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Integrating Biodiversity into the Tourism Sector: Best Practice Guidelines |
Chapters 3 and 4
In every case, tourism should pay attention to the "triple bottom line": economic, environmental and social factors must be attended to simultaneously. This implies the need for integrated management and the adoption of an ecosystem approach, as advocated by the CBD. Continuous management of tourism is just as important as proper planning and development. It is imperative to provide incentives for the wide range application of environmental management systems. The only viable relationship between tourism and nature conservation is a symbiotic one. It is not enough to have a situation of coexistence and certainly nobody benefits from a conflictive relationship. Tourism management needs to form part of biodiversity management planning.
The allocation of land uses must be carefully coordinated and inappropriate activities that damage ecosystems should be strictly regulated. This may be done only by strengthening and developing integrated policies and management that cover all socio-economic activities in the different ecosystems, including terrestrial, coastal and marine zones. Management solutions are also needed for simple, but persistent, problems such as litter.
It must be emphasised that enjoyment of biodiversity and natural areas is not only for rich foreigners, but for all national inhabitants. Ecotourism is made up of visitation by both national and international tourists. The former component is usually more sustainable than the latter if a sufficient standard of living exists in the country (i.e. domestic tourists possess the financial means to visit, and consequently support, protected areas).
The different sectors must understand the tourism market for cultural and natural heritage products, and how this is linked to tourism's ability to support conservation through product demand. Understanding the experiences and products tourists are looking for, enables protected area managers to tailor certain aspects of the destination for the desired type of tourist. Accurately forecasting the amount of anticipated visitors enables planners to lobby for and develop sufficient infrastructure.
Selected protected areas (including World Heritage Sites and other areas with international protection status) should be promoted as ecotourism destinations for their biodiversity values, in those cases where tourism is allowed by their management plans.
It is important to demonstrate how the private sector can implement environmental management plans, using low cost methods first, and then use any left over money to retrofit, making the tourism facility more sustainable. It is necessary to show the large hotel chains that environmental management brings a profit. Using environmentally friendly techniques saves money for hotels and all other tourism service providers.
Specific Examples of Best Practice from Selected Countries
1) Australia: This nation has developed a national agenda to support sustainable tourism (including ecotourism) as a tool for conserving biodiversity and for better use of natural areas. The National Tourism Strategy was formulated in 1992 to, among other goals, enhance community awareness of the economic, environmental and cultural significance of tourism. The Strategy's environmental goal is to provide for sustainable tourism development by encouraging responsible planning and management practices consistent with the conservation of Australia's natural and cultural heritage. In 1994, within the framework of this strategy, the National Ecotourism Strategy was published also by the Department of Tourism. A document called "Two Way Track: Biodiversity Conservation and Ecotourism" by Environment Australia may be useful. For full text see: http://chm.environment.gov.au/publications/biodivser_5/index.html
2) Costa Rica: In Conservation Areas (which include protected areas) the ENB (National Biodiversity Strategy) establishes lines of action and top priority activities according to five-year planning periods, where the tourism sector is a key factor, together with the other productive sectors. In the Strategy, integrated management of biodiversity resources and sustainable tourism, with ample participation of civil society and in coordination with the government, is considered as the top priority for national development. As part of sustainable tourism, Costa Rica seeks an activity where there is better distribution of resources in the different regions of the country and direct involvement of rural communities, while at the same time minimising negative environmental impacts.
3) Cuba: Following the 1992 Earth Summit,where Cuba was one of only two countries to obtain the highest rating for implementing sustainable development practices,Cuba pledged to implement Agenda 21 and carried out a constitutional amendment to protect its environment. The government set up a National Programme for Environment and Development and created a series of new institutions to continue along a course of sustainable development. The new institutions include a National Commission on Ecotourism, made up of tourism officials, environmentalists and scientists, created to ensure integrated management of biodiversity resources and tourism activities.
Best Practice
- Apply integrated management methods, within the framework of an ecosystems approach, that cover all socio-economic activities in an area, including tourism.
- Promote the benefits of conservation to the different fields of human activity, including tourism - "conservation is profitable!"
- Maximise socio-economic and environmental benefits from tourism and minimise its adverse effects, through effective coordination and management of sustainable, integrated development.
- Use integrated management approaches to carry out restoration programmes effectively in areas that have been damaged or degraded by past activities.
- Promote biodiversity conservation training for tour guides carried out by conservation organisations
- Promote exchange of information: invite biodiversity specialists to tourism meetings and tourism operatorsto biodiversity conservation meetings.
- Promote tourism activities as conservation activities within the wider conservation framework.
- Apply management tools to reduce the negative impacts of mass tourism. Environmental management systems for all types of hotels should be encouraged and/or enforced. Include environmental management into all of the tourism sector.
We must recognise that conventional mass tourism is still the mainstream of the tourism industry and it is quite probable that this situation will prevail for some time. For this reason it is vitally important to aim our attention on mass tourism, striving to apply measures to make it more environmentally friendly and minimising its negative impacts on biodiversity.
