ORANJESTAD, ST. EUSTATIUS—The St. Eustatius Tourism Development Foundation (STDF) is preparing to host a conference from September 25 to 27, during which delegates will discuss critical issues relating to the island’s sustainability.
The theme of the Statia Sustainable Conference (SSC), “Powering Sustainable Development,” is identical to the proposed theme for this year’s World Tourism Day by the World Tourism Organization. The objectives of the STDF is to gather all sustainability related sectors and link as a team to additionally educate and inform the public regarding the importance of sustainable practices. By influencing the community in the right direction of sustainability the STDF hopes to motivate Statians to engage in sustainable practices, including energy conservation/renewable energy.
The conference is designed to challenge tourism planners, policymakers, stakeholders and the general public to develop and implement strategies and practices that can sustain Statia’s limited resources.
“We want to ensure that our recourses are tapped into responsibly and are in a manner that will not only benefit our economy and country, but that is also sustainable,” said Director of Tourism Charles Lindo.
Speaker Lineup Coming Together
The STDF has confirmed a number of industry experts who are more familiar with sustainable development. Tanya Stiffler is one of the presenters who will share her ideas at this conference. As senior partner and founding member of The Stiffler Group, Tanya utilizes her 17-plus years of consumer direct and business to business marketing experience along with 11 years in executive level management in the hospitality industry to provide clients with proven solutions for marketing, operational and industry specific challenges. Over the last five years, the team at The Stiffler Group has worked with corporations and organizations focusing on renewable and sustainable development in the United States and worldwide.
Laurens Duiveman is one of the local presenters scheduled for the conference. Duiveman started his professional education at the University of Amsterdam, where he obtained a Masters degree in Biology and in Education. He is presently the owner of GreenBlend plantation on St. Eustatius, an agricultural company, which strives to be an example for the region by showing that all of its activities can be done in a sustainable manner. He has developed ways to use brackish water to his advantage, and combat high pest control. His ambition is to continue being creative and to develop ideas and solutions for any challenges coming his way.
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