Conservation International will be releasing the most comprehensive study to
date of global tourism and its impact on the world?s most environmentally
sensitive areas on 12 September during the World Parks Congress in Durban, South
Africa. In the report, ?Tourism and Biodiversity: Mapping Tourism’s Global
Footprint,? Conservation International advocates that given that global tourism
numbers are expected to double by 2020 from the current level of over 700
million international travelers per year, actions need to be taken now to foster
sustainable tourism.
?Now is the time to address the problems of poorly planned tourism that are
literally killing the very things that attract tourists in the first place,?
says CI spokesman Jason Anderson.
Anderson highlights that the world?s biodiversity hotspots saw tourism increase
over 100 percent during the last decade. He says that tourism exploded by more
than 2000 percent in both Laos and Cambodia, nearly 500 percent in South Africa,
over 300 percent in Brazil, Nicaragua and El Salvador and 128 percent in the
Dominican Republic.
The report acts as a real world manual to illustrate how tourism development,
guided by the principles associated with ecotourism – environmental
sustainability, protection of nature, and supporting local peoples – can have a
positive impact on biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction. For example,
in the Caribbean, tourism accounts for 15.5 percent of total employment, or one
in 6.4 jobs.
Earlier this year, CI co-sponsored a workshop in the Dominican Republic to
create an awareness of the importance of sustainable tourism. The event was held
at the Punta Cana Resort & Club.
See
http://cabs.kms.conservation.org/wombat/puntacana/index.htm
For an electronic copy of the Tourism and Biodiversity report,
write to Jason Anderson at j.anderson@celb.org