We should not consider only ecotourism linkages with biodiversity conservation, but also linkages of mass tourism, especially the effects of big hotels on the environment and how their design and operation can become more environmentally friendly. At a global scale, perhaps providing a number of ecolodges is not going to make much of a difference -- ultimately we have to affect the larger tourism industry. This means we have to consider how to improve the environmental record of very different items like airlines, airports, big amusement and theme parks, golf courses, and sports stadia.
Training to develop skills of hotel owners and operators to understand what sustainable tourism is and education about best practices are vital activities. There is a need to strengthen and to revise legislation so that this approach is well understood and widely disseminated. Environmental legislation should act as a motivation force, and also as a base for certification. Also, a widespread educational campaign so that tourists will be demanding environmentally-friendly hotels is urgently needed.
Tourism shouldn't be only market driven. In Africa, for example, people feel bad about tourism use proscribed to the community. A cause for conflict arises when developing nations are told to be sustainable whereas western countries can have the huge hotels.
It is vital to disseminate codes of ethics for conventional tourists, which will serve as a tool for alleviation of negative impacts. The effects of negative impacts are frequently long term and not always obvious in the short term.
Saving water and energy by reducing the number of towels used in hotel rooms has become a cliche - but only because notices have made a difference in hotels around the world.
In analysing mass tourism impacts, both new tourism facilities and pre-existing tourism facilities must be considered. In the former case, the application of minimal environmental standards for siting of new tourism services and facilities is urgently required. In the latter case, methods for improving the operation, making it more environmentally-friendly, should be applied, through retro-fitting or adding new, more appropriate technologies. In every case, the benefits to the tourism sector (market demand, economics, effective management) must be persuasively demonstrated.
It is not a matter of sanctions and pressuring, rather encouraging the tourism sector to become more environmentally friendly (which will result in economic benefits for them). For example, water heating in many conventional hotels around the world is currently very inefficient and costly, so that wide use of alternative energy sources should be more than welcome by mainstream tourism operations. Also, many traditional beach destinations are experiencing a loss of repeat visitors because of water pollution, so that more environmentally-friendly practices are definitely in the interest of beach resort owners and operators.
Cruise ships cause enormous environmental damage. It is estimated that they discard many thousands of tons of untreated waste into the oceans of the world every day. Strict regulations have to be applied to this type of destructive tourism.
Specific Examples of Best Practice from Selected Countries
1) Australia: Kingfisher Bay Resort & Village is located in Fraser Island, a World Heritage site located 250 km north of Brisbane. The site encompasses 65 ha and includes a 152-room hotel, 75 self-contained villas, a 114-bed wilderness lodge, a day-visitor pavilion, the staff village, three restaurants and conference rooms for up to 300 people. Although due to its scale not an ecolodge, Kingfisher Bay was built to strict environmental guidelines with the aim of offering a modern resort to blend harmoniously with the island's sensitive ecosystem. Before construction began, extensive environmental impact assessments were performed. Striving for a high level of environmental integration: roads and buildings were planned around the major trees to the greatest extent possible; colours reflect the surrounding vegetation; buildings are limited to two levels and are below the tree line; all timber used is from common, native species; the hotel centre complex is designed without air-conditioning; natural convention currents are created by windows and vents at the upper and lower levels of the building; impacts on the dunes and marshlands are minimised through the use of either hardwood boardwalks or wood chip walking tracks; the resort has an on-site sewage treatment plant. The design of the resort is estimated to save over 500,000 Kwh of energy each year, which is equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 100 households.
2) U.S.A.: Disney World in Florida recycles fifteen million litres of wastewater a day for irrigation of landscaping and golf courses. The company found that this method was not only environmentally wise, but also cost effective, as using municipally treated water would have been much more expensive.
3) St. Lucia: At the Le Sport Resort sewage was formerly treated at an outdated plant. In 1996 the resort created a series of wetlands, in the form of three interconnecting lagoons, that filter wastewater with aquatic plants and mesh. The filtered grey water is then disinfected further with ultra violet rays and used for irrigation on the resort's grounds. Fish in the ponds control mosquito larvae and algae. In its first year of operation, the new treatment method saved four million litres of water and thousands of dollars.
4) Canada: Several big hotels have been applying a series of environmentally-friendly practices: the Skydome Hotel in Toronto, by placing recycling boxes for glass and cans in just 70 rooms, collected 58,000 cans and 12,000 bottles in a single year; at L'HÈtel in Toronto, old bed sheets are sewn into reusable laundry bags, to replace disposable plastic bags; at the Banff Springs Hotel, a recycling programme that includes bottles, cans, paper, hangers, kitchen grease and used motor oil has cut waste by more than 85% (Sweeting et al, 1999). By protecting the environment, there are obvious benefits to biodiversity conservation. 5) Thailand: The Pukhet Yacht Club is a resort with a radically different approach to environmental management. The hotel's environmental committee was convinced that environmental sustainability could only be achieved through programmes that: increase environmental awareness, stress the urgent need to act due to the present state of the environment, and develop the notion of ¥environmental stewardship' - a positive and caring attitude towards the environment. The main focus is on changing people's attitudes, starting with the Yacht Club staff and widening the range of influence to reach the neighbouring village communities. Waste water from the hotel goes through a treatment process using BIO-BAC which treats the water biologically. It is then used for watering the gardens. The Yacht Club estimates that per day it saves 70 m3 of water and US$70 in high season. By cards in the bathroom, guests are invited to save water and reuse towels, and it is estimated that laundry loads have been reduced by 25%.
