OMSLAG 5.indd - IUCN
OMSLAG 5.indd - IUCN
OMSLAG 5.indd - IUCN
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ecause the communities are so far apart, because of the non-hierarchical<br />
nature of the political system and because the communities are so close to<br />
the hotspot areas.<br />
9. Establish a monitoring and control system<br />
Long-term monitoring and assessment are necessary in proportion to<br />
the impact of tourism, and will need to take into account the timescale<br />
for ecosystem and social changes to become evident.<br />
See steps 5 and 6.<br />
10. Adapt management<br />
Learn from experience and adapt actions accordingly.<br />
The new system of information management provides the opportunity<br />
to give feedback and adapt management accordingly in a more structured<br />
way. Because of the coordinating framework of the CBD guidelines, the<br />
stakeholders can be more pro-active and deal with opportunities as well as<br />
threats.<br />
The project initiators, CODESTA, said that using the CBD guidelines<br />
was very valuable. The guidelines provide a framework that ensures the<br />
participation of all stakeholders. This is very important in an area such as<br />
Kuna Yala, where the local stakeholders are very diverse and spread out.<br />
The guidelines are also compatible with the traditional system of self-governance.<br />
They can be applied at various levels, from project site to regional<br />
management level, and they can be understood and used by everybody,<br />
even by people who are inexperienced in these matters. This way tourism<br />
development can become a sustainable way to use the natural and cultural<br />
resources that have been a part of the Kuna people’s birthright for hundreds<br />
of years.<br />
An important part of the CBD guidelines is monitoring and adapting the<br />
management accordingly. In many of the other projects that were supported<br />
by <strong>IUCN</strong> NL there was little emphasis on monitoring. The practical<br />
problems are usually – and understandably – the first to be tackled.<br />
Especially when there is a shortage of capacity and funds, project initiators<br />
tend to start by creating visitor facilities rather than formulating indicators<br />
for monitoring. However, a good monitoring system provides the project<br />
initiators with the knowledge they need to make management decisions.<br />
Setting up a monitoring system is a long-term investment, because most<br />
projects are supposed to continue and bring benefits for many years. By<br />
collecting information about the impact of the developments right from<br />
the start of the project, they can be steered in the desired direction.<br />
Comarca de<br />
Kuna Yala<br />
3. 5<br />
60 61<br />
Management<br />
in practice<br />
The cases in this chapter show that there is no real blueprint for effective<br />
management of tourism for conservation purposes. But there are a number<br />
of methods that have proved their usefulness. Involving all stakeholders is<br />
an important factor for obtaining broader support for the projects. Allocating<br />
different areas for different levels of use (zoning) increases the level of<br />
control over the impact of tourism development. It is also important to invest<br />
time and money in interpretation and the way information is provided.<br />
This can stimulate the involvement of tourists and can actually diminish<br />
the impact. A final method involves setting up a monitoring system to be<br />
able to make the necessary changes in management and to make them in<br />
time.<br />
Conservation and community development organizations can choose from<br />
a whole range of existing tourism management techniques and tourism<br />
management guidelines. Even though each local situation is different and<br />
each framework has to be adapted to the specific situation, it is useful for<br />
every project to work with a management framework. It offers a way to<br />
structure developments and working with guidelines or frameworks also<br />
means avoiding oversights. This improves the results considerably.