Tourism and Biodiversity

Sarath C Jayawardana

Today is World Tourism Day. It marks the day of adoption of the statutes of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) forty years ago on September 27, 1970 in Mexico City. With the adoption of the statutes an organization that was hitherto known as the International Union of Official Tourism Organizations (IUOTO) became an executing agency of the UN under the name World Tourism Organization. Today it is called the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) functioning as an agency of the UN.

In 1925, fifty one countries engaged in tourism as a commercial venture throughout the world joined hands to form a representative body for the purpose of minimizing and easing frontier formalities and developing closer cooperation in the field of tourism. It was a technical association of government tourism offices devoid of authority to take decisions on important issues in a rapidly growing industry and was called the International Union of Official Tourism Organizations (IUOTO).

With the development of the tourist industry the need for a more authoritative organization capable of acting as an executing body for the United Nations on approved tourism development projects was strongly felt. The members of the IUOTO therefore unanimously agreed to transform the Union into a new world body on tourism and called it the World Tourism Organization.

The statutes of the Organization was adopted by an Extraordinary General Assembly of the IUOTO in Mexico City on September 27, 1970 and came into force on January 22, 1975 with the formal ratification by its full member States numbering fifty one. Now it has been transformed into UNWTO. The UNWTO officially celebrates the World Tourism Day on September 27 every year under a selected theme with the participation of all member countries. Sri Lanka too has been celebrating it since its inception.

The UNWTO celebrates the 30th World Tourism Day this year in China under the theme ‘Tourism and Biodiversity’. The theme focuses on the world’s natural wealth and the important role played by sustainable tourism in safeguarding the natural endowment. It provides an excellent opportunity to increase public awareness of the importance of biodiversity to tourism and the role of sustainable tourism development in the conservation of life on Earth. The United Nations Assembly concerned by the continued loss of biological diversity has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity.

Biodiversity or Biological Diversity engulfs all the different species of animals, plants, fungi and microbial organisms living on Earth and the variety of habitats in which they live.

Scientists estimate that more than 10 million (or as some suggest more than 100 million) different species inhabit the Earth. Each species is adapted to its unique habitat in the natural environment.

With the increasing interest in eco-tourism, bio-diversity has become a key tourism asset and is becoming a leading economic activity. Unpolluted eco-systems are fast becoming popular tourism attractions. Tourism and biodiversity are mutually dependent. With the expansion of eco-tourism, sustainable tourism has an important role to play in managing and conserving these natural resources.

It has to be guarded against over-visitation and destruction in the face of the unscrupulous traveler who has the tenacity to act against the principles of nature travel. Pacific Asia Travel Association defines eco-tourism as “travelling with particular attention to nature’s wonders and leaving them as you found them.” Over visitation or uncontrolled visitation can cause irreparable damage to the ecosystems. All different varieties of living organisms found in a particular environment together with the physical and environmental factors that affect them are called an ecosystem.

The eco-systems regulate the climatic systems that provide clean water and air. Plants produce oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis. They control soil erosion that causes immense damage to human beings. The constituent parties of the ecosystem are interdependent on each other and removal of one factor can upset the ecological balance preventing it from functioning optimally.

Plants and animals living in the wild shun human interference. Sri Lanka’s Sinharaja forest, Knuckles range and the Horton Plains are areas that need protection against human encroachment. The Secretary General of UNWTO says “Tourism and biodiversity are mutually dependent. UNWTO wishes to raise awareness and calls upon the tourism stakeholders and travellers themselves to contribute their part of the global responsibility to safeguard the intricate web of unique species and ecosystems that make up our planet.” This should be the key factor that needs to be considered on this World Tourism Day as Sri Lanka is very keen on promoting eco-tourism.

Biodiversity underlies everything from food production to medical research. All over the world people use plants and animals for their sustenance. People around the world are dependent on plants and animals for their food, clothing and shelter. Animals are either domesticated or hunted in the wild for the sustenance of human beings.

Most of the pharmaceuticals are based on natural compounds found in plants, animals and microorganisms. The amount of animal and plant life sacrificed daily for the sustenance of mankind is beyond comprehension.

Some say that it is now facing the most severe extinction since the destruction of dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. An American biologist has said that the earth is losing around 27,000 species of animal and plant life annually.

World Tourism Day should discuss this important issue of biodiversity in a positive and practical manner as a platform has been created for this purpose in the selection of the theme ‘Tourism and Biodiversity’.