Best Practices linking tourism and protected areas

[planeta]

Project proposal
GRID-Arendal framework application linking tourism and the CBD’s programme of work on protected areas

Background
This project is part of an initiative of UNEP/GRID-Arendal and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), based on the results of a workshop on “LINKING TOURISM AND CONSERVATION: A Finance Initiative for Protected Areas”, organized in May 11-13, 2007, in Arendal, Norway. The overall goal of the initiative is to establish and support mechanisms to secure long term and meaningful funding for the management of the world’s protected area network – consistent with the goals of the CBD– by means of significant support from the tourism sector. This should be in particular relevant to the CBD goal “to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on earth”. As a follow up to the workshops, three projects were developed:

·one focuses on setting up a framework application to identify and disseminate best practices on the contribution of the tourism sector to protected areas,

·the second proposes to measure the economic contribution of tourism to protected areas as a means to convince decision makers of the importance of allocating sufficient resources for their protection as assets.

·and the third will work with resort developers, investors, governments and other players to create optimal conditions for win-win situations where sustainable tourism development leads to the creation, establishment and management of new and additional protected areas.

Their objective is to mobilize the industry and governments to set aside tourism revenue streams to finance the implementation of the CBD's Protected Areas programme of Work (as an asset protection strategy). This paper focuses on the first project, to set up an information sharing framework on best practices, opportunities and models in ways the tourism industry (private sector, governments, NGOs and concerned local communities) can assist in the design, planning, establishment and management of protected area systems to implement the CBD programme of work on protected areas. Separate concept papers are available for the other two proposals.

Justification

GRID-Arendal (http://www.grida.no) is a centre affiliated to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Located in southern Norway and established in 1989, UNEP/GRID-Arendal’s mission is to provide environmental information, communications and capacity building services for information management and assessment. Within the United Nations framework and together with partners from different countries and regions, UNEP/GRID-Arendal’s core focus is to facilitate the free access and exchange of information to support decision making and secure a sustainable future.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (http://www.cbd.int) is one of the most broadly subscribed international environmental treaties in the world. Opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, it currently has 190 Parties—189 States and the European Community—who have committed themselves to its three main goals: the conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components and the equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. The Secretariat of the Convention is located in Montreal, Canada, and was established to support the goals of the Convention. Its principal functions are to prepare for, and service, meetings of the Conferences of the Parties (COP) and other subsidiary bodies of the Convention, and to coordinate with other relevant international bodies.

Both agencies collaborated in the Arendal workshop to identify and examine success cases in linking tourism and protected areas. Given the ambitious Programme of Work on Protected Areas of the CBD, and its identified financial gaps for implementation, one of the objectives is to initiate a process that increasingly and sustainably channels money (ideally 0,5% of the worldwide tourism turnover) from the tourism sector into the management of the worldwide protected area network. Current financial flows are inadequate to sustain let alone to expand protected area networks. Hence conventional sources of funding will need to be supplemented by other means. With this in mind, the WCPA published a series of Best Practice Guidelines for Protected Area Management Categories and Guidelines for Planning and Managing Mountain Protected Areas (http://www.iucn.org/themes/wcpa/pubs/guidelines.htm). Some of the guidelines aim at explaining how protected areas can generate more finance to help meet their needs, proposing alternative sources of financial support and helping managers find solutions from the experience gained in many protected areas around the world .

The mechanisms and activities proposed in this project were developed on the basis of a wealth of examples presented and discussed in the workshop in Arendal. Examples that were explored include:

•Entrance/User Fees –Nepal, Costa Rica
•Tourism Companies in combination with NGOs - PAN Parks, Basecamp, WWF-TOI
•Investment Funds – Verde Ventures/CI, PWC
•Visitor Donations/ Travelers Philanthropy/ Sponsorship/ ”Auctions”
•Travel Industry Surcharges – transportation fees, hotel surcharges
•Adult Continuing Education Programs – USA
•Biodiversity offsets - Nature Air
•“Sister Parks”– sharing knowledge, experience as well as money

Additional cases analyzed were:

