• Name: Startlight Audit System for Sustainable Tourism
  • Institution: Starlight Foundation
  • Address: Vía Láctea S/N, 38205 La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
  • Contact: Luis Martínez Sáez. Mail: gestión@fundacionstarlight.org Phone: +34 922 315 140
  • Sustainable initiative kick-off: 2009
  • Goals: Protection of the night sky. One of the main goals is the protection and conservation of the night skies, considered an important scientific, cultural, environmental and sustainable tourist resource. In this direction, it is important to raise awareness about intelligent lighting and promote local, national and international initiatives that avoid light pollution, which enable energy savings and mitigate the effects of climate change.
  • Features: All the actions carried out by the Starlight Foundation are within the framework of a sustainable development, either because it considers the dark sky as part of our nature, incorporating it into the landscape of those spaces to which it adds special protection, or because the activities that are created they are all aimed at assessing precisely that natural heritage that seeks to spread their values ​​to society so that they know how to care for them as a real treasure. Therefore, scenarios that incorporate the observation of the sky as part of their natural, landscape, cultural or scientific heritage are created, and at the same time they promote the "Tourism of the Stars". And it is taught that soil and sky make up a unique reality, our Universe, which we need to be able to observe without a wild and irrational illumination destroying it with the grave prejudice that this would inflict on science and the large number of species that need darkness of the night. The Starlight Certification allows, for the first time, to combine science and tourism. For this, it takes advantage of astronomy and the view of the sky as a tool for a new form of sustainable tourism. This System is based on the principles contained in the "Declaration on the Defense of the Night Sky and the Right to the Light of the Stars", in whose preparation, in addition to the IAC, representatives of various organizations, such as UNESCO, the Tourism World Organization, (UNWTO) or the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
  • Results: Concerning the products, 21 Starlight Tourist Destinations, 10 Starlight Reserves, 41 Starlight Accommodations, 3 Starlight Camps, 3 Starlight Star Parks, 1 Starlight Itinerant Starlight, 2 Starlight Sites and 1 Starlight Restaurant have been certified.

    Within the line of education, 49 Starlight Guides, 96 Starlight Astronomical Monitors, 18 Starlight Auditors and 16 Starlight Professors have been trained.

    Finally, with regard to networking, 273 adheres to the principles of the "Declaration on the Defense of the Night Sky and the Right to the Light of the Stars", which is the Magna Carta of the Starlight Foundation.

Projects and Actions:

  • Certification (detailed information can be found on the web www.fundacionstarlight.org)
  • Starlight Reservations
  • Tourist Destinations Starlight
  • Starlight Accommodations
  • Starlight and Starlight Parks
  • Starlight sites
  • Starlight camps
  • Other modalities
  • Training:
    Introductory courses in astronomy, courses for being acreditated asStarlight Astronomical Monitors, training in the prevention of light pollution.
  • Technical assistance and Consulting services

Future Projects:

The Starlight Foundation has as an immediate future to consolidate its presence in the national space and take an important leap in the international arena.

Country: Spain