Save Boracay

Boracay Island, PHILIPPINES — Greenpeace is stepping up its "Save the Climate, Save Boracay" campaign to target holiday-goers bound for Boracay this summer break with an intensive tourist awareness project to make island, one of the country's top tourist spots, into a climate-friendly destination. Particularly this coming Holy Week, the project engages the large number of tourists expected in Boracay to practice environment-friendly behavior in the island with three simple acts :
* Save energy by switching off and unplugging all electrical appliances when they leave their resort room;
* Reduce waste by bringing their own bag when they go out and saying no to plastic bags, straws and sachets; and
* Walk more, to enjoy the beach and lessen air pollution.

Concerned local groups in the island, including Boracay Foundation, Inc. and Boracay Yuppies, have thrown their support behind the campaign. In addition, Seair will be announcing the three simple acts from April 6 to 12 in their flights. Resorts as well as the local boat cooperative will be displaying project posters about what tourists can do help. Local TV cable stations Paradise Cable and Kalibo Cable will also be playing videos of Richard Gutierrez and Angel Aquino enjoining tourists to help make Boracay a greener destination.

"Save the Climate, Save Boracay," the first project of its kind in the Philippines, was launched last June 2008 during the "Quit Coal, Save the Climate" Philippine tour of the Greenpeace ship M.Y. Rainbow Warrior. The project is based on a manifesto signed by Boracay's tourism industry stakeholders. Among the points in the manifesto are: the inclusion of energy efficiency measures and promotion of renewable energy use as part of the environmental management plans for the island, particularly in the construction or expansion of establishments and the provision of regular energy audits, skillshares and workshops for establishments to ensure the continuation and replication of successful practices in the areas of energy and water conservation, as well as ecological waste management. Since the project's launch, Greenpeace has been conducting fora and dialogues with the island’s resorts and tourism groups.

"Save the Climate, Save Boracay" is supported by the Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Tourism (DOT),
the local government of Malay, Aklan, Task Force Boracay, Boracay Foundation, Inc. (BFI), Philippine Chamber of Commerce-Boracay (PCCI-Boracay), Boracay Association of Resorts, Restaurants & Independent Allies (BARRIA). The initiative is made possible through a grant from the Foundation for the Philippine Environment.
( greenpeace.org )