· Costa Rica: Lapa Rios, Nature Air
· Basecamp Masai Mara (Kenya)
· PAN Parks (Europe)
· Svalbard
· Great Barrier Reef (Australia)
· Namibia and Nepal
· Kenya Wildlife Service
· Tanzania National Parks
· South Africa National Parks
· KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Parks
· Ontario Provincial Parks
· Niagara Parks Commission

The case studies are available on http://www.grida.no/tourism/2007/Workshop_12-13_May/index.html. During the Arendal workshop, participants identified 5 basic ways in which the tourism industry can contribute to the protected area programme of work:

· Data and information collection: tourism operators, by the nature of their business, rely on data that they collect regularly (volume of tourists, consumer behavior patterns, average expenditure, origins and destinations, expectations and customer profiles, information sources for decision making on products and itineraries, etc.), while park management authorities also handle data that would be of potential interest to tourism businesses (visitor numbers, willingness to pay fees, suggestions and complaints, origin, visitor profiles, etc). The project proposes to facilitate the collection and exchange of this data.
· Access to travelers for communication on critical environmental issues, and to stimulate voluntary donations: tourism operators establish a relationship of trust and reliance with customers. Through partnerships with park authorities and conservationists, operators can facilitate communications with tourists, and encourage them to participate and contribute to worthwhile projects on protected areas.
· Voluntary initiatives from the industry (such as the Tourism Partnership in the UK, or the UNEP/UNWTO/UNESCO Tour Operator’s Initiative for Sustainable Tourism development), where service providers and operators share and disseminate experiences and best practices, engage in mutually beneficial activities related to upcoming or critical destinations (such as training programs, destination management strategies, and joint campaigns) and lobby for common causes in sustainable development (as is the case for ECPAT, the campaign to eradicate child prostitution in tourism destinations).
· Collaborating to design and implement joint tourism development master plans, business plans and partnerships with local governments, during the investment promotion and resort development phase of a biodiversity-rich destination, for the establishment of protected areas, public or private, in conservation corridors and buffer zones to established parks, and in the formulation of licensing, concession and joint marketing campaigns.
· Participating in the establishment of feasible legally binding mechanisms, such as regulations, restrictive land-use plans, user entrance and concession fees. While the industry often prefers to avoid legal restrictions and mandatory contributions, when necessary, the collection of those fees, and the implementation of legally binding regulations, are more efficient if contribution levels and mechanisms are set in close coordination with the private sector.

Goal
This project aims to establish a framework application, based in UNEP-GRID Arendal, to facilitate the links between the tourism industry at the global level, and the implementation of the CBD programme of work on protected areas.

Questions addressed

· What are the possible mechanisms for raising funds from tourism for the management of a global protected area network?

· What additional funding are the protected areas in need of for sustainable management, and what are the criteria that protected areas should meet in order to qualify to receive funds from this effort (eg, financial accountability and transparency)?

· What existing examples can provide lessons or models, and what are some promising opportunities?

· What organizational form should this effort take; how can it be further connected to the Convention on Biodiversity, and who should be involved?

Potential partners

GRID-Arendal: In this project, GRID proposes to play the role of information broker, resource center, quality inspector (ensuring the credibility of projects), promoter of management effectiveness and assessment tools, and facilitator of public-private partnerships.
CBD Secretariat, Canada – will provide technical assistance, and ensure the links to the implementation of the programme of work on protected areas.
UNEP DTIE and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC)
UNESCO
WWF – Caucasus, Nepal, Netherlands, Arctic, International
Conservation International
IUCN – WCPA, Netherlands
TIES (The International Ecotourism Society)
Parties of the CBD – Costa Rica, Norway, Russia, and others, will ensure that contributions from the tourism industry are linked to national investments in the programme of work on protected areas.
Development and financing agencies involved in sustainable tourism – banks (KfW), Verde Ventures, PWC
Tour companies, accommodation providers, organisers and expedition leaders, individually and through their associations and trade organizations.

NGOs, IUCN, UN Agencies, operators (mostly outbound) will server as “executing agencies”.

