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If we consider the concept
of outstanding universal value as the ne plus ultra and as a point
of departure, we find that remarkable differences in criteria may
be part of the root cause of this confusion and of continuing misunderstandings
between cultural and ecotourism planners and advisors.
UNESCO
The UNESCO 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection
of World Cultural and Natural Heritage is a reasonable baseline.
The scientific body supporting the Convention for natural heritage
is the World Conservation Union (IUCN) dedicated to the understanding
and protection of natural ecosystems. By definition, non-native,
exotic and invasive species are the enemy of natural ecosystems.
Its counterpart in cultural heritage advising UNESCO is the International
Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). In its various charters,
the processes of change, of heterotopias, of processes of historic
development and of continuous adaptation as a response to social
and environmental transformation is a distinctly different and some
may say opposite conception of outstanding universal value.
As we climb down the canyon we see that while economic sustainability -- the
viability of a safari camp in the Okavango Delta, for example -- may
hang on the ability of an operator to limit guest numbers with luxury
five-star amenities and pricing -- the trend has been to exclude
both middle income travelers from these experiences while local
villagers gaze in their poverty over the buffalo fence, denied the
economic benefits of tourism in the midst of the wildlife of their
homeland.
NGOs
Government agencies and NGOs generally have not been
successful in forging collaborations that recognize legitimate investment
strategies, business and management models that cross their traditional
boundaries. Ministries for natural resources, cultural affairs,
tourism and sport rarely plan together to create the seamless visitor
experience.
Because NGOs tend to organize along public policy and academic jurisdictional
lines, the small-to-medium business entrepreneur, no matter how
enlightened, is typically given only a variety of choices on how
to fail rather than any true incentives for success. Everyone can
name anecdotal successes but there are damn few serious initiatives
anywhere in the world that have actually produced sustainable results
and reproducible best practices.
An NGO that "helps" the cruise line industry handle wastewater
disposal does not contribute much to solving the problem. The cruise
industry is quite capable of purchasing the science, expertise,
and equipment to solve the problem itself. Government agencies and
international bodies are capable of regulating the discharge and
enforcing compliance. The NGO role, which is not inconsequential,
is to bring the spotlight of publicity (good and bad) to the problem
to help increase or reduce bookings in the industry.
CULTURE
The structure, purpose, and performance of collaboration
in cultural tourism and ecotourism activity are quite different.
Culture, by definition, involve people in place who can become actors
in their own lives as cultural workers or find sustaining employment
from visitors to their home place. While there exist various barriers
of entry, obstacles, regulations, necessary resource protections,
and the myriad of congestion management issues to contend with at
cultural heritage sites, the underlying ethic, from the loftiest
World Heritage icon to the lowliest exotic dancer saloon, is the
application of community standards, the participation of small business,
the collaboration across public and private sectors, the democracy
of visitor choice in variety and affordability, and a tolerance
for eccentricity and diversity.
That is not to say that the eco-tourism canon should adopt these
values as its own. Indeed, it has very different problems to solve
and the training of people to solve them. But it does highlight
a problem in sustainable tourism that needs to be addressed. If
we begin tourism projects with the concept of sustainable livelihoods,
we may make great strides in shedding some new light into the canyon.
Can we move more responsibility, more power, more control, more
knowledge, more wealth to the resource while collapsing the value
chain? It involves a better understanding and better synergy among
site, destination, and demand platforms, regardless of whether in
includes walking in the woods, strolling by Picassos, a day at the
races or at the Vatican.
Just as technology has squeezed waste out of manufacturing and fuel
consumption, it is now having an enormous impact on the tourism
industry's value chain, collapsing distribution costs by 10 to 20
percent. With a billion annual international arrivals projected
for 2010, this represents an enormous piece of change.
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