6) U.S.A.: The Seattle Westin Hotel overhauled its entire lighting system in 1993, changing incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and improving control mechanisms. As a result, the hotel has achieved a 66% reduction in guest room wattage with overall savings from the lighting system estimated at US$400.000 per year.
7) Costa Rica: There have been some NGO initiatives where hotels donate to the biodiversity conservation cause, through schemes like "Adopt a Reserve" and also providing opportunities for donation from tourists.
8) Canada: The city of Banff voluntarily stopped more tourism facility development by clearly establishing physical boundaries of the town, strictly limiting the depletion of the water table, and specifying a maximum height for buildings.
9) Australia: For the 2000 Olympic Games the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG's) mission was "to deliver the most harmonious, athlete oriented, technically excellent and culturally enhancing Olympic Games of the modern era". SOCOG used its best endeavours to set a new standard of environmental excellence for organising and staging a large sporting event. To this end, SOCOG was committed to strict environmental guidelines, guided by the principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD). Environment was considered by the organisers as the "third pillar of Olympism". Among the major environmental achievements were: the SOCOG Environment Programme was established in 1996, early enough to allow sufficient time for staff to be integrally involved in planning; carrying out of the Olympic Greenhouse Challenge, a major project to assess the greenhouse impact of the Games for minimising greenhouse gas emissions; a programme of environmental education (including a waste education plan) as a component of staff training; an environmental specification for sponsors, licensees and suppliers; an integrated waste management solution; packaging and foodware specification to control inputs into the waste stream; an Olympic Results Information Service (ORIS), an electronic system which reduced the huge amount of paper required to provide media with results; saving water and energy at all Olympic buildings and facilities; facilitating access of spectators through public transport, resulting in energy conservation and pollution and greenhouse gas avoidance; Olympic merchandise had minimal packaging and minimised the use of PVC. Official Web site: www.sydney.olympic.org/
Best Practice Guidelines
- Devise schemes for having big hotels collaborating with protected areas and the local communities.
- Encourage linkages between all-inclusive resorts and local enterprises, e.g. local food suppliers, daily bazaar, local excursions, etc. Promote symbiotic relationships between big hotels and smaller tourism suppliers, including small lodges.
- Avoid isolation or enclaves and have tourists be in contact with the social and natural environment (when desired by the community). Define criteria to assess the type of operation of the all-inclusive resorts and analyse how they benefit the destination.
- Encourage collaborative research on the impacts, promotion and incentives of mass tourism.
- Enforce current environmental laws, regulations and norms on waste management, air pollution and monitoring devices.
- Review and, if necessary, re-define and/or strengthen standards related to room densities and building heights, avoiding excessive concentrations. This has to be a decision made at the local level.
- Apply the "polluter pays" principle€payment must equal damage done (however, it is important to have in mind that sometimes the environmental damage is irreversible - if a species goes extinct no payment will compensate for the loss).
- Take measures to prevent more construction when a destination is being overbuilt. Use EIA and planning to limit building in environmentally sensitive areas.
- Educate the private sector regarding environmental guidelines. Capacity building for hotel owners and managers is essential.
- Create a widespread environmental awareness (including the importance of biodiversity) on the wider public; also, try to interest the mass tourism market in nature-oriented tourism activities and encourage them to chose environmentally-friendly natural goods, instead of artificial products.
- Where overcrowding occurs, use tools such as diversification of products to attract tourists to a variety of attractions.
- Apply strict environment principles in organising large-scale sporting events.,
Overcrowding, misuse of natural resources, polluting of air and water, the construction of infrastructure and facilities, and other activities associated with tourism, all produce impacts on the environment. These impacts may be not only physical, but also cultural.
Negative impacts of tourism vary according to the nature and number of tourists, the type of physical facilities and the way tourism is managed. The individual tourist normally has a relatively small impact. Problems arise, however, if the number of tourists is large or the resource overused. Thus although tourism can be a lucrative source of revenue for a country, a tour operator or a specific destination, it can also represent a cause of serious damage to the environment, including the biodiversity resources.
Tourism impacts on the environment are manifold: impacts on geological exposures, minerals and fossils; on soils; on air and water resources; on vegetation; on animal life; on sanitation; on the cultural environment; and aesthetic impacts on the landscape. These different impacts, which are actually manifestations of change on the environment, rarely occur singly and their ecological effects are usually very complex.
There are different ways of minimising negative impacts of tourism: through widespread environmental education of tourists and the tourism industry, through strict enforcement of laws and regulations, and through effective visitor management. Visitor management begins before arrival, then occurs on the ground at the site, and finally after the visitors leave through continual communication.