Outputs/expected results and project components:

As a provider of information, GRID-Arendal proposes to serve as a global manager of a framework application on cases, information sources, expertise and best practices on activities linking the tourism industry to the implementation of the programme of work of the Convention on Biological Diversity on protected areas. Streamlining information from UNEP-WCMC, IUCN/WCPA, UNEP-DTIE, UNWTO and the SCBD (and other potential partners), GRID-Arendal would host a web portal with a global updated overview on cases linking tourism to protected areas, and would work as a broker and facilitator and host.

As part of the project, the first phase is the publication with best practice cases resulting from the workshop on “Linking Tourism and Conservation: A Finance Initiative for Protected Areas”, aimed at government-level and industry decision makers. Several of these mechanisms have already been explored in the GRID-Arendal workshop on May 11-13, 2007, in Norway. Cases and further information are available on http://www.grida.no/Activities.aspx?m=24&amid=665.


Within the framework application, other proposed activities include:
• Branding of the Linking Tourism & Conservation initiative, linked to CBD, IUCN-WCPA, UNWTO & UNEP “tourism” (DTIE, TOI);
• Develop a Web portal with ”Wiki”-tool , regional best practice information and linkages between projects and funding sources;
• Enhancing the UNEP/WCMC – UN World List/database on protected areas to include data on the links between tourism and protected areas;
• Facilitating mentoring network – linking information between destinations in developed and developing countries;
• Training programmes – for guides, government agencies, etc.

Next steps agreed during the workshop:
•Identify and initiate more concrete examples of LT&C
•Find/provide funds for good initiatives and framework
•Disseminate the message
•Link more strategic partners to LT&C
•Help this initiative to gain momentum

This partnership has already resulted in initial commitments from partners, expressed during the workshop in Arendal:

•PAN Parks – establish a corporate club for tourist donations;
•Verde Ventures – invest in at least 3 tourism enterprises focusing on protected areas;
•Norway – further supporting UNEP’s work ontourism, and making Norway a carbon neutral destination by mid-century;
•WWF - mobilizing its own network to support the project;
•Basecamp Kenya – will raise USD 1 million for private protected areas in the region;
•PriceWaterhouseCoopers – link carbon offsets to biodiversity aspects.


Budget/Resources

To be determined. GRID-Arendal’s needs include one full staff position for three years plus overhead and further workshop and travel costs included in any kind of joint application.

Your opinion

We would appreciate receiving your feedback through our on line SURVEY at: http://tinyurl.com/2vdt7w

Join our forum and send us your comments/suggestions by using the 'Post reply' button below.

[zoltkun]

Hello,
I have three short comments:
1) I think the most important step of this proposal is now the dissemination therefore I suggest to develop a short (2-page) pdf file and/or a ppt. These could be of use by the project partners
2) I'd like to call your attention to a conference organised in Lisbon, the Business and Biodiversity (Nov 12-13) I think UNEP-Grid should try to arrange the proposal presented there (i will attend so in case of a ppt, 1 or 2 slides, I will be able to mention the proposal. However direct representation of UNEP-Grid would be better)
3) PAN Parks Foundation is planning to launch the mentioned wilderness club in mid-November. We cross our fingers that our team can make it happen.

[chantal.robichaud]

Dear Zoltan,

This is a great suggestion. Following your proposition, we are currently working on short pdf documents as well as on a few slides that could be used by our partners to promote all three projects.

Thank you also for bringing out attention to the fact that you are going to be participating in the Business and Biodiversity Conference in Lisbon and we very much appreciate the fact that you are willing to mention the proposal; I will send you the slides as soon as ready. As you may know, two other project partners will be acting as coordinators during this event, namely Mr Nicolas Bertrand, CBD Focal Point for Business, and Ms Giulia Carbone from IUCN Business Programmes. It will be a great occasion to present the slides on three different panels for a maximum of visibility and dissemination.

[Marc Trinks]

One brief point to consider adding to the list of potential sources of funds is payment for environmental services, in which beneficiaries ¨downstream¨of protected areas and/or the government (through tax dollars) pay non-government owners of significant amounts of green space for the services it provides to the greater community (clean air, filtration of water, carbon sequestration, nitrogen fixing, etc).