Two Way Track
Biodiversity Conservation and Ecotourism: an investigation
of linkages, mutual benefits and future opportunities
Executive Summary
Tourism is one of Australia's fastest growing industries. It is a major source of foreign
exchange, gross domestic product, income and employment; in 1991-92 tourism
expenditure amounted to an estimated $26.2 billion, equivalent to 5.5 per cent of GDP.
During the last decade, a trend emerged world wide for nature-based tourism and
ecotourism. This study reveals that Australia's tourism industry is a major user of
biological resources. In addition to nature-based and ecotourism in Australia, many
aspects of tourism, through both marketing and actual experience, are dependent on
Australia's natural environment. The health of Australia's biodiversity will be a major
factor in determining the expansion of the tourism industry. In turn, the tourism
industry can be a major force in the conservation of Australia biodiversity.
This report is the result of a study commissioned by the Biodiversity Unit in the
Environmental Strategies Directorate of the Commonwealth Department of the
Environment, Sport and Territories to investigate the potential for integrating
biodiversity conservation with ecotourism. Its main objective is to identify and where
possible assess the potential long-term benefits and opportunities of strategically
integrating biodiversity conservation requirements with the future needs of the
nature-based and eco-tourism industry. It presents a national approach to formulating
and implementing strategic plans to enable this integration.
The need for an integrated approach, based on regional planning for biodiversity
conservation and the development of tourism, has been recognised in a number of
important policy documents, including the National Strategy for Ecologically
Sustainable Development, the Final Reports of the ESD Working Groups (in
particular Tourism), the National Ecotourism Strategy, the National Rural Tourism
Strategy and the draft National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia's Biological
Diversity.
All States and Territories have produced policy documents on ecotourism or tourism,
and have assessed the state of their environment in relation to biodiversity
conservation to some degree. They generally recognise the fundamental importance of
natural resources to tourism. Some have also recognised that tourismbased activities
have a basic requirement to channel some of the revenue gained from using natural
resources into the management and sustenance of those natural resources.
While the policy and administrative mechanisms for placing values on the use of
natural resources are mostly in place, the challenge will be to design and implement
systems that will link the growth of tourism with biodiversity conservation.
The approach recommended in this report is based on the relationship between
nature-based tourism and ecotourism, and tourism generally, and the identification
and management of key bioregions throughout Australia. The report argues for a
detailed assessment of the ecological characteristics and natural features that attract
tourists to special areas.
In meeting this challenge, the report finds that too much debate has revolved about the
term 'ecotourism'. We argue for a more flexible approach to the interrelationships
between tourism and biodiversity conservation. This approach will necessarily
embrace many different aspects of the tourism industry, not just nature-based tourism
and ecotourism (NBE), therefore providing many different levels of experience of
nature and traditional culture. Our reference to 'NBE' throughout this report implies
this broader view.
Profiles and preferences of tourists are not well analysed nor understood at this point
in time. Although some initiatives have been commenced, better information is
needed on tourists' desires, expectations and needs. More precise information is
needed on tourist activity and fulfilment, across the tourism spectrum.
The links between the tourism trade and the need for environmental management in
key bioregions can be analysed in terms of benefit-cost studies and regional economic
models. The report presents abundant evidence to demonstrate the economic value of
natural areas to tourism, and the regional implications for employment, investment
and income.
There is a need for industry and governments to improve the marketing and conduct
of the tourism trade as it relates to Australia's natural resources, and for the tourism
industry to be better informed about its environmental responsibilities.
One of the major impediments to more effective protection of biodiversity is a lack of
funds for research and management purposes. The report notes a wide range of
funding mechanisms and economic instruments that could be introduced to support
biodiversity programs.
Tourism is often used as a political, economic and social justification for reservation
and retention of areas of natural habitat, but this is usually an ad hoc process,
reflecting the politics of the day.
This report proposes mechanisms whereby tourism can be an effective force in the
conservation of biodiversity, both for the benefit of the industry and for the intrinsic
and economic values of biodiversity. Recognising that a large proportion of tourism
depends directly on natural resources, and that much is focused on protected areas,
tourism is identified as a key industry sector which has a legitimate right and an
obligation to contribute to the debate about, policy formulation for, and
implementation of biodiversity conservation measures.
This report recognises that all of tourism must be ecologically sustainable, and that,
for this to be successful, it must contribute to the long-term maintenance of
ecosystems and species. Simply to 'minimise impacts' is not enough since, with
tourism growth, this will result in incremental damage and inevitable environmental
deterioration. There can be no net environmental deterioration if the industry is to be
ecologically sustainable. Active management which requires resources is needed in all
situations. Tourism has a significant responsibility to contribute to the management of
the natural resources on which it is dependent.
The ecologically sustainable development (ESD) process must be revitalised through
the accelerated implementation of the National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable
Development. It has advanced considerably Australia's commitment to become
ecologically sustainable, and the ESD process has the support of all major industry
sectors, including tourism. Industry support was an achievement in itself.
SUMMARY RECOMMENDATIONS AND MAJOR FINDINGS
A large and significant proportion of tourism in Australia is based on aspects of the
natural environment, focusing particularly on biological diversity - the plants, animals,
ecosystems and natural landscapes of Australia (Section 4). Indeed, Australia's
environment has been identified as perhaps the key drawcard for international visitors.
