Arena Island offers sustainable eco-tourism

MANILA, Philippines - Arena Island, once a privately-owned island, is celebrating its first year as a sustainable eco-tourism destination.

The eco-tourism resort opened the doors to its four-hectare paradise in Narra, Palawan in 2011. Since then, local and foreign tourists alike have visited the island for  rest and recreation, pleasantly combined with nature tripping.   

As it celebrates its first year as an ecotourism destination this November, Arena Island further commits to practice eco conservation and sustainability in its operations.

A nesting place for native sea turtles, Arena Island strives not just to help the endangered pawikans, but also to provide the best ecotourism systems in place.

 According to  Arena Island marketing director Louie Morales, “We want to be the best showcase of ecotourism in the country. Our conservation efforts for the pawikans should only be complemented by eco-sustainable operations of the island.” 

The island  strengthened its  eco-sustainability efforts in May this year by taking part in the Zero Carbon Resorts (ZCR) Project under the EU SWITCH-Asia program and initiated by GrAT-Center for Appropriate Technology and its partners – ASSIST, PCSD, PhilGBC and Plataforma Solar de Almería Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas (PSA CIEMAT), the largest European center for research, development and testing of concentrating solar technologies. 

The ZCR project aims to enable tourism SMEs in Palawan and other parts of the Philippines to switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy.

Tourism SMEs are encouraged to invest in bigger windows to gather natural light that will result in a significant decrease in their electric consumption costs, and practice simple measures like good housekeeping, peak load management, and guests’ involvement in the conservation (e.g. switching off the lights during day time) to save on energy. 

Savings from these practices go to new, efficient, and greener facilities and amenities, totally eliminating the use of fossil-based and outdated technologies, and third, the total redesigning of the tourism establishments providing a Zero Carbon system for future energy services such as the carbon neutral and self-sufficient energy supplies.  

Arena Island has been using solar panel units for lighting purposes long before it opened its doors to guests.  To this day, the island commits to continuously find more energy-efficient ways to power the island.  Its five solar power units (50 watts each unit) are used for lighting purposes, which reduces its carbon footprint by as much as 6,000 liters of diesel fuel.

 According to Roland Rodriguez, a native of Cuyo, Palawan and the island’s proprietor and protector, “We are also on our way to developing a complete sustainability map for the island. Next year, we want to be able to convert traditional and maybe wasteful practices to more sustainable ways of doing things.” 

The island also has water catchment systems and practices proper garbage segregation and disposal. Water catchments in the island can annually harvest as much as 300,000 liters of water and its desalination facility can turn out 36,000 liters per year. 

“We at Arena Island strongly believe that we have a responsibility for the environment and we have to continue with our efforts to make the island more sustainable for the years to come,” stressed Rodriguez. 

In celebration of the island’s first year of operations as a private destination, they are offering special packages valid for travel on July 1-Nov. 30, 2013.  Interested parties may call (02) 401-97-78 or email [email protected].