The process of environmental impact assessment (EIA) is one of the most effective methods for determining whether a project will be sustainable, and if so, for developing safeguards to ensure its continuing sustainability. EIA aims to ensure that the likely outcomes of any development (including tourism developments) are addressed at an early stage so that disastrous environmental and social consequences can be avoided. EIA applied to tourism projects should play a crucial role in government-decision making in every country.
Specific Examples of Best Practice from Selected Countries
1) Ecuador: The Quito-based tour operator Tropic Journeys in Nature and the Huaorani people have worked together to design a trip to the community. In order to limit environmental and cultural impact to acceptable levels, they have set a limit of eight guests once a month. (Drumm, 1998).
2) Australia: The 19-level Novotel at Homebush Bay in Sydney was built for the 2000 Olympics. A commitment to principles of ecologically sustainable development (ESD) meant that the building set new standards for high-rise hotel accommodation. The hotel purchases 100% green power, saving 1200 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year. More than 400 m_ of solar collectors power one of Australia's largest solar hot water systems, reducing energy consumption by up to 40%. Environmentally-minded designs include toilets with recycled water and waste separation at the room cleaning stage. Web site: www.oca.nsw.gov.au/
3) UK: On the island of Jersey, a group of hotels and rental car agencies are promoting the use of sustainable technology by encouraging the rental of electric cars (as a substitute for fossil fuel-powered vehicles). At five of the island's hotels, guests can rent the RAV4 EV (a Toyota electric vehicle) for the same cost as a mid-size car. At the end of the day, guests can plug in at the hotels to recharge their vehicles (Sweeting, 1999).
Best Practice Guidelines
- Prepare the tourists before they arrive. Whether you are a protected area manager, a tour operator or a hotel manager, prepare travellers (before departing from their home) to minimise their negative impacts while visiting the corresponding tourism destination, by providing introductory information on the people and ecosystems to be visited in pre-departure packages (including use of the Internet).
- Minimise visitor impacts on the environment by offering the tourists on site briefings, appropriate literature, leading by example, and taking corrective actions. Apart from providing detailed information on the natural and cultural environment (brochures, field guide books, check lists), provide a set of environmental guidelines specific to the area being visited.
- Contribute to provide widespread environmental education and ecological awareness to the public sector at large (including tourists, the tourist industry and the local communities). You must deal with a wide spectrum of tourists who have different levels of knowledge and cultural traits. Minimise their impacts through education.
- Prepare guides in natural areas, so that they know how to handle and educate tourists. Teaching of environmental sciences, local culture, interpretative skills, foreign languages, and first-aid are particularly important.
- Generate an emotional and spiritual connection for the visitor. Community members working as greeters and interpreters can go a long way to inspiring visitors to act responsibly, and helps visitors to better enjoy and value the destination.
- Distribute pamphlets at key entrance and distribution areas (hotels, airports, petrol stations, etc.), not only at the destination site. All information material should include a section on local regulations, threats to local biodiversity, and required tourist behaviour (including respect to local cultural traits).
- Avoid introduction of alien species, both vegetable and animal, by appropriately informing tourists and performing routine inspections. Recommend tourists (especially in natural areas) to keep their equipment clean. In areas where hunting is permitted, advise hunters on use of appropriate technology, e.g. steel shot/bullets instead of lead.
- Identify beforehand the possible negative tourism impacts in your area, and what resources could be impacted. Carry out periodical base-line inventories of biodiversity and other natural resources (in the case of seasonal tourism, before and after the tourism period). Characterise the fragility of the ecological and socio-cultural components.
- Carry out on-going monitoring of impacts, so as to reassess position/status using monitoring data. The best method for enforcement is community based monitoring and enforcement. Also have tour operators monitor and report illegal activities. Monitoring responsibility should not just fall on the government.
- Share success stories with neighbouring communities. This way, cooperation is generated, and increasing regional tourism effort becomes more economical (through economies of scale). Also, social stewardship is encouraged.
- Ensure that environmental impact assessment (EIA) is applied to every tourism development project, especially as regards impacts on the biodiversity of the corresponding site and region.
Zoning should be applied at all the different levels: national, regional and local. In the first case, zoning plans should be carried out by government authorities at the highest (e.g. federal) level. In every case, zoning must be comprehensive, considering the different socio-economic activities (obviously including tourism, when it occurs) , but also natural areas which should be left undeveloped. Zoning plans should solve conflicts of interest with water supply and other vital resources, including biodiversity. Understand that some areas of relevant biodiversity should be conserved for their own value and that not all relevant biodiversity zones should experience visitation. Biodiversity has is own value.
