A new manual published by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) presents guidelines on sustainable tourism and management in respect of biodiversity. Aiming to be be both practical and accessible, the manual, Tourism Supporting Biodiversity: A Manual on applying the CBD Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism Development, highlights the important role tourism plays for biodiversity and aims to improve knowledge and materials to better integrate biodiversity into sustainable tourism development.
“The manual is a reference tool for planners, developers, managers and decision makers involved with tourism development and resource management in areas of sensitive biodiversity,” said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary. “The purpose is to help them to mainstream biodiversity concerns and ecosystem services within sustainable tourism development.”
In Brief
- Protected Areas listed in IUCN’s World Database of Protected Areas receive roughly 8 billion visits per year (8 times the number of global international arrivals according to UNWTO), which resulted in up to US$ 600 billion in direct in-country expenditure and US$ 250 billion in consumer surplus.
- The report features several best practice case studies from around the world, ranging from Laos to the US to the Seychelles.
- It is the result of a collaboration between the CBD Secretariat, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and some 140 experts from around the world.
