The Friedrich Ebert Foundation together with the Institute of Geography, Irkutsk organized in September a multi-day conference on aspects of innovation in the tourism sector and possibilities for promoting tourism in the Baikal region, taking into account environmental and sustainable aspects.

Siberia and especially the Baikal region have an enormous tourism potential. The sector brings challenges as well as opportunities for local communities and individuals.  With the rising interest of domestic and foreign tourists grow side effects on natural habitats and human – nature conflicts intensify.

The presentation of the development of the Sustainable Tourism strategy in the Wadden Sea World Heritage Destination with its innovative approach how the tourism sector can benefit from World Heritage status and at the same time contribute to its conservation was met with great interest from the over 60 participants of the conference.

Particular attention was given to the PROWAD project which showed with concrete examples how opportunities and perspectives for a sustainable socio-economic development in the Dutch-German-Danish Wadden Sea region from the designation of the Wadden Sea as UNESCO World Heritage Site have been identified and will be used in the future.

More information at the Interreg IVB PROWAD project website (www.prowad.org).