As regards tourism, it is important to have a zoning scheme which should cover the different possible tourism activities. A good example of a comprehensive tourism zoning plan includes the following specific zones:
a) Strictly protected zone (sometimes called "sanctuary" or "absolute reserve" zones), where the presence of all types of tourists and tourist infrastructure are strictly prohibited.
b) Restricted tourism zone (sometimes called "wilderness" zone), where access is allowed only to a limited number of tourists, usually on foot (or, in some cases, by rowboat).
c) Moderate tourism zone, where visitors are encouraged to carry out diverse low-impact activities compatible with the natural and/or cultural environment.
d) Semi-intensive tourism development zone, which should always be an area of limited extent (especially when near environmentally-sensitive natural areas), where some moderate-impact facilities are included (e.g., ecolodge, visitor centre, limited parking areas).
e) Intensive tourism development zone, which should only occur in highly popular mass tourism destinations (e.g. beach resorts, ski resorts, amusement and theme parks), where a considerable degree of concentration of tourists and tourist facilities take place. Obviously, in ecotourism destinations (especially in protected areas), there is nor room for this zoning category. But, even in the case of mass tourism destination areas, planning should endeavour to minimise negative impacts, including pollution of air, water, and soil resources (Ceballos-Lascurain, 1997b).
The different zones indicate where and what type of physical infrastructure and services should be provided, by means of a clear categorisation of modality and intensity of land use (and use of natural water resources and other natural resources), striving in every case to minimise negative impacts on the natural and cultural environment, as well as optimising the ecotourists' experience. Zoning also indicates to us where facilities, activities or services should not be developed. In essence, a zoning scheme shows the development suitability of the different portions of a site. Remember that those activities which are carried out in each zone are normally mutually exclusive (and often conflictive), so that zoning decisions must be taken very carefully.
Allow diversity through wise zoning of tourism activities, providing tools so that people (both locals and tourists) can decide upon which zone they fit into (or they prefer to visit) and then follow the regulations related to their zone.
Specific Examples of Best Practice from Selected Countries
1) Egypt: The Ecotourism Master Plan for the southern coast of the Red Sea in Egypt, carried out in 1997 for the government of Egypt, comprised a careful zoning scheme, including strictly-protected, restricted, moderate tourism and semi-intensive tourism zones. The objective of the Master Plan was to provide a sustainable tourism development model for a strip of 215 km in the southern portion of the coast, very different from what has been occurring in the central part of the Red Sea littoral, where unplanned and uncontrolled tourism development is causing all kinds of environmental catastrophes. The Master Plan is being enforced, and includes the development of four ecolodges (Ceballos-Lascurain, 1997b).
2) Australia: The Government of Australia has demarcated seven different use zones along the Great Barrier Reef, each of which permits and prohibits a range of activities. These zones include General Use A and B, Marine National Park Buffer, Scientific and Preservation, and Periodic Restriction. Permissible activities range from commercial fishing to non-consumptive uses to exclusively research-oriented activity. Zones that permit heavier use function as buffers for zones designated for greater protection (Sweeting et al., 1999).
Best Practice Guidelines
- At the national level, zoning plans should be carried out by competent, specialised staff working for the government planning authority.
- In order to appropriately carry out a zoning plan (at the different levels), you should consult with professionals and technicians of different areas and field expertise. In particular, consider interdisciplinary teams integrated by experts in regional and physical planning and design (architects, landscape architects, planners, engineers) and specialists in natural and cultural resources (biodiversity conservation planners, ecologists, biologists, geographers, anthropologists, archaeologists).
- Also consult with the local people who generally have a good knowledge of the area.
- Have each one of the proposed zones correspond to a specific tourism management plan, always in accordance with administrative objectives of the surrounding natural and cultural ecosystems.
- For each of the zones, analyse aspects of density related to buildings (when allowed in the corresponding zones) as well as to use.
- Examine relative merits of concentration vs. dispersion, remembering that natural landscape values can normally be best conserved if the physical plan is carefully dispersed but also, inversely, having in mind that by concentrating buildings and other structures (in the semi-intensive and tourism development zone) you leave more available undisturbed natural zones. Again, the challenge is striking the right balance.
- To avoid "islands of biodiversity" establish ecotourism corridors between natural protected areas that will act also as biodiversity conservation corridors and buffer zones. Provide for these ecotourism corridors to be taken care of mainly by local communities and tour operators, for their own benefit.
- Whenever possible, make sure that all roads leading to protected areas have a special roadside enforcement, regulating development along the road (in a wide enough strip) and enhancing attractiveness of landscape for tourists.
Environmental carrying capacity is the capacity of an ecosystem to support healthy organisms while maintaining its productivity, adaptability, and capability of renewal.
Tourism carrying capacity is a specific type of environmental carrying capacity and refers to the carrying capacity of the biophysical and social environment with respect to tourism activity and development. It represents the maximum level of visitor use and related infrastructure that an area can accommodate. If it is exceeded, deterioration of the area's environmental resources, diminished visitor satisfaction, and/or adverse impacts upon the society, economy and culture of an area can be expected to ensue.
The basic components of tourism carrying capacity are: biophysical, socio-cultural, psychological, and managerial.
