Topic 2 A rising environmental awareness

For the last decades global awareness has been developed around nature, the necessity to protect our living space, the Earth and the fact that human behaviour had negative impacts on it.

1980: The International Union for the Conservation of Nature introduced for the first time the term “sustainable development” in its publication on World’s Conservation Strategy, including one of the first references to sustainable development as a global priority.

1992: United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), “Earth Summit”, was held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (June 3–14, 1992), to reconcile the worldwide economic development with protection of the environment.

2018: Friday for future movement, leaded by Greta Thunberg.

In 1993, the topic of the world tourist day, defined by UNWTO, takes, for the first time, environment into account under the name “Tourism development and environmental protection: towards a lasting harmony”. Then, various topics where highlighted, as ecotourism, climate change, sustainable energy, water.

2017 was defined as the International Year for the development of sustainable tourism.