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The global tourism industry is inextricably linked with climate change, and, faced with a ‘climate emergency’, there is an increasing emphasis on finding environmentally sustainable tourism models. One such model is ‘carbon-neutral tourism (CNT)’. This paper investigates attitudes towards CNT in County Clare (Ireland), focusing on tourism providers. By reviewing and evaluating key relevant academic sources, clarification is given about climate change, and the tourism industry’s relationship with it. The concept of sustainable tourism is explored, leading to an understanding of the meaning of CNT, and the various steps taken to create it. Following this, semi-structured interviews are conducted with selected tourism providers in County Clare. Using purposive sampling, a selection of tourism providers covering key elements of the tourism product are interviewed. These interviews are of a semi-structured format, allowing for some generic investigation, but also permitting an exploration of each provider’s contribution to the tourism product. The analysis concludes that tourism providers in Clare hold generally positive attitudes towards CNT. All respondents currently carry out at least some elements of CNT and all respondents express an enthusiasm to be more involved. However, certain barriers to fuller participation are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the process for establishing a 'village agreement' using the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership ( KFCP) as a case study. REDD+ is designed as a 'performance-based' mechanism and requires a contractual agreement between the parties involved. Since its implementation will affect the life of forest-dependent communities, it is vital that villagers have sufficient ability to negotiate their interests during the agreement process. This paper investigates the degree of 'social learning' essential for developing actors' capacity to negotiate rules and interests with outsiders involved in the agreement process (between KFCP and the seven villages involved) and how this meshes with notions of 'participation'. It found that while 'social learning' occurred as a result of the well-designed participatory process conducted by KFCP, villagers' ability to secure their interests was influenced by a learning experience accumulated from their previous engagement with several development/conservation projects. This finding contributes to literature by emphasising how historical context plays a significant role in the success of present learning and the efficacy or otherwise of a contractual agreement. Therefore historical aspects should be taken into account in site selection and the design of future REDD+ projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]