Over the last decade or so the tourism carrying capacity concept - and several related methodological tools - have been heavily criticised as being oriented excessively towards quantitative considerations. Critics insist that, more important than arriving at a magical number of allowed visitors in a specific tourism destination, we should be looking more at qualitative effects of visitation and management tools. In their opinion, the carrying capacity concept is hampered by the lack of a clear and predictable relationship between use and impact.
In that sense, alternative methodologies, such as LAC (Limits of Acceptable Change) and VIM (Visitor Impact Management) have been developed (especially for relatively undisturbed natural areas. The shift in attention from an appropriate use level to the desired condition is the basis of LAC's revised approach to visitor carrying capacity. The LAC approach concentrates on establishing measurable limits to human induced changes in the natural and social setting of a specific area, and on identifying appropriate management strategies to maintain and/or restore desired conditions. VIM, developed by the National Parks and Conservation Association of the USA, is a technique for assessing and managing the environmental and ¥experiential' impacts of increasing numbers of visitors to natural areas. VIM recognises that recreational impacts on the environment and the quality of the recreational experience are complex and influenced by factors other than use levels.
Traditional carrying capacity methods as well as LAC and VIM techniques are all management tools for minimising negative environmental impacts. For information on these techniques consult the following references in Appendix III (Annotated Bibliography): Stankey, G.H. et al. 1985; Graefe, A.R., F.R. Kuss, and J.J. Vaske. 1990.
Specific Examples of Best Practice from Selected Countries
1) Botswana: Tourism in the north and northeast portions of the country (mainly wild life watching) is considered to be approaching its carrying capacity limits. An ecotourism strategy is being developed which aims at product diversification by identifying product components in new geographical regions, in particular the parks in the centre and south of the country with their still under-exploited potential for wildlife and wilderness oriented tourism.
2) Costa Rica: Due to the increase of daily visitors in the late 80's to the Monteverde Reserve, when the situation got out of hand, a restructuring of visitation, with the aim of not permitting the carrying capacity of the reserve to be exceeded had to be carried out in 1991, limiting visitors to only 100 at a time (later raised to 120) and restricting most tourists to well-marked trails through only about 2% of the reserve. In addition, more naturalist guides were hired and trained, and entrance fees for foreigners were sharply increased to US$23, including a guided tour and a slide show, in hope of curbing the number of visitors, especially those on package tours.
3) Costa Rica: As regards overall visitation to the protected natural areas system, the 1994-95 period showed a decrease in the number of foreign visitors due to, among other things, increased admission fees, a move meant to control the number of visitors, as this was considered to be exceeding the carrying capacity of some of the protected wilderness areas. Fees were reduced afterwards, which has resulted in moderate recuperation of visitation numbers.
4) Trinidad & Tobago: The Tourism and Industrial Development Company TIDCO has been assigned responsibility for a group of internationally funded projects that are of strategic importance for the competitiveness of the tourism industry. Under the direction of TIDCO, an IDB-funded Carrying Capacity Study was undertaken to provide the basis for policies and plans for tourism development on the North Coast of Trinidad.
Best Practice Guidelines
- Decide on which method for minimising tourism impact you will apply for your specific case: carrying capacity, LAC, VIM or a related technique (or an adaptation or combination of several of them).
- In every case, start off by identifying your area's concerns and issues.
- Define the different types of tourism experience that you wish to accommodate in your area (a wilderness experience, ¥soft' nature walks, contact with local culture, trekking, biking, etc.).
- Select indicators of resource and social conditions and specify standards for these indicators.
- Identify management actions for the different types of tourism activities, providing alternative actions when unacceptable environmental changes produced by tourism impact are detected.
- Implement actions and established on-going monitoring.
- Use visitor surveys to assess the success of the visitors' experience. There are various tools to achieve a quality experience, e.g. zoning. Understanding of different requirement of different visitors in what they are looking for in an experience. This is all part of niche marketing. Quality experience is often associated with increasing price paid.
- Regardless of the methodology chosen, impose strict regulations as regards tourist numbers in certain critical destinations (such as areas with a high biodiversity vulnerability or a high cultural fragility).
Overview
Since tourism is a complex and multi-sectoral phenomenon, it is evident that the local communities should always be considered as a vital sector actively participating in the tourism process of the corresponding region. In every case, it should be the community's own decision to actively participate or not in the tourism process.
Cultural shock (in both directions: from tourist to community and from community to tourist) should be avoided at all costs. This is a very complex issue, which should include the careful consideration of cultural issues, undertaken by social scientists and anthropologists.
It is important to recognise that the development impact of tourism will not be uniform: it will vary widely within and between communities. Enhancing the livelihood impacts of tourism does not mean simply maximising the number of tourists or tourism developments, or maximising wage income; a wide range of costs and benefits need to be taken into account. Benefits should be considered on a long-term perspective, so as to achieve sustainability. It is as important to address negative impacts as to maximise positive ones and to address impacts on people's assets and existing activities, not just direct contributions to household income and security. In every case, tour operators should make long-term commitments to communities. Careful planning and design, based on an understanding of local livelihoods, can greatly enhance the positive impacts of tourism. Maximising livelihood benefits needs a good understanding of what people most need and want (their livelihood priorities) and of the complex ways in which tourism options affect livelihoods (direct and indirect livelihood impacts). This requires a considerable role for local people in decision-making. This can be done either by delegating tourism rights to community level, and helping communities with participatory planning (a "bottom-up" approach); or by ensuring that government planning processes are participatory and responsive to local needs; or by ensuring, through government incentives, that planning by private entrepreneurs is responsive to local needs. The details of how to enhance livelihood impacts are location-specific. The principles of recognising that a range of livelihood concerns are important, and supporting systems that enable local people's priorities to be incorporated into tourism decisions, can be generally applied (Ashley, 2000).
