The long road of setting and ensuring global standards- Dunleavy's construction of the chapter
United Kingdom
Purpose
I have written this paper following the methods to write a chapter or paper suggested in chapters 4-5-6 of Patrick Dunleavy's book, Authoring a PhD. The purpose of this is to provide a specific example to discuss in classroom situation. Focus on the style, not on the contents of the paper. Double click on the yellow underlined text to see my comments.
Introduction
Certification of sustainable tourism and ecotourism can help to reduce the negative environmental and social impacts of tourism, ensure that the tourism industry is held accountable and provide marketing benefits to those firms that meet the certification standards. In recent years there have been several projects aiming to set international standards for sustainable tourism and ecotourism. Other chapters in this book reflect on European experiences, by far the most advanced region in setting sustainable tourism standards and certification programs. This chapter discusses the feasibility to set international sustainable tourism standards from the experience of writing the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council (STSC) proposals. First, it will review the challenges faced in internationalising tourism certification and standard setting, with comparisons between the European and global context, in order to develop a rationale for international initiatives in this sphere and how these have been taken into account in writing the proposals for an STSC. Second, it will outline the outcomes from the feasibility study, by reviewing the areas of consensus and the desired activities of a global body that both markets companies meeting standards as well as sets standards and supports certification programmes to meet those standards. Third, this chapter outlines the stepped approach taken to move towards this objective. Because of the concerns raised through the consultation, the proposals were to work towards a stepped implementation aiming for consensus, information sharing and skills transfer, that would gradually introduce further benefits as well as expectations of quality, until these were requirements. The chapter will be of interest to organisations working to set locally applicable standards that at the same time consider the international operating environment.
There is some consensus that the increasing numbers of certification programs would benefit from shared functions such as marketing, training and development, while supply chains and consumers would benefit from the setting of standards (Font, 2002; Honey, 2002; Sanabria, 2002; Synergy, 2000). In 2001 the Rainforest Alliance, with funding from the Ford Foundation and help from its Advisory Committees of NGOs, intergovernmental agencies and industry representatives, initiated a study of the feasibility of establishing the STSC. The purpose was to promote globally recognised, high-quality certification programs for sustainable tourism and ecotourism through a process of information sharing, marketing, and assessment of standards. The method would be to accredit certification programs, i.e. it would ensure the rigour of the certification product and competency of the certification body, hence acting as a guarantee to both industry and markets (Sanabria, 2002; Toth, 2002). However there are important challenges, reviewed here, to the feasibility of global standards and accreditation. These are considered here under level of development of certification, different nature of certification programs, level of knowledge, financial and political reasons.

Conclusions
Developing global standards for sustainable tourism is a worthwhile, yet ambitious and long term activity. A number of initiatives are on their way to make a difference, this chapter reviews the efforts to develop a Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council by critically analysing the challenges faced, with a comparison between the European experience and the global context. The chapter summarises a number of actions that the STSC can undertake to set and raise standards, and outlines a trajectory to progress this agenda.
This paper was prepared by the author and does not represent the official views of Rainforest Alliance or other organisations involved in the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council.
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