Passport stamps are turned into an eco-pledge in a campaign to preserve Palau from the damage of tourism
The Palau Legacy Project has launched a campaign to build awareness of the environmental effect of mass tourism on the island, creating a pledge that visitors need to sign within the visa stamp in their passports.
Palau Pledge aims to tackle tourism damage to environments
The stamp, which outlines a promise to help Palau protect its environment, acts as an agreement on entering the small country.
According to The Palau Legacy project, a group of volunteers that work alongside the government, the country is the thirteenth smallest nation in the world but it attracts almost eight times its population in tourists each year.
The hope behind the campaign is to preserve the vital incoming economic value of tourism but also create a better understanding of small changes that tourists can do that help preserve the environment too.
A digital version of the pledge has been set up online and acts as a source for all environmental and visitor information. It also hosts a video, which will also be shown as a compulsory in-flight video, which introduces the concept through a story about a giant that learns about the damage he can do to a fragile ecosystem. A shorter video explaining the concept of the eco-pledge will also be shared across social media.
To promote the campaign to a wider audience, celebrities and notable figures have been tasked with posting about the pledge on social media.The stars include Leonardo DiCaprio, HRH Queen Noor of Jordan, political influencers such as Secretary John Kerry and conservation luminary Dr Sylvia Earle.
The campaign was created by Host/Havas, along with the help of Red Agency, a social and PR agency.
