Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Biosphere - WBGU

184 E Diversity of landscapes and ecosystems
E 3.7
Tourism as an instrument for the conservation and
sustainable use of the biosphere
E 3.7.1
Sustainable tourism to protect the biosphere –
defining terms
In the Council’s opinion, the objective of sustainability
is a challenge for all types of tourism and should
not be limited to niche markets such as eco-tourism.
That is why strategies to protect the biosphere for all
forms of tourism are at the heart of this Section.
Here, sustainable tourism is understood as a higherlevel
concept that concerns itself with the question as
to how the negative ecological impacts of tourism (eg
mass tourism and nature tourism) can be reduced to
an acceptable level. This concept is guided by the
principles of the Rio de Janeiro Declaration on Environment
and Development and by the recommendations
of AGENDA 21. The Council would put forward
a tentative definition of sustainable tourism as a form
of tourism that does not go beyond fundamental ecological,
social, cultural and economic guard rails, ie is
geared towards conserving resources and increasing
local employment, is culturally adapted, is characterized
by locally effective welfare effects and helps to
balance out economic disparities.
There is no internationally uniform concept of
‘sustainable tourism’. For example, the Council of
Europe has defined ‘sustainable tourism’ as a form of
tourist activity or development
– in which the environment is respected,
– in which the long-term conservation of natural
and cultural resources is safeguarded, and
– which is socially equitable and economically
viable (Recommendation R(95)10).
Nature tourism is another term that is often used.
This refers to a form of leisure activity that concentrates
specifically on semi-natural areas or protected
areas, such as observing nature or animals (safari),
fishing and hunting or scientific tourism. Nature
tourism plays only a minor role, as a sub-section of
general tourism, in the degradation of the biosphere.
A special form of nature tourism is eco-tourism: ecotourism
refers to ‘forms of nature tourism that aim at
minimizing negative impacts on the environment and
socio-cultural changes, contribute to financing protected
areas and create sources of income for the
local population’ (BMZ, 1995b). From the Council’s
point of view the starting point for developing a
global tourism concept, which is only outlined here
and which concentrates on protecting the biosphere,
could be the allocation of regionally varied intensities
of use for tourism. In this context a distinction
would have to be made between (cf Sections E 3.3.1
and E 3.9):
• Landscape type conservation before use: no interventions
or changes to a semi-natural ecosystem
are allowed in this zone.
• Landscape type conservation despite use: mass
tourism is allowed, or even desirable, in this zone.
Accepting congested but bounded (coastal)
tourist landscapes prevents the much more harmful
‘dispersal’ over large areas.Accommodation in
central hotel complexes, concentration in certain
regions (eg islands, valleys) makes more ecological
sense that the individual dispersal of floods of
tourists all over the natural landscape. The aim is
to make this form of tourism as sustainable as possible.
• Landscape type conservation through use:
regional-specific concepts of protection and
buffer zone management have to be developed for
this zone. Tourism in these areas remains limited
in terms of numbers and, at the same time, serves
the protection and conservation of the environment
(Section E 3.3.3). Many small island states
practise controlled tourism: the spread of tourist
infrastructure is subject to stringent controls in the
Seychelles. Bermuda has limited the number of
daily visitors from cruise ships. In Vanuatu,
tourism usage has been concentrated on three
islands. Other countries demand a tourism tax or a
visitor’s permit prior to admission.
E 3.7.2
Current trends in global tourism
Tourism is one of the fastest growing economic activities
in the world. In 1997 it accounted for around
one-third of all worldwide services. According to the
World Tourism Organization (WTO), world tourism
traffic is growing at around 4 per cent every year and
doubles around every twenty years.We are in the age
of mass tourism: in 1998 there were over 625 million
international tourists.
In addition to cultural and historical sights, nature
is at the heart of tourism in an increasingly urbanized
world (the Mallorca club scene is proof that there are
also other objectives on holiday). Since the main aim
of tourism is recreation in most cases, intact and
attractive natural surroundings are fundamental.
Accordingly, tourism today concentrates on
– coastal areas and islands,
– mountainous regions,
– ‘natural areas’ such as forests, wetlands, inland
waters, steppes and deserts as well as Arctic and
polar regions.