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Organization type: NGO
Profile:
With an estimated $3 trillion (USD) in annual revenues, tourism has emerged as one of the world’s largest industries, contributing significantly to economies where Conservation International (CI) works. However, tourism in key biodiversity areas can be both an opportunity for conservation and a threat to biodiversity. CI believes carefully planned and implemented tourism can be a sustainable economic alternative as well as a successful conservation strategy. Ecotourism can provide income to local people and, by its reliance on healthy ecosystems, offer a powerful incentive to conserve and protect biodiversity.
The Ecotourism Department works with CI’s regional programs and partners to utilize ecotourism as a conservation strategy in key biodiversity areas, translating these experiences to global industry initiatives. CI has found that people who earn their living from ecotourism are more likely to protect their natural resources and support conservation efforts.
CI’s ecotourism projects help forge links between human welfare and biodiversity protection, placing CI at the forefront of conservation efforts in critical hotspots such as Madidi National Park in Bolivia, the Upper Guinean Forest in Ghana, the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the Petén Region in Guatemala, and many others.
Areas of Sustainable Tourism (ST) expertise:
CI has developed six approaches to using tourism as a biodiversity conservation strategy:
- Ecotourism business and destination development: CI has supported regional programs by providing tools, information, and capacity-building to:
- Support local communities, entrepreneurs, and partners to create viable ecotourism products and markets;
- Improve management skills to develop their businesses;
- Promote the principles of ecotourism across a wider spectrum of the tourism industry and dialogue among a wide range of stakeholders; and
- Learn and adapt sustainable approaches strategies that fit specific needs of our partners and field programs.
- Regional tourism policy: To take individual project initiatives to a larger scale, CI builds on the credibility it establishes from developing businesses to:
- Promote ecotourism to decision-makers as an economic alternative to environmentally destructive activities; and
- Establish a participatory framework for planning and crafting ecotourism policy at national levels.
- Investment: CI’s Verde Ventures fund invests in financially sound tourism businesses whose operations contribute to conserving biodiversity in the Hotspots. The application to Verde Ventures includes an approval process by a biodiversity committee, and an investment committee. Verde Ventures, which now incorporates the Equator Ventures fund in partnership with the United Nations Development Program, invests loan capital between $30,000 and $500,000 in approved businesses.
- Global Initiatives: At the global level, CI promotes the principles of ecotourism through initiatives to support regional and industry-level activities:
- A partnership with the National Geographic Society to manage the World Legacy Awards, which rewards companies adopting ecotourism principles;
- Publishing case studies of established ecotourism businesses; and
- Undertaking research into the links between tourism and biodiversity.
- Capacity Building and Training: Because lack of local capacity limits how much ecotourism can contribute to reducing urgent social and environmental difficulties in many countries, CI has developed several programs and tools:
- Specialized tools, such as the Community Ecotourism Education and Awareness tool, the Ecotourism Product Development and Marketing Workshops tool, and the Tourism Assessment Process manual; and
- The Ecotourism Learning Program, which aims to increase the pool of practitioners and service providers able to reduce barriers and provide quality technical assistance to developing ecotourism in rural areas.
CI has partnered with George Washington University (GW) to develop the Ecotourism Learning Program. The program’s training courses are targeted at educators and trainers, donors, and other organizations. CI and GW support local service providers to become certified ecotourism trainers. This ensures a sustainable source of quality ecotourism education to future practitioners.
Particular tourism niches:
CI supports sustainable tourism development as a biodiversity conservation strategy through the provision of necessary economic alternatives for communities and governments. The successes of several CI projects have set in motion a movement by CI and its partners to take ecotourism principles from field sites to the global level.
In 2002, CI addressed the United Nations, providing country delegates with an understanding of how ecotourism can play a role in economic development and biodiversity conservation. CI played a role in developing guidelines adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity, and in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme, CI published the first-ever global report on tourism and biodiversity, “Tourism and Biodiversity: Mapping Tourism’s Global Footprint,” Conservation International, 2003.
Regions worked:
- Africa:
- Tanzania
- Botswana
- Equatorial Guinea
- Gabon
- Ghana
- Madagascar
- Asia and the Near East:
- Indonesia
- Papua New Guinea
- Philippines
- Latin America and the Caribbean:
- Belize
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Guatemala
- Guyana
- Mexico
- Panama
- Suriname
USAID projects:
- Ghana: Kakum Canopy Walkway and Visitors Center and Elmina/Cape Coast Castles and Fort St. Jago (1991-2001)
- Mexico: CRM II–Conserving Critical Coastal Ecosystems in Mexico,
(1996-2003)
- Guyana: GCP–Kanuku Mountains and New River Triangle (1999-2003)
- Guatemala: Maya Biosphere Project–CI/ProPetén (1990-2004)
- Madagascar: MIRAY Program for Ecoregion-based Conservation and Development (1998-2004)
- Botswana: Natural Resources Management Project (1990-1997)
- Madagascar: Project to Support Management of the Environment
(1999-2002)
- Mexico: Strategic Planning and Monitoring for Conservation and Sustainable Development (2000-2003)
- Mexico: Biodiversity Corridor Planning and Implementation Program
(2003-2006)
Recent ST partnerships and collaborations (alphabetically by country):
- Bolivia: Community of San José de Uchupiamonas (Josesanos), America Tours in La Paz, and Madidi National Park
- Botswana: Bukakhwe Cultural Conservation Trust (BCCT), Wilderness Safaris, and other local tour operators
- Brazil: Institute for Socio-Environmental Studies of Southern Bahia (IESB), Earthwatch Institute, Mato Grosso do Sul Federal University, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, and Jaguar Conservation Fund
- Ghana: Ghana Wildlife Service and Smithsonian Institution
- Guatemala: Fundación ProPetén, FUNDESA, CONAP (Guatemala’s National Council for Protected Areas), and the community of San Andrés
- Indonesia: NGO consortium of the Jakarta-based local NGO Indonesian Foundation for Advancement of Biological Sciences (YABSHI), Palu-based NGO of Ibnu Khaldun Foundation
- Mexico: Tourism Secretary of Chiapas, National Forestry Commission and Ixcán Municipality
- Panama: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
- Suriname: STINASU–a governmental foundation for nature preservation; STS–the Suriname Tourism Foundation; NB–the Nature Conservation Division of the Forest Service; SWOWO–the Foundation for Reconstruction of Witagron and Kiamanston; and the Surinamese private sector
Contact:
Conservation International
1919 M Street, NW Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036 USA
Phone: (202) 912-1000
www.conservation.org/xp/CIWEB/programs/ecotourism
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