Tourism development

Many Parties to the CBD underutilise tourism as a means to contribute towards the financial sustainability of protected areas. The development of the present guidelines on tourism partnerships and concessions for protected areas is a response to this under-utilized potential and to recent decisions of the CBD on tourism.

Globally rainforests are under threat on numerous fronts, yet they have a crucial role in biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and providing other ecosystem services. Rainforests are also attractive tourist spaces and where they have been used as a tourism resource they have generated significant income for local communities. However, not all use of rainforests as a tourism resource has been sustainable.

The aim of this research is to: 1) identify the negative impact of conservation policies implemented in living World Heritage sites on the social quality of traditional communities; 2) develop a design tool constraining spatial morphology to overcome the negative influences on the social quality The study leads to a new approach to conservation planning that takes into account sustaining social quality while enforcing UNESCO World Heritage conservation program.

This study sheds light on how least developed countries (LDCs) can maximize pro-poor gains from tourism. It analyses LDCs’ tourism development aspirations as set out in the Diagnostic Trade Integration Studies (DTIS) that were completed under the Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance to Least Developed Countries (IF).

This document reflects the main ideas of a joint production by the two Technical Co-operation projects "Implementation of the Biodiversity Convention" (BIODIV) and the "Tropical Ecology Support Programme" (TOEB), entitled "Tourism in Technical Co-operation." It addresses the planning and management of socio-economic benefits of tourism as sustainable development.