This year, the World Tourism Organisation proposed a topical subject for World Tourism Day, namely Tourism and Biodiversity. The latter was chosen to champion the International Year for Biological Diversity, announced by the General Assembly of the United Nations.
The United Nations Resolution, adopted by the General Assembly in December 2006, clearly illustrates serious concern for “the social, economic, environmental and cultural implications of the loss of biodiversity, including negative impacts on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and stressing the necessity to adopt concrete measures in order to reverse it.”
According to the California Biodiversity Council, “Biological diversity, or the shorter ‘biodiversity’, simply means the diversity, or variety, of plants and animals and other living things in a particular area or region”. The coexistence of different living things within a particular area intrinsically requires equilibrium of interdependence and interaction that occurs between them and the physical environment that receives and influences them. This biodiversity is then altered into different ecosystems, such as forests, wetlands, savannah, jungles, deserts, coral reefs, mountains, seas and polar areas.
The three critical hazards that require an urgent response are climate change, desertification and the loss of biodiversity, and this last one really is in great trouble. Up-to-date studies reveal that, on a worldwide level, 22 per cent of mammals, 31 per cent of amphibians, 13.6 per cent of bird life and 27 per cent of reefs are under serious threat or at the point of extinction. Unfortunately, tourism is one of the domains of human activity that mainly reinforces these changes. According to World Tourism Organisation statistics, with international tourist travel reaching 534 million in 1995 and 682 million in 2000, approximate calculations carried out by the organisation’s Tourism 2020 Vision report unravel 1.006 billion for the present year, climbing to 1.561 billion in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 4.1 per cent. Along with these international tourism statistics, it is necessary to include the even more relevant numbers in respect of integral tourism. Although this shows a strong growth within the economic sphere, one should not ignore the major detrimental consequences it brings on the conservation and sustainable employment of biodiversity such as the excessive consumption of restricted resources (land and potable water, for example) and the vast production of pollution and residues, surpassing the quantities that an area is capable of handling.
The situation is made worse by the tendency for tourist demand to be directed towards natural destinations that are renowned for their spectacular natural beauty. This trend leads to greater influence on the populations visited, on their economies and on their cultural heritage and environment. Having said that, this can be a damaging feature or a beneficial one, since it can be instrumental in the conservation of the heritage. Thus, tourism is paradoxical. On the one hand it progresses due to the attraction of certain natural and cultural sites and on the other, the very same tourism can end up being damaging if not catastrophic as some tourist destinations are rejected on the basis that they have not retained their original attraction.
Tourism cannot overlook its responsibility to defend biodiversity and should take an active role in promoting it. This important pillar of every economic sector needs to be supported by the principles of sustainability and respect for biological diversity. Joining forces with those of the international community, the Church, in Pope Benedict XVI’s words, is determined to show her “responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere. In so doing, she must defend not only earth, water and air as gifts of creation that belong to everyone. She must above all protect mankind from self-destruction” (Caritas in Veritate, 51). The Church’s mission is that of reminding humanity of the existing intimate rapport between the Creator, the human person and creation. The Church’s social teaching emphasises the human responsibility for the preservation of an integral and healthy environment for every human being. This conviction is based on the belief that “care for the environment represents a challenge for all of humanity. It is a matter of a common and universal duty, that of respecting a common good” (see Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, n. 466).
In Caritas in Veritate, the German Pope rightly reminds that “in nature, the believer recognises the wonderful result of God’s creative activity, which we may use responsibly to satisfy our legitimate needs, material or otherwise, while respecting the intrinsic balance of creation,” and the use of which represents for us “a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole” (§ 48). Hence, tourism should be respectful and solicitous of the environment, searching to reach a harmonious coexistence with creation to safeguard the sustainability of the resources on which it relies, and simultaneously not heading towards irreparable ecological transformations. For the Holy Father, the backbone of this responsibility stems from the conviction that “many people experience peace and tranquillity, renewal and reinvigoration, when they come into close contact with the beauty and harmony of nature. There exists a certain reciprocity: as we care for creation, we realise that God, through creation, cares for us” (Message for the celebration of XLIII World Day of Peace, 2010, n. 13).
The tourism and biodiversity issue generates practical suggestions. Governments, international institutions, professional associations in the tourism sector and NGOs are to draw up a long-term plan. Such a plan must be reinforced with realistic strategies to enshrine sustainable tourism as a means by which such developments are, concurrently, economically beneficial, safeguard natural and cultural resources and tangibly contribute toward the fight against poverty.
In addition, the public authorities are to legislate and enforce laws that secure and strengthen biodiversity. Lastly, according to recommendation 21 of the Quebec Declaration on Ecotourism, the tourism business sector is strongly encouraged to “conceive, develop and conduct their businesses minimising negative effects on, and positively contributing to, the conservation of sensitive ecosystems and the environment in general, and directly benefiting and including local and indigenous communities”.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap