CBD/IUCN Concession Guidelines for Tourism in Protected Areas

Published on January 15, 2018

- Development of guidelines on tourism concessions and partnerships for protected area authorities, to provide information to support protected area authorities in their development and use of tourism partnerships and concessioning to contribute financially and technically to protected areas through sustainable tourism. - Development of capacity for staff of protected area authorities and the relevant ministries working on tourism and concessions, through participation in networking and training workshops. Regional technical support was provided in this process by the iSimanagaliso Wetland Park Authority. A series of three meetings in iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site (South Africa), Windhoek (Namibia) and Maputo (Mozambique) aimed to provide opportunity for practitioners from 1southern African countries to meet, debate, and learn from one another. - Promotion of technical and scientific cooperation among counterpart agencies in various countries on the development of tourism concessions policies within national park systems.

The tourism sector is recognized as the largest global market-based contributor to the financing of protected area systems in many countries. Protected areas are an essential tool for safeguarding the world's biodiversity and preserving ecosystem services, currently at serious risk. In 2014, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) noted that, under appropriate safeguards, tourism can contribute to protected areas through partnerships and concessions. However, most countries currently underuse tourism as a means to contribute towards the financial sustainability of protected areas. The new publication released today by the CBD Secretariat and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group, with support from the UN World Tourism Organization, Guidelines for tourism partnerships and concessions for protected areas: generating sustainable revenues for conservation and development, aims to assist countries in addressing this gap. Designed to support tourism partnerships and concessions as means to increase the sector's financial and technical contribution to conservation, the guidelines result from a wide consultation process with global experts and were validated in workshops in Southern Africa. Geared towards protected area authorities, ministries of environment and tourism, policy experts and interested businesses, the publication can be used as technical reference and as a capacity building tool. The publication includes information on the fundamentals of tourism, different tourism partnerships, financing concessions, a step-by-step guide to concession processes, integrating sustainability, contract management and concession capacity requirements. The main outputs of the project that were anticipated under the project plan were: • Guideline on tourism concessions and partnerships in protected areas. Application of this guideline will improve biodiversity conservation in protected areas, in addition to socioeconomic benefits to local communities, due to its strong focus on sustainability. Printing and distribution of hard copies of the Guideline will be undertaken by the SCBD. • Three networking and capacity building workshops • Powerpoint presentations for networking and capacity building workshops • A proposal for a further phase of initiatives to support tourism concessions and partnerships Unanticipated additional outputs were also generated, which included: • Needs Assessment report • An extensive database of over 200 electronic documents (e.g. case studies, procurement documents, marketing collateral, toolkits) distributed to participants of the iSimangaliso meeting on a flash drive • Presentations by participating countries on current successes and challenges of tourism concessions in protected areas • An article in the 10YFP newsletter on the process • Blogs and social medial posts on the event (see the TAPAS Group facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/IUCNTourism/). • A launch and press release at the UN General Assembly meeting in China • French and Spanish translations of the guideline by the CBD, designed by Mary-Anne der Bly. The main outcomes of the project were: • Improved understanding of tourism concessions and partnerships among 37 protected area representatives from 13 countries in southern Africa. • Countries already reporting policy and policy instrument adaptation. Creation of a collaborative network of protected area and tourism concessionaries, due to the comradely 'spirit' of the workshop.