The 12th edition of the Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Development and Tourism (STC-12), that came to a close Wednesday at the Fairmon Southampton Hotel in Bermuda, focused on the importance of sustainable development for tourism as the right way to stave off poverty, create jobs and protects the region’s natural resources.

Speaking ahead of the 12th annual Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Sustainable Tourism Conference (STC-12) that kicked off today, Choice Hotels director Jose Salvador Icaza said sustainability for the lodging company is more than a buzzword. Meeting under the theme "Keeping the Right Balance: Rising above the Numbers," the conference is now underway at the Fairmont Southampton.

Today´s Caribbean has a much wider vision of what its social, economic and environmental problems really are on the road to sustainable development. Even though the results of the Seventh Conference on Caribbean Sustainable Development (STC-7) can only be seen in the long run, the debates and discussions did help attendants be fully aware of the need to tackle sensitive matters whose solutions brook no further delay.

The 8th Conference on Sustainable Development in the Caribbean will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, next year, organizers announced on Friday. A Puerto Rican delegation attending the seventh such conference here explained that initiatives in the use of natural resources and environmental protection are expected to be discussed by ministers, hoteliers, experts and business people in the meeting scheduled to be held by late 2006.

The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) called on all countries in the Grand Caribbean region to resort to all legal tools within their reach in order to preserve elements that might lead the way to sustainable development. This particular message was put across by Alessandra Vanzella-Khouri, of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), who also attended the conference in Tobago.

Cuba assured here Thursday that its tourism policy is governed by the need to contribute to socio-economic development from a sustainable base, in order to protect the national and regional environment. Cuban Tourism Ministry planning director Gilberto Rios talked about the progress of Cuba in this sector, in a presentation at the 7th Caribbean Conference on Development of Sustainable Tourism, which will close Friday.