Turning one billion tourists into one billion opportunities

The more than one billion international tourists traveling the world every year represent an immense potential for poverty reduction, job creation and environmental protection. This year’s World Migratory Bird Day highlights how bird migration paths – also known as flyways – can serve as a catalyst for biodiversity conservation and local community development, by channeling humanity’s fascination for wildlife and putting the principles of sustainable tourism into practice.

World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD), celebrated every year on the second weekend in May, is a campaign organized by the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA), highlighting the need for the protection of migratory birds and their habitats. This year, WMBD is focusing on how sustainable tourism can boost wildlife conservation. The campaign theme, “Destination Flyways: Migratory Birds and Tourism", draws attention to the Destination Flyways project, a pioneering initiative led by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), seeking to transform the ever growing number of tourists travelling for bird watching into a global force for biodiversity protection. The preliminary phase of the project is currently under way with support from the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety.
Symbolically connecting the shared wanderlust of humans and migratory birds, Destination Flyways is a practical example of how tourism can be a viable alternative for less sustainable activities at vulnerable destinations and a potential mechanism for the long-term conservation of the sites. By developing frameworks for sustainable tourism and engaging local communities in key migratory bird habitats across Europe, Asia and Africa, the project aims to create sustainable tourism activities in each destination, providing green job opportunities while generating tourism revenue for biodiversity management.

One of the project sites is Lake Natron, in the remote north of the United Republic of Tanzania near the Kenyan border. Home to 75 per cent of the world’s population of the Lesser Flamingo, Lake Natron is the only breeding ground for this species in East Africa.

Once part of the safari circuit that includes well known sites such as Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti and the Masai Mara, Lake Natron and its rich wildlife have an enormous potential to become a thriving tourism destination, not the least because of its unique flamingo population. For Lake Natron, tourism can be the solution for conservation provided that local communities are involved in its development and implementation and derive tangible benefits making sustainable tourism a true long-term alternative to other economic activities, such as the proposed mining of soda ash from the lake, which raises serious concerns about its potential to endanger the flamingo population.

Tourism is one of the key socio-economic sectors of our times, accounting for 9 per cent of global GDP, generating more than US$ 1.4 trillion in trade income and providing one in eleven jobs worldwide. It terms of exports, tourism accounts for 30 per cent of the world’s services and in total value ranks fifth globally after fuels, chemicals, food and automotive products. Without the possibilities of enriching encounters with wildlife such as the flamingos at Lake Natron, tourism could not be the vehicle for economic growth, job creation and poverty alleviation around the world that it is today.

Biodiversity is undoubtedly one of tourism’s greatest assets – its natural capital. Safeguarding nature is absolutely essential for the future of the tourism sector, including all local communities that thrive on it, particularly in developing countries, and for conservation itself as the income generated by tourism is often essential for conservation.

In 2012, for the first time one billion tourists travelled the world in one single year. One billion tourists represent one billion opportunities to protect the Earth’s natural heritage.

Together we can work to spread the benefits of tourism to all living creatures, including the world’s original long-distance travelers: the millions of migratory birds which have tirelessly journeyed across the globe long before us.

Let us work together to ensure we find a balance between respecting the ecological needs of migratory birds and allowing people to be able to benefit from and enjoy the spectacle of bird migration for generations to come.

Bradnee Chambers is Executive Secretary of the United Nations Environment Program’s Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and Taleb Rifai is Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the United Nations Specialized Agency for tourism.

Source: UNWTO