Tourism and Biodiversity

Blessing or curse? Tourism and Biodiversity

The relationship between tourism and biodiversity is complex. Tourism is dependent on Biodiversity and at the same time threatens it, but done right it can be one of it’s biggest guardian…. Here is the story:

Nature soothes our souls so it is almost inevitable for a perfect holiday experience. But it’s not only the sight of beautiful landscapes with rich flora and fauna that we count on while traveling, it’s also a bunch of other ecosystem services the nature offers us, like production of food, clean water and air, the protection from floods or extreme heat and other things we need to feel comfortable.  Unfortunately way to often by traveling we threaten exactly these services we are so much longing for by destroying biodiversity. To get to our destiny we need roads, airports and harbors. To stay there we need hotels, resorts, and camping sites. All this infrastructure covers ground. Covered ground that cuts through habitats and leaves no room for animals to live, plants to grow, water to drain away and fill freshwater reserves. And once we are there, we want water activities, build promenades and anchorages in coral reefs and mangroves that would otherwise have protected us from floods and storms. And we produce an awful lot of waste, often in regions without functioning waste management systems let alone recycling infrastructure so ending up in (official and unofficial) landfills or the oceans. And just by bathing our sun protected bodies in the sea we leave an estimated 14.000 tons of sunscreen lotion covering coral reefs worldwide every year. And not curious enough, when rolling up our beach mats we unintentionally lift up and carry away so much sand that it affects the beaches ecosystem. (On some Sardinian beaches the use of bath mats is already prohibited.) And we haven’t even talked about the climate footprint of traveling.

That sounds devastating – but it doesn’t have to be. Tourism is an essential industry in many societies and more and more governments, hospitality companies and individual hotel owners understand, that their future prosperity relies on the surrounding nature and it’s functioning ecosystems. So the key is not to prevent people from spending holidays in nice areas but to take the value of ecosystem services into account and design tourism in a way that protects biodiversity and finds sustainable uses of ecosystems.  

Pathway to heaven

The good news is, whatever steps are taken towards a more sustainable tourism, it will always lead to a more pleasant experience of hospitality - more green, more quiet, more beautiful - and more over, it generally benefits the local community in economic terms. Here are some points of action:

Planning Phase

When looking for the right building site for a new project, it is important to conduct a proper environmental impact assessment (EIA) in order to understand potential harm on biodiversity and ecosystem services connected with building and running a hotel or resort. On the other hand, the EIA might throw a light on potential benefits from existing ecosystem services worse to preserve for the operation of a hotel or resort (e.g. forests cleaning air and water, cooling effects of vegetation, protection of infrastructure from natural disasters or extreme weather, regulation of waterflows etc.) They might safe money later on.

Building