Three scenic areas in Taiwan — Penghu County’s Nanliao (南寮), New Taipei City’s Pinglin (坪林), and the Northeast and Yilan Coast National Scenic Area — have been named among the world’s top 100 green destinations of this year.
The three were highlighted in this year’s Sustainable Destinations Top 100 report published by Green Destinations, a Dutch nonprofit organization focused on efforts to create sustainable tourism.
Green Destinations described Nanliao as a rural landscape whose locals are committed to promoting low-carbon tourism.
Photo provided by the Tourism Bureau
“To promote sustainable tourism in the destination, unused space has been reactivated to show early life and provides tourists with some early agriculture village life experiences,” the report said.
“Thanks to this, the Nanliao community earns some revenue and the people here are more willing to treasure and share the culture and wisdom of early life,” it added.
Pinglin was touted as promoting sustainable development through the use of toxin and pesticide-free farming methods to enhance the quality and safety of tea, the crop that the district is known for.
Green Destinations commended the Northeast and Yilan Coast National Scenic Area for developing eco-friendly tourism, saying that people there have been working on improving wastewater treatment and solid-waste management, as well as reducing water use and carbon emissions.
According to the report, Taiwan was tied with the Philippines for having the highest number of green destinations in an Asian country this year.
The three areas selected to represent the Philippines were Bojo, the Lio Tourism Estate on El Nido and San Carlos City.
Other Asian countries on to the list were India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and Palau, each of which had one green destination.
Globally, the Netherlands was described as the most eco-friendly country with 11 destinations, followed by Portugal with 10, and Canada and Slovenia with six each.
This year was the fourth year that the foundation made a list of global tourism destinations based on criteria such as sustainable development; social, cultural and economic conservation; and environmental protection.
The awards are to be handed out on March 6 at the ITB Berlin event, one of the largest tourism trade fairs in the world.
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