Last year, the society joined with the Ecuadorean Ecotourism Association to launch a pilot project called Green Evaluation to monitor tour operators in Ecuador. Data from these questionnaires were then analyzed by the Recreation, Travel and Tourism Institute at Clemson University in South Carolina. The hope is that, once refined, Green Evaluation can be used to monitor operators in other countries throughout the world. Though the society's executive director, Megan Epler Wood, feels that the consumer surveys are useful, she sees a natural progression into offering some kind of Good Housekeeping-style professional accreditation. While sending an inspector to every operation around the world isn't realistic, Epler Wood says the society is considering professional spot checks.
Travel is a product of the mind more than anything else, so it's difficult to certify.
We know we need to develop a monitoring technique that is rock solid and independent. Meanwhile the society continues its projects in other areas-to date it has worked with ecotourism professionals in more than 70 countries. Otte cites the Ecuadoran rainforest lodge Kapawi as a model, because it is 80 percent solar heated, provides its readers with complete information about the local flora and fauna, as well as the indigenous Indian population, used local construction materials, and in general follows environmental principles. Just a few of the other projects the society has worked on over the years include tourist management in the environmentally delicate Galapagos and in Costa Rica, and sustainable planning and design of ecolodges in Kenya. In 1996, the society held the first of a planned series of workshops on marine ecotourism in Hawaii.