The consulting firm of Business International Consultants LLC, hereinafter referred to as BIC Services is led by an Ecotourism expert with more than twenty-five years of experience under his belt. A Development Studies researcher/scholar and a Political Economist trained at both Indiana State and Wisconsin in the United States of America, Joseph Fomunung is one of the foremost experts in Ecotourism specifically, and Tourism industry development in general. After completing his graduate studies in the mid-eighties, Fomunung became interested in environmental protection/natural resources conservation matters along with Ecotourism. After the publication of the 1987 Brundtland Commission Report on Our Common Future, his interest in these two fields was born. He delved into researching on these twin areas pushed forward by a latent belief that our planet’s governments could symbiotically link the need for economic development and environmental protection- two activities that had hitherto been antagonistic. His belief in these possibilities didn’t come into full view to prove him right until after the first United Nations Convention on Environment and Development successfully held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992.

After what came to be commonly referred to as the Rio Earth Summit, Fomunung took particular interest on the tenets of that historic UN Convention. To his delight, Fomunung discovered and savored the pages of a special document that came out of Rio called “The Agenda 21 for the Travel & Tourism Industry”. That document made Fomunung to further immerse himself to intensify research into these twin fields uncovering what he states was “the secret hidden in plain sight”. That’s when he discovered that ecotourism could alleviate poverty through uplifting millions of lives conveniently and sustainably by national policy makers and the global community without destroying the environmental nourishing base of the Travel & Tourism industry.

His belief in the symbiotic relationship that existed and still exists between the vital twin needs for sustainable economic development and sustainable environmental protection/ natural resources conservation were further entrenched.

After the Rio Earth Summit, Joseph Fomunung quickly established himself as an expert in the Ecotourism field- a sub-sector of the all-important global Travel & Tourism industry. It was in recognition of his expertise in Ecotourism that many governments and subject related international development organizations invited him to either chair Ecotourism Committees at international conferences or present professional papers on this subject and often, both. Fomunung has presented and/or chaired Ecotourism committees in Cairo, Egypt, to Keukenhof, Holland. From Mazatlán, Mexico in September 1993 to Jerusalem, Israel May 1993, from Johannesburg, South Africa to Fukushima, Japan September 2001. From Paris, France to New York, USA. From Frankfurt, Germany to Brugge, Belgium. He has carried out these activities in fourteen cities on four continents.

Topics at these international conferences have ranged from Destination marketing in London UK, Destination management to the Role of Air Transportation in Tourism Development in Paris in June 1991. From the First International Conference in Financing in the Tourism industry – Jerusalem in May 1993 to Coastal Cities and Tourism development in

Fukushima, Japan in September 2001. He presented papers on how to build ecotourism projects for both the public and private sectors applying ecologically sustainable and culturally acceptable practices, including low impact energy and water resource use.

These international experiences don’t include his having served as the principal economics contributor to the European Union magazine The EEC-ACP Courier in Yaoundé, Cameroon. He was equally the Ecotourism consultant to the United Nations Africa 2000 Project in the late nineties and the go- to- ecotourism consultant to the WWF- Cameroon Program Office. His background includes having been the pioneer Lecturer of Ecotourism at Cameroon’s premier University of Yaoundé with the late Department head 1997-1998 academic year. Fomunung founded an NGO called GREENSPACE in the late nineties that fizzled because most of his contemporaries didn’t understand the usefulness of the concept.

BIC Services is proud to have a leader in Joseph Fomunung, a foresighted expert who saw Ecotourism as the bridge between two contemporary important activities. The recent landmark UN Resolution adopted by 193 member nation-states declaring a clean healthy and sustainable environment a universal human right has further proven him right. This has further proven Fomunung being ahead of the curve by decades and most recently, through BIC Services by four years.

The contents of the recent July 28, 2022 historic UN Resolution are in sync with the core activities and Mission of BIC Services. He has been a great adherent of the father of the concept of Ecotourism Dr. Hector Ceballos Lascurain who coined the term of ECOTOURISM in 1983 and tweaked it in 1993. Ecotourism has come to be increasingly seen as the panacea for sustainably alleviating poverty while preserving the natural environment. This is what Joseph Fomunung has believed and recommended since the UN Rio Earth Summit and recommends national governments take it seriously especially in the age of critical Climate Change concerns and challenges. At BIC Services we deliver satisfactory results in ecotourism project building and development, and we proudly put our name behind our projects. Whether you are a government entity or a private sector business owner, we can deliver the goods satisfactorily.