The Organic and Sustainable Tourism Project
The predecessor of our independent ECEAT Finland association was the national Organic and Sustainable Tourism Project from 2001 – 2004. The project gave us possibilities to build up a new network of agritourism enterprises operating on an ecologically, socially and culturally sustainable basis.
The Finnish project was financed by the Rural Policy Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, while the Finnish Association for Organic Farming (Luomuliitto ry) was in charge of its practical management.
Other cooperation partners included Maaseutumatkailun teemaryhmä (an agritourism working group), organic farmers regional organisations, rural advisory centres, the Finnish ecological community project, and ecological forestry organisation, the Organic Catering Centre and the Biodynamic Association. We also had contacts with various other environmental and tourism organisations. Most of these organisations are now cooperation partners of ECEAT Finland.
The Project published the Green Holiday Guide Finland in 2002 and 2003, and an Organic travel magazine in 2004. In addition to building up the tourism network and publishing guides, the project organized seminars and study trips and developed its own quality criteria in cooperation with ECEAT International.
From the beginning we worked in close cooperation with the international ECEAT network, which also gave us the idea of building up our own eco-agrotourism network in Finland. The cooperation was most active with ECEAT Scandinavia and ECEAT Sweden. In 2003 Finland became a full member of ECEAT International.
