Conservation International – Cruise Industry and Environmental Management

Mitigating Negative Environmental Impacts of the Cruise Industry

Conservation International’s Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB) worked with a number of industry sectors on proactive, positive strategies for mitigating negative environmental impacts and contributing to conservation and environmental education. We worked with CELB on a number of initiatives with the cruise industry. The cruise industry had received substantial negative media coverage about their environmental practices and subsequent lawsuits to pay for some of the damage.

To assist CELB in this work, we conducted the following activities:

• Development of a major policy report, A Shifting Tide: Environmental Challenges & Cruise Industry Responses, which was presented as SeaTrade and ITB in Berlin.
• A Report and Action Plan for improved management of Shore Excursions by cruise passengers, which was called Ship to Shore.
• Punta Cana Biodiversity Conference to discuss cruise industry and environmental management strategies.
• Environmental Ship of the Year and Innovative Ship of the Year for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruise Lines.
• Cruise Passenger Management Plan for mitigating shore-side impacts of cruise visits to Cozumel.