Linking Culture and the Environment

Dr A. Spenceley 203
Similarly, generating the primary economic motivation for tourism –
revenue – requires environmental inputs, which have implications for biodiversity
conservation.
Biodiversity conservation
Although this chapter focuses on poverty alleviation and tourism, the industry
and socio-economic status of people have critical implications for biodiversity
conservation, particularly in remote and underdeveloped areas where
many of the poor reside. Biodiversity can be defined as:
the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia,
terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes
of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species
and of ecosystems.
(UNEP, 1994)
Threats to biodiversity include poverty, poor planning, market failure, excessive
wealth and open-access exploitation (Caldecott et al., 1996). In parallel with the
globalization debate, van der Duim and Caalders (2002, p. 745) recognized that:
[the] growing concern for the deterioration of nature is a concern mainly of the
developed world, whereas a large part of this nature falls under the jurisdiction
of Third World countries. They generally are confronted with many social and
economic problems, which are felt to be more urgent than environmental and
ecological ones.
Redclift (1992) warned that the poor often had little choice but to choose immediate
economic benefits at the expense of the long-term sustainability of their
livelihoods. He noted that under these circumstances it was useless to appeal
for altruism and protection of the environment, as individuals were effectively
forced to behave ‘selfishly’ to survive. Since much of the tourism industry relies
on the natural resource base to attract clients, reducing poverty in tourism destinations
becomes vital in maintaining the viability of products over time.
Growth of the Pro-poor Tourism Agenda
Poverty and tourism
The term ‘pro-poor tourism’ emerged from a desk-based review of tourism
and poverty conducted by Deloitte and Touche, IIED and the ODI that was
commissioned by the UK’s Department for International Development that
explored the role of tourism in reducing poverty (DFID, 1999; Sofield et al.,
2004). The review identified a number of strategies for developing or supporting
poverty alleviation through tourism, but noted that these strategies
had not been tried or tested. Subsequent work by the Overseas Development
Initiative (ODI), International Institute of Environment and Development
(IIED) and International Centre for Responsible Tourism (ICRT) generated a
series of reports and case studies that measured economic impacts of tourism