In plain English
Global Ecosphere Retreat (The Long Run)
Global Ecosphere Retreat (The Long Run) is a ecotourism method run by The Long Run. People often refer to it by its code, GER. It works in the conservation tourism space.
In short
A conservation-tourism standard balancing Conservation, Community, Culture and Commerce (the 4Cs) at nature-based retreats.
What it is
The Global Ecosphere Retreat (GER) standard is a sustainability certification for nature based tourism businesses run by The Long Run and developed with Preferred by Nature. It assesses performance across the 4Cs framework of Conservation, Community, Culture, and Commerce, requiring members to meet 125 criteria that are verified onsite by external auditors. To be eligible a business must own, directly manage, or influence a significant land or seascape and must be or become commercially profitable, and certified members submit annual data and undergo recertification every six years. The standard is aligned with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, and recognition is a certification status rather than a tradable credit.
What it rewards
The reward is a credit called a GER Certification (GER). One credit stands for one site certification. A verified, community-benefiting, conservation-linked travel experience. A whole period of work is issued as one batch of credits at a time, in the same way a registry issues a batch.
What gets measured
To earn GER credits, a project has to measure and prove a few things. An independent reviewer checks the evidence before any credits are issued.
Species & habitat monitoring (Conservation C). The Conservation pillar requires monitoring of species and habitat.
Wildlife population trend. Members influence a significant land/seascape and track its wildlife.
Habitat condition of managed area. Condition of the owned / managed land- or seascape.
Annual monitoring data. Members submit annual data and recertify every six years.
Who takes part
Standard Registry. Owns the policy, approves participants, anchors each issuance to its evidence.
Project Proponent. Registers the project and submits monitoring reports.
Validation & Verification Body. Independently validates the design and verifies monitored data.
How it works
- 1
The project team registers the project and its plan.
- 2
An independent reviewer checks that the plan is sound and that the benefit is real and would not have happened anyway.
- 3
The team looks after the site and measures the agreed indicators over time.
- 4
The independent reviewer verifies those measurements.
- 5
Credits are issued for the verified result, and a buyer can retire a credit to claim the benefit once.
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