Tourism and environmental conservation

Contribution of tourism to environmental conservation

Tourism can contribute to environmental protection, the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of natural resources and provide much needed resources.

The tourism industry can contribute to the conservation of areas that are assets for their development: parks, protected areas, cultural and natural sites, through financial contributions, provision of environmental infrastructure and improved management. Financial contributions are being made for a limited number of initiatives by the tourism industry and this trend should be further developed.

The involvement of local communities in tourism development and operation appears to be one important condition for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

This possible contribution of tourism to conservation is one of the reasons explaining the current interest given to the development of nature tourism. However, for sustainable tourism, there is a need to better understand not only the benefits but also the costs of tourism. There is also a need to develop both a more systematic analysis of direct and indirect costs and benefits from tourism as well as green accounting approaches.

Focus on nature tourism should not obscure the major challenge to also make mass tourism sustainable.