In 2009 and 2010, the SCBD has organized theIndigenous Tourism and Biodiversity Website Awards in partnership with Planeta.com to showcase best practices in web-basedtechnologies to support indigenous people to manage tourism in a biodiversity-friendly manner 66 . The award aimed to motivatecandidates to improve their online communication on biological and cultural diversity, and to raise tourism operators andpublic’s awareness on biodiversity.6.4 Economic instrumentsEconomic instruments bring about change throughtheir impact on market signals. They can be used:✤As an incentive to take certain actions, throughimposing a penalty or a gain✤To gain revenue for a particular activity, such asconservation.Economic and financial instruments can be usedin different directions, to enhance better practicesand avoid harmful ones. Tourism businesses canbe discouraged from environmentally harmful investmentsand activities through impact fees, forinstance on pollution and consumption of naturalresources such as water, or the phasing out or30 Tourism Supporting Biodiversity