Staff

Global Sustainable Tourism Council Staff


      

Erika Harms, Executive Director

Erika Harms is the Executive Director of the Tourism Sustainability Council (GSTC). In this role, Ms. Harms manages and oversees the implementation of activities under the framework of the GSTC, a cutting edge initiative that provides a clear set of standards, protocols, processes and measurements for how businesses can better the planet and practice sustainable tourism.  Ms. Harms has focused on creating platforms to bring together the private and public sector in support of the United Nations’ conservation priorities, and has spearheaded initiatives such as the World Heritage Alliance for Sustainable Tourism and the Partnership for Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. She serves as a judge of several awards. In 2008, Conde Nast Traveler recognized Ms. Harms as a "Trail Blazer" in Sustainable Tourism and in 2010 she received the HSMAI award for Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales and Marketing. Ms. Harms holds a degree of Attorney at Law and a master's degree in Business Administration and Natural Resource Management from INCAE, Central American Institute of Business Administration, in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Born in Costa Rica, Ms. Harms' native languages are Spanish and German.

Contact: eharms@unfoundation.org
     

Amos Bien, Technical Director

Amos is a population ecologist by academic training and administrator, and works in the field of the sustainability of tourism and standardization. He was the lead consultant in developing the “Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria”, author of the “Tourism Sustainability Scorecard” for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), member of the ISO Technical Committee on Tourism, author of the “Guide for Tourism: Instrument for Environmental and Social Management” (IUCN) for the environmental authorities of Central America and the Dominican Republic, and lead consultant for the study “Policy elements for the sustainability of cruise tourism in Central America” (IDB and INCAE). He also recently worked for the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) on sustainable tourism issues, where he coordinated the projects for establishing a Global Sustainable Tourism Partnership and the Sustainable Investment and Finance in Tourism (SIFT) initiative. He is a founding member of the GSTC and is the founder and CEO of Rara Avis Rainforest Lodge and Reserve, one of the first ecolodges and private reserves in Costa Rica. He has also worked as a university professor, and in business administration, environmental auditing, and construction. He was the founding president of the Costa Rican Private Nature Reserves Association, president of the Costa Rican Youth Hostel Association, treasurer of the Federation of Costa Rican Environmental Organizations, member of the National Biodiversity Commission, and a country representative to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development.

Contact: abien@unfoundation.org
     

Liza Agudelo, Program Manager

Liza Agudelo is the Senior Program Manager of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.  Liza is a Biologist from Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia) and holds a Masters Degree in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology from the University of Maryland (where she was a Fulbright/OAS scholar).  Liza has been actively involved in the coordination of local and international conservation and sustainable development projects, interacting at different levels of project design, management, and execution.  She started with community-based projects with small local NGOs in her native Colombia and then moved to supporting the management of the biodiversity grant portfolio at the UN Foundation.  She was later based in Belize as the project coordinator of the ICRAN-Mesoamerican Reef Alliance, a multi-agency international effort to promote sustainable practices in tourism, fisheries, and watershed management and thus contribute to minimizing impacts on the world’s second largest barrier reef.  Most recently, after moving back to Washington DC Liza has also been supporting the management of the Sustainable Development program at the UN Foundation.

Contact: lagudelo@unfoundation.org