The Negros Occidental provincial government is calling for support for the entries of four local government units (LGUs) in the province in the online voting for the People’s Choice Award of the global Green Destinations Top 100 Story Awards 2025.

Exceptional sustainable tourism stories in the cities of Bago, Sagay, Sipalay and Talisay were the only initiatives from the Philippines that made it to the final list.

The 10th edition of the awards will be at the Internationale Tourismus-Börse (ITB) Berlin in Germany on March 4.

Bago City’s entry, “Booming Green AGritOurism”(BAGO) program, focuses on transforming farmers into “agri-entrepreneurs” and promoting sustainable tourism,” while Sipalay City developed the Green Belt Eco Park and Critical Habitat (Green BEaCH) initiative, transforming a modest tree-growing effort into a vital mangrove and beach forest conservation area.

In Talisay City, the Nature’s Village Resort implemented sustainable practices such as vermiculture, eco-bricks programs, solar panel installations and waste reduction strategies, while Sagay City’s story on the Sagay Marine Reserve is about illegal fishers turned into sea guardians, involving them in sustainable livelihoods and co-managing protected seascapes.

Votes for the People’s Choice Award can be cast through the link https://www.greendestinations.org/top-100-destinations/.

In October last year, all four entries from Negros Occidental made it to the 2024 Green Destinations Top 100 Stories under the Environment and Climate Category.

The annual competition organized by the Green Destinations Foundation based in The Netherlands celebrates and promotes sustainable tourism stories from destinations globally.

Aside from the jury-selected best Sustainable Tourism stories in six categories, the People’s Choice Award allows the public to support their favorite destination and Good Practice Story of the 2024 Green Destinations Top 100 competition.

The award is “an opportunity for all stories of the 2024 Top 100 list to be showcased and celebrated on stage as one of the most inspirational initiatives for sustainable tourism development at the prestigious annual ITB Berlin tourism trade show,” the organizers said.

The cities of Bago and Sagay were first recognized for their sustainable tourism initiatives during the ITB Berlin 2023.

Bago’s “Reviving the Majestic Diversity of Bago Watershed” placed third in the Environment and Climate Category, while Sagay’s “Mangrove Forest Protection through Community-based EcoTourism Project” bagged the second place in the Nature and Scenery Category and the People’s Choice Award.

ITB Berlin, the world’s largest tourism trade fair, annually gathers more than 160,000 visitors, including 113,500 trade visitors and 10,000 exhibitors from over 180 countries. (PNA)