"We opened the Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort 12 years ago. I got involved because I wanted to show that you could be environmentally friendly and economically successful. We wanted to have the minimum possible impact on the environment—and at the same time give visitors the maximum opportunity to realize how exceptional that place was. When you reach the heart it usually goes to the brain instead of the other way around.
"There are 30 bungalows; like the Fijians, we call them 'bure.' We made sure that all the building material was local material. We use the wind as our air conditioning, which meant orienting the openings on each of the structures so that you can allow more or less air to come in. Traditional air conditioning was out of the question. We treat all the resort's wastewater naturally with palms, and we use fish and eels to control the mosquito larvae so we don't have to use pesticides. We have our own vegetable and fruit gardens; we've saved many thousands of dollars by having those in-house rather than having to import or buy things from outside. We agreed that the resort would be family oriented and we hired an on-site marine biologist to run educational programs.
"About 50 percent of people taking a vacation go to the ocean, which means we're putting an enormous pressure on the coastline. We have to do it in a sustainable way—it's a word that a lot of people still don't understand. The kids now, they talk a lot about the environment. Children are learning all kinds of things that their parents don't know about. That can influence the parents a lot on where they're going to take their vacations. And good information is being made available to the public now on how to choose travel wisely.
"The situation is urgent. I think we're on the road to protecting what we have to protect, but time is of the essence. We need to do a better job than we have been to preserve and manage our resources so we can still smile in the morning when we wake up."
Take Action: Plan a low-impact vacation with the help of groups like the International Ecotourism Society (www.ecotourism.org).
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