Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development

The Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development, launched in 2003, is a joint project between the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, DC and Stanford University. "Headquartered in Washington, DC, CESD functions as a bi-coastal institute, offering programs, conferences, courses, and research projects at both of its locations, as well as field research opportunities."

History
"The idea to create CESD was born during a May 2002 conference on “Ecotourism and Conservation in the Americas,” held at Stanford University which brought together a rich mixture of academic disciplines, NGO expertise, and ecotourism practitioners. The conference demonstrated that ecotourism is a complex, cross-disciplinary field in need of more serious study. From our bicoastal vantage points – Bill as Chair of Stanford’s Anthropological Sciences and Martha as a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies – we had both been involved in ecotourism research, writing, and field projects.

"We had seen how ecotourism was rapidly becoming a development tool of choice in many countries, as well as a topic of interest for many university students. We were aware that in U.S. universities, tourism has typically been housed in hospitality, leisure studies, or recreation departments with a focus on training professionals for the industry. We therefore saw the need for a rigorous, independent, and multidisciplinary institute committed to addressing critical policy issues around ecotourism. We decided to pool our expertise and resources and, with initial support from the Ford Foundation and Stanford University’s Provost Office, we launched CESD in early 2003."

Projects
"CESD, through a grant from the Italian Trust Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is currently exploring the creation of an international Tourism Investment Fund (TIF) – a novel development venture that combines private funds from holiday savings accounts, socially responsible investments, charitable donations, and purchases of carbon offset credits."

==Sponsors ==


 * Belize Tourism Board
 * Compton Foundation
 * Environmental Defense
 * Ford Foundation
 * Flora Family Fund
 * Inter-American Development Bank
 * Inter-American Foundation
 * Mott Foundation
 * Packard Foundation
 * Summit Foundation
 * Stanford Latin American Studies
 * USAID/Grenada,
 * Wallace Foundation

==Partners ==


 * Friends of Africa Foundation
 * [[INCAE Business School,
 * The International Ecotourism Society
 * Rainforest Alliance

Washington
Accessed March 2008:


 * Martha Honey, Ph.D., CESD's Executive Director
 * David Krantz is CESD’s Washington Coordinator and is facilitating a variety of the center’s projects
 * Whitney Cooper is CESD's Administrative Assistant

Stanford
Accessed March 2008:


 * William Durham
 * Laura Driscoll
 * Len Materman
 * Wolfgang Strasdas
 * Mollie Chapman
 * William P. Barnett
 * Barton ("Buzz") Thompson
 * Suki Hoagland
 * Peter Vitousek

Contact

 * Web: http://www.ecotourismcesd.org

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Edith T. Eddy