The SHAPE team has prepared a breakout session at the upcoming 2019 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík, Iceland.
The Arctic Circle is the largest network of international dialogue and cooperation on the future of the Arctic. The annual Arctic Circle Assembly is the largest annual international gathering on the Arctic, attended by more than 2000 participants from 60 countries interested in the future of the Arctic: heads of states and governments, ministers, members of parliaments, officials, experts, scientists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, indigenous representatives, environmentalists, students, activists and others from the growing international community of partners and participants interested in the future of the Arctic.
The session will present the SHAPE project, focusing on the practical examples of implementing meaningful ecotourism, the challenges identified and lessons learnt. The panel formed by members of the SHAPE team in the Manicouagan Uapishka Biosphere Reserve (Canada), Snæfellsnes Regional Park (Iceland) and the University of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland) will present the project and discuss the development of ecotourism initiatives in our transnational set of sustainable heritage areas. The SHAPE partners are working with local stakeholders, their organizations, and the institutions which support them in Iceland, Greenland, Québec, Scotland and Finland.
All of the countries involved in the SHAPE project have their own strategies for sustainable tourism activities. However, tools are needed for transforming these strategies into concrete, practical knowledge answering questions about how to develop, how to organize, how to support, how to market – and how to integrate these activities into the community in a sustainable manner. In Nordic areas, the players and their organizations are often small and lack both resources and knowledge. Tourism is an international industry, and the framework in which these players have to operate, are established on an international level.