Tourism concession and partnership guidelines launched
The tourism sector is recognized as the largest global market-based contributor to the financing of protected area systems in many countries. Protected areas are an essential tool for safeguarding the world’s biodiversity and preserving ecosystem services, currently at serious risk. In 2014, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) noted that, under appropriate safeguards, tourism can contribute to protected areas through partnerships and concessions. However, most countries currently underuse tourism as a means to contribute towards the financial sustainability of protected areas.
The new publication released by the CBD Secretariat and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group, with support from the UN World Tourism Organization, Guidelines for tourism partnerships and concessions for protected areas: generating sustainable revenues for conservation and development, aims to assist countries in addressing this gap.
Designed to support tourism partnerships and concessions as means to increase the sector’s financial and technical contribution to conservation, the guidelines result from a wide consultation process with global experts and were validated in workshops in Southern Africa. Geared towards protected area authorities, ministries of environment and tourism, policy experts and interested businesses, the publication can be used as technical reference and as a capacity building tool.
The publication includes information on the fundamentals of tourism, different tourism partnerships, financing concessions, a step-by-step guide to concession processes, integrating sustainability, contract management and concession capacity requirements.
Web links:
- Convention on Biological Diversity’s Biological Diversity and Tourism page
- Guidelines for tourism partnerships and concessions in protected areas: Web (4MB) and print (45MB) versions