Hodelpa will apply the Biodiversity Check Tourism tool in its management

Hodelpa Hotels will initiate, through its Hodelpa Nicolás de Ovando lodging establishment, the implementation of the Biodiversity Check Tourism tool, which will lead to the voluntary application of measures aimed at integrating biodiversity into business management, as part of its commitment to sustainability.

The tool will be used for the first time in the Dominican Republic in the city of Santo Domingo, after the signing of an agreement between Hodelpa and the German Development Cooperation Agency (GIZ).

In addition, the hotel company began the process of applying the mechanism in its Hodelpa Garden Suites hotels in Juan Dolio and Emotions Puerto Plata.

The hotel company indicated that the tool addresses new trends in international markets, which are exerting more and more pressure to ensure the use of products and services that are friendly to biodiversity and ecosystems.

Meanwhile, GIZ representatives assured that “the tool can be applied by a professional with experience in the tourism, biodiversity and/or environmental management sector, because it is necessary to ensure that the recommendations proposed at the end of the Biodiversity Check Turimos application are viable. technically and economically, according to the needs and reality of the company, and have an emphasis on the topic of biodiversity”.

They affirmed that with the application, companies can analyze the situation of the impacts and risks related to biodiversity, in addition to offering objective recommendations and measures to apply in the short and medium term and integrate them into an action plan for biodiversity within the framework of a environmental and/or quality management ecosystem.

The Biodiversity Check tool for companies in Central America and the Dominican Republic was developed by GIZ and the NGO Global Nature Fund (GNF), based on the experience gained with its use in Europe since 2012.

Present at the signing of the agreement were Hodelpa’s Yeine Durán, corporate manager of Sustainability and Quality; Ángel Hernández, vice president of operations and José Hernández, manager of the Nicolás de Ovando hotel.

On behalf of GIZ, Mrs. Svenja Paulino, director of the Biodiversity program and director of business in Central America and the Dominican Republic, and Jaír Urriola, executive secretary of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development, were present.