Tourism is frequently promoted for its positive impacts on economies, employment or job creation; however, it has become increasingly recognized that tourism has many negative effects on the environment. HUMANITA focuses on local pressures at five pilot sites. Local impacts are site-specific and differ from area to area, often depending on the level of development and the degree of implementation of planning and management schemes.
In the first project year, each partner should describe the current monitoring activities of tourists, wildlife, vegetation, pollution, or erosion in the form of an overview map. The knowledge gaps in the area have been identified. Information provided, also by the assistance of external experts and other stakeholders will help to develop a monitoring network in the future that is capable of providing sustainability indicator data of sufficient accuracy and quantity to demonstrate that the pilot site is being sustainably managed.