Recent research shows that growing numbers of tourists would like more meaningful contact with local communities, including informative interactions. Diversifying to meet this demand could provide low-cost economic opportunities for local people, creating a more rounded and sustainable tourism product.
Envision ecotourism as a motor for local sustainable development and a job generator. It is vital to reach agreements between tour operators and the community so that the community is a member of the organisation and has ownership over the process. Don't see ecotourism as a monoculture or panacea; it should always be envisioned as a complementary component of other activities.
The local community must come to value nearby natural areas (including protected areas) before it will protect them. Management and stewardship by the local community is an important part of education and vital to the long-term survival of the resource. It will also contribute to raise pride regarding the local heritage. In many rural areas around the world, local inhabitants have shifted from being hunters to serving as park rangers or ecotourist guides.
Specific Examples of Best Practice from Selected Countries
1) Canada: Aboriginal people have played an important role with Parks Canada in the establishment of new protected areas recently, particularly in the north. Approximately 1/3 of Canada's 39 National Parks have cooperative management boards. Aboriginal communities are important service providers to visitors. Through jointly developed tourism strategies, there are many opportunities for Parks Canada and Aboriginal people to promote authentic visitor experiences. Parks Canada created the Aboriginal Affairs Secretariat in 1999 as part of Canada's Aboriginal Action Plan (Gathering Strength). It is partly intended to identify economic opportunities associated with National Parks for the benefit of Aboriginal Communities and Parks Canada. Aboriginal people also participate in environmental assessments and review panels, in a national Traditional Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity Working Group developed to assist with Canada's implementation of Article 8j of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
2) Namibia: In 1999, the Lerato company started negotiations with a number of Namibian conservancies to develop several 10-bed lodges in Namibia and elsewhere in Southern Africa. Conservancy representatives and advisors came together to assess the proposals. They identified many problems, such as lack of clarity on the size and exclusivity of proposed areas, risk, no proposals for joint management or local training, risk of environmental damage, and Lerato's ¥domineering attitude'. They made a counter-proposal of the kind of issues they would like to see reflected in a contract, which offers insights into the benefits the communities seek from tourism on their land, and the disadvantages they seek to minimise. Main themes were: major community concerns about issues on control, partnership, land-use, environmental management, and securing their future (Ashley, 2000).
3) Namibia: Between 1994 and 1996 residents of the Bergsig area were involved in negotiations with two different tourism investors, who wanted to set up luxury lodges. The Residents Committee negotiated two joint ventures but decided to proceed with only one, for a 16-bed tented camp. The other offer, for a small exclusive lodge was discussed for three years, reached the point where the company said it must be "yes or no", and the community decided not to go ahead. The prospect of high cash returns was outweighed by a number of disadvantages in the eyes of the community: it was considered a high risk, involved keeping people and livestock out of a much larger area, and involved a much longer commitment (Ashley, 2000). 4) Seychelles: Local legislation specifies that there must be local partners in any tourism business, and that licensed-out services (e.g. boats, outfitter equipment) must hire a minimum specific percentage of Seychelles citizens.
5) Ecuador: The Cofan Community Ecotourism Programme in Zabalo (Cuyabeno Reserve) is a good example of a self-managed ecotourism enterprise, carried out by an indigenous group in the Amazonian region. A previously isolated area, in the early 80s market economy set in, brought about by the first foreign ecotourists coming to the region, producing a dramatic change in the community. As a response to this crisis the Cofan people began a search of optional activities that would assure their subsistence. Several productive initiatives were considered: exploitation of medicinal plants, extracting foodstuffs from the forest, but these ideas were soon after discarded, since they seemed not to comply with proper sustainability criteria. The only alternative that seemed promising was ecotourism. Canoe trips started to be offered to backpackers adventuring into the area. Early on, it was seen that the cultural aspects appealed to visitors as much as the natural features of the area, so that anthropological and ethnical components were emphasised in the planning of the tours. Little by little, the operation grew. Rustic cabins for tourists were built alongside the Aguarico river, not inside the Indian village but about one mile further downstream at the opposite bank, as well as a small ethnic "museum". A strict zoning scheme has been set up, including areas with a 60-kilometer network of nature trails for tourists (guided by the local Cofanes), strict natural areas, and subsistence hunting precincts solely for the local community. The more rare and attractive wildlife species (i.e., macaws, hawks, eagles, waterbirds, wild felines) are especially protected since they are recognised as main assets for the ecotourism operation. The tourism activity is managed directly by the local council, who operates the community funds. In 1999, their total revenues were reported at US$120,000 (Ceballos-Lascurain, 2000).
