Happiness Roundtable 2020 Recommendations: Happiness, Tourism and Wildlife in the face of COVID-19

Happiness Roundtable Recommendations 2020

Tourism, Wildlife Conservation & Well-being in the face of Covid-10

The Happiness Roundtable Recommendations emerged from the Happiness Roundtable 2020 online summit convening leadership in tourism, well-being and wildlife conservation with the inspiration and shared goal of advancing the happiness movement. happinessroundtable.org

THIS STATEMENT IS A COLLECTIVE EXPRESSION OF THE FIRST HAPPINESS ROUNDTABLE. IT DOES NOT REPRESENT ANY ONE INDIVIDUAL OR ORGANIZATION.

Happiness + Well-being + Quality of Life +Sustainability + Resilience + Flourishing

Our belief, upon which our recommendations are based:

Happiness on personal, professional, organizational and societal levels comes from action out of love, compassion and empathy towards all living and non-living beings in nature.

Yajur Veda, an ancient Hindu text states “The one who loves all intensely, begins perceiving in all living beings, a part of himself. He becomes a lover of all, a part and parcel of the Universal Joy. He flows with the stream of happiness, and is enriched by each soul.�

Human wellbeing and happiness depends on how we interact with wildlife and the ecosystems that support it and us. The COVID-19 pandemic signals that human beings are a part of nature, not its master. It presents humans an opportunity to reset our lifestyles and development pathways as individuals, communities and nation states: to consider compassion rather than competition, and giving rather than greed, so that we live in balance and pass onto future generations a healthy and flourishing planet for human existence.

Our chance of continued existence as compassionate humans among the healthy ecosystems of our beautiful planet depends upon our choices today.

THEREFORE:

We see the necessity of building bridges among communities, local, national and international organizations, funders and policy makers to redefine and influence policy. We call for flexible context-based approaches to sustainability, happiness and well-being indicators, data and actions.

We call for this approach to embrace the flourishing of all species and the planet itself alongside the flourishing of humans. We further call for the emergence of case studies from communities that demonstrate the connections between well-being, wildlife and tourism in response to Covid-19 to inform and influence national and international policy.

We call for greater connection and equity among human populations and ecosystems where wildlife is valuable in and of itself, not a separated resource for human enjoyment or consumption.

We call for local and international focus and resource allocation, including funding, from economically wealthy corporations and governments to wildlife rich but economically poor communities to protect and conserve wildlife and community well-being

We call for forms of sustainable tourism that are defined and measured locally to benefit the well-being of communities and to conserve and restore wildlife and ecosystems. To enable and harness this green growth, we call for the wider implementation of sustainable tourism certification schemes and other modalities that define, encourage and reward such forms of tourism. We call for the foundations of this approach to (a) be based on globally connected and locally relevant indigenous wisdom and (b) foster alternative livelihoods whereby the economic, social, governmental and environmental resilience of local communities and their ecosystems are reinforced by new models of regenerative tourism.

We call upon all tourists to consider vacations that seek and deliver enduring personal happiness, benefits to host communities and that foster lifelong relationships exemplifying local-global sustainability and well-being. We ask tourists to choose experiences that contribute to the conservation and restoration of natural and cultural capital and that are deeply local experiences.

We ask tourists to focus upon learning, understanding, observing and restoring local biodiversity, ecosystems as well as cultural and indigenous assets that support these systems. We call upon tourists to engage with and support the well-being of local communities as the gatekeepers and minders of the natural capital that support our planet.

We call for community leadership in tourism to develop sustainable destinations and ecosystems that embrace transparency and trust in clean energy technology, effective waste management, wildlife monitoring and enrichment of local cultures. We call for a renewed emphasis on human-rights in destination communities undergoing hardship due to Covid-19.

We call for new approaches to teaching at education institutions that encompass students’ lifelong happiness and well-being, are seated in and enhance local communities, and empower students to invest in careers that benefit humans, communities, nonhuman species and ecosystems.

Happiness Roundtable 2020 Leadership

ADVANCING WELL-BEING

The Happiness Roundtable is a project of the Happiness Alliance.

The Happiness Roundtable 2020 was convened by Beth Allgood, Paul Rogers and Laura Musikanski