Tourism – Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity?

Tourism – Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity?

From May 15 to 26, 2000, the 5th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity was held in Nairobi/Kenya. Within the „Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity" as a major topic on the agenda, the governments of the world also looked at tourism as one option.

In preparation for this conference, the Ad–hoc Working Group on Tourism in the German NGO Forum Environment & Development organised an international workshop on tourism and biological diversity. The workshop took place from 8th to 10th March, 2000 in Berlin. Its major objective was an exchange of information and experiences between NGOs from the South and the North.

During the three days in Berlin, 40 participants from 25 countries worked intensely and constructively in plenary sessions and working groups. To visualise their concerns, they produced a photo exhibition on tourism and biodiversity which was shown at the International Tourism Exchange (ITB) subsequent to the workshop.

EXPERIENCE EXCHANGE

NGO experience in other international processes has shown that narrow predefined objectives tend to prevent an open dialogue rather than encourage it. Therefore, the objective of this workshop was to explicitly encourage a dialogue, to the extent that a totally „free of jacket" working group was set up giving room for the free flow of ideas and concerns. Radical critique was expressed especially by the Southern NGOs that the international process is dominated by the rules and structure of the North and the (tourism) industry. The sense and legitimacy of global treaties and guidelines in general were questioned.

THE WORKING-GROUPS

The less predefined the working goals were, the more evident concrete experiences with tourism became: especially in protected areas, as useful as they may be for the conservation of species, ecosystems and genetic diversity, the traditional resource rights and knowledge and innovation systems of Indigenous Peoples and local communities are often undermined.

Two working groups on the possible and necessary activities at local level and on networking looked especially at the role of NGOs. It was noted that one of the roles of NGOs is to make the needs of people at grassroots level and their experiences with tourism heard at the international level. It was criticised, however, that real participation by those people actually affected by tourism is hardly possible at the UN–level. NGOs would also have to take up the task of making decisions taken at the international level transparent to the people, with regard to their effects at local level, especially to those who will be most and often negatively affected by these decisions.

A PIECE OF THE DISCUSSION CAKE

In order to get at least „a piece of the discussion cake„ at the Conference of the Parties in Nairobi, despite all the limitations to be expected, the workshop participants formulated - in one working group and in a plenary session - a two– page position paper with concrete recommendations to the Parties of the Convention.

This paper acknowledges that when properly managed, tourism can be an incentive for biodiversity conservation. Emphasis, however, is placed on the fact that many tourism activities labelled as „ecotourism„ have accelerated the erosion of both biological and cultural diversity, especially in Indigenous territories where Indigenous Peoples have maintained a high level of biodiversity.

Against this background it was noted with concern that the UN has declared 2002 to be the „Year of Ecotourism", while there is still no clear definition of „ecotourism„. Since the circumstances under which tourism can contribute to the conservation of cultural and biological diversity have yet to be clarified, the workshop participants feel that this „Year of Ecotourism" must be approached with extreme caution.

It was also regarded as problematic that within the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the tourism discussion is limited almost exclusively to protected areas. In order to counterbalance this one-sided approach, the Conference of the Parties is called upon to recognise and address biodiversity as a whole. It was also stressed that cultural diversity must not be regarded as being separated from biological diversity. Other international agreements, such as trade agreements, must not compromise the provisions agreed upon under the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The complete text of the statement and recommendations formulated at the workshop is available on http://www.iz3w.org/forum. The document is open for endorsement by other interested NGOs. The Interactive Discussion Panel offers the opportunity to send further comments or remarks directly to the webpage. Thereby the discussion process is open and can be continued or followed beyond the Workshop and hopefully beyond the CBD. The NGO–statement had been submitted as an informal conference paper to the Secretariat of the Convention (http://www.biodiv.org/cop5/Inf–Docs.html).

June 19 2000