6) South Africa: The Simunye Zulu Natural Heritage Site (KwaZulu Natal) constitutes a very interesting ecotourism experience, combining ecolodge and tribal village seemingly in holistic harmony. Simunye's virtues lie not only in its unique physical facilities (which, although rustic, are of a very high architectural quality), but in its overall concept of ecotourism development and operation, which is conceived as an effective mechanism for sustainable development and integration of local communities. In the mid 90s, a "white" Zulu within the community had the idea of developing a sustainable development programme, based on the criteria of active communal participation and valuing of local cultural traditions. In this way the Simunye Ecotourism Project was launched, and a rustic lodge was built alongside the village. A very impressive interaction has been achieved between the tourists and the local community. The villagers arrive at night to the lodge and begin, under the stars and by the light of a campfire, a series of ceremonial dances and chants, in which the tourists are not passive spectators but are invited to actively participate. This practice has meant recovering the pride and dignity that come from reviving and revaluing tradition and sharing it with foreign visitors. For Simunye, ecotourism is something more than extracting dollars from rich foreign visitors. There is a mutual process: the ecolodge gives benefits and added value to the village and the village provides the lodge with added value (Ceballos-Lascurain, 1997a).
Best Practice Guidelines
- When planning an ecotourism development, the first question to the local community should always be: Do you want ecotourism to take place in your area? But do not just ask, provide information on potential negative and positive impacts. Also discuss this in the context of other sectors (e.g. agriculture). Be respectful of their decision.
- Analyse with communities the feasibility of tourism activities for their sustainability. Give them enough time and capacity so they can discuss the key issues. Have the community share operational duties with the tour operator. Ecotourism projects should strengthen community organisation.
- Always apply participatory planning and self management principles to tourism development.
- Ensure that traditional local resource managers are given statutory rights over the areas that they manage. People need clear legal rights over the area that they live in before tourism which benefits them and conservation can take place.
- Encourage capacity building and empowerment for local communities.
- Foster links between all-inclusive resorts and local enterprises, e.g. local food suppliers, daily market place, local excursions, etc. Promote symbiotic relationships between big hotels and smaller tourism suppliers, including small lodges. Avoid isolation or enclaves and have tourists be in contact in social and natural environment (when desired by community).
- Recur to social scientists and anthropologists (especially those with long local experience) for advice in developing activities and products that will be acceptable and useful to the entire community, e.g., participatory dances and ceremonies, local arts and crafts, regional foods, etc. The product needs to move beyond being a simple merchandise, serving the tourists as being part of their travel experience.
- If they are in agreement, foster the active participation of indigenous people in the ecotourism process in such a way that they obtain tangible socio-economic benefits and also, they contribute to the ecotourist's experience.
- Minimise traveller impact on local cultures by offering appropriate literature, briefings, leading by example, and taking corrective actions.
- Develop educational and environmental awareness campaigns and training programmes among the local communities that also include understanding what tourism is about (including positive and negative effects of tourism in local communities). The best ecotourism guides usually turn out to be the local people (with the right training).
- Give opportunities to the local people for communicating to the tourists their traditional perception of their environment.
- Carry out training programmes for tour operators who are working with the local community in order to minimise cultural shock and negative impacts.
- Diversify tourism experiences. Consider ethnic tourism and agrotourism as excellent complements of ecotourism and conventional tourism.
- Define whether employment or ownership will give the greater beneficial impact to the community (especially in the first stages of tourism development). Encourage both direct and indirect benefits from tourism, e.g. selling of handicrafts, local language teaching, etc.
- Encourage and/or facilitate financial support (especially micro-credit schemes) to communities over realistic time periods. Firstly, start-up grants need to be made available. Soft money will be a useful tool for economic support but it needs to come with a programme of education based on financial management. Ensure that independent and financially sustainable community businesses are supported by government promotion of tourism. Simplify forms for obtaining micro-credits. Micro-creditors still need to be paid if the business fails. A safety net needs to be developed.
- Develop schemes for identifying environmental and social capital (what could be termed ¥environmental/social economics'). Transfer consumptive and non-consumptive values to general national accounting. Recognise that tourism is a foreign exchange activity, therefore communities promoting tourism should be eligible for international financing at the same
Index: Integrating Biodiversity into the Tourism SectorNote. This is not an official UNEP document, but a report delivered to the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, the Global Environment Facility and the Biodiversity Planning Support Progamme in June 2001. Hector Ceballos-Lascurain is the International Coordinator of the BPSP Study on Biodiversity/Tourism and Director General of PICE ( Programme of International Consultancy on Ecotourism) and is based in Mexico City. Email: ceballos@laneta.apc.org; Web: http://www.ceballos-lascurain.com
The Role of the Internet in Integrating Biodiversity and Tourism - Ron Mader/Planeta.com Exploring Ecotourism Education Resources Travel Resources
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