November 2007

SGP Honduras Grantees Win Virgin Holidays’ Responsible Tourism Award

La Ruta Moskitia (LARUMO) has been selected for the “Best in a Park or Protected Area” category of the 2007 Virgin Holidays’ Responsible Tourism Award. It will be awarded on November 14 at the World Travel Market in London.

LARUMO was selected not because of their 80 percent market share or huge economic success (resulting in 150 new sustainable jobs), but rather because of their work to directly support conservation in the Rio Plátano Biosphere Reserve. Combining conservation awareness-building with successful alternative economic development, LARUMO will break new ground this year by increasing the number of local residents engaged in environmental activism and the long-term financing that tourism provides to conservation in the Reserve.

La Ruta Moskitia was built upon a unique partnership between the Honduras GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP), RARE (a U.S.-based conservation NGO), and the indigenous communities of the Rio Plátano Biosphere Reserve. SGP provided the critical $189,000 in start-up capital through a combination of inter-linked projects in the Biosphere Reserve in order to build LARUMO’s capacity and the ‘cabana’ eco-infrastructure. The four concerned communities provided more than 1,000 days of in-kind labor to build the accommodations, while RARE assisted SGP in providing technical support in business planning, sales and marketing, and tourism operations.