The onus of environmental responsibility, however, seems mainly to have fallen on
the nature based and particularly the ecotourism segments, the latter a narrowly
defined and uncritically accepted subset of nature-based tourism which, ironically,
does not have the resources nor industry presence to make a real difference to
biodiversity conservation.
In general, there is much naivety among policy makers, planners and natural resource
managers about what ecotourism can do. This is not to say that the many principles
and strategies developed for ecotourism are not sound, rather that the focus of those
principles and strategies should seek to embrace the broader industry.
Three major mechanisms for integrating biodiversity conservation and ecotourism and
nature-based tourism were explored and developed in this study:
bioregional planning approach - bioregional planning
identification and reservation of new areas
CD-ROM (and related) technology based on bioregional planning tools developed for
use by the tourism industry
funding mechanisms
tourism industry involvement in strategic policy development for use of natural
resources
They are based on the observation and principle that all of tourism has a stake in the
conservation of biodiversity. We consider that these three mechanisms have strong
potential to achieve the goals of conservation of biodiversity and provide the
necessary resources for tourism to maintain ecologically sustainable growth into the
future.
This approach is founded on a national system of bioregions (detailed in Section 3.2)
which provide the appropriate scale to integrate reserve and off-reserve biodiversity
conservation measures with tourism.
Since NBE is almost totally dependent on Australia's protected area system (Section
3.3), and each national park and World Heritage Area that comes 'on-line' becomes a
brand name for tourism, the NBE industry needs to be involved at every level of
bioregional planning and biodiversity conservation.
The tourism industry can look after its own best interests and support biodiversity
conservation by actively supporting acquisitions of representative land through
tourism policies, masterplans, and regional plans. In effect, more national parks mean
more tourism opportunities. The Northern Territory Tourism Masterplan, for instance,
is an example of how the NT tourism industry and the NT Conservation Commission
are working together in this way.
This approach, in turn, lends muscle to the primary challenge for biodiversity
conservation in Australia which is the development of a representative reserve system
based on regional biodiversity (Section 3.3), supported by a comprehensive system of
biodiversity conservation on private lands (Section 3.4). While the main thrust of
biodiversity conservation is through a system of national parks and conservation
reserves, the key to its success is through conservation on other lands, since about 70
per cent of Australia's land area is under the control of private landholders and
resource managers (Bridgewater et al. 1992). There is significant and growing interest
in conservation on private land (section 3.4) through, amongst other mechanisms,
conservation covenants. In the tourism industry there is an increasing trend towards
NBE operation on private land.
This report recommends a two-way approach to integrating trends in biodiversity
conservation and tourism on private land. The approach is based on a suite of
conservation and tourism incentives tied to conservation covenants. The incentives
might include financial assistance for rehabilitation, technical assistance, and business
assistance for marketing and NBE enterprise, part of the proceeds of which would go
back into managing and monitoring the private reserves. Monitoring of environmental
impacts and visitor attitudes would also be encouraged and fed back into information
systems for analysis of trends.
The mechanisms for integrating biodiversity conservation and NBE have
ramifications which extend to information systems, education, marketing, and the
approach to bioregional planning. According to Pressey and others (various dates), in
any region there is a variety of options in the creation of a system of reserves (private
or public) which will satisfy the objective of regional biodiversity conservation. If the
scheme outlined above is to be effective, then the tourism industry needs to be
involved even at the conceptual stages of bioregional planning and of allocating
resources.
With respect to information systems, one could envisage a network of complementary
Geographic Information Systems which integrate conservation planning with
databases on tourist desires, movements, and impacts. A system like this is being
developed at James Cook University. Such an information system would, amongst
other things, identify the 'personality' of a region and be used in the development of
consumer CD-ROMs (and related technology) which allow people to choose
interactively the holiday experience they desire in any bioregion, with or without the
assistance of agents. Such a comprehensive system would allow the consumer or
travel agent to access every available experience a region offers. This would be far
superior to the current central reservation system which is biased towards easy to sell,
high frequency tours that offer best economic returns and requires little knowledge of
the product. A bioregional reservation system would also help educate travel agents
on the features of a region.
Such an extensive information and product base founded on bioregions would be a
major asset to tourism and would also stimulate regional economic development.
Economic analyses are crucial to the approach outlined above since they can
demonstrate the value that the community, and tourists in particular, place on the
conservation of natural areas and ecosystems. Our report documents a number of
studies that yield convincing evidence of such values, using tourism expenditure data
and benefit-cost analysis. These studies provide estimates which when combined
show that, every year, the Great Barrier Reef, the Wet Tropics of Queensland, Kakadu,
Uluru Kata Tjuta and Kosciusko National Parks and the Tasmanian wilderness alone
generate in excess of $2 billion per year from tourism.
Economics can provide planning models that can be used to guide the development of
regions, based on an expansion of NBE tourism. Various kinds of models are
available. Our report specifically recommends the use of multi-sectoral models to
assist the planning process. Such models are capable of predicting the direct and
indirect effects of tourism expenditure on economic activities within a region and help
determine the optimal sequence of development, including the provision of
infrastructure and other supporting services.
Finally, economics can be used to assess the possibilities for, and benefits of, various
mechanisms that are capable of mobilising funds to assist the functions of the tourism
sector, management of conservation areas and ongoing education, training and
research that are essential to the future sustainability of the industry and to the
environment itself. Such mechanisms range from voluntary schemes promoted by the
general community and industry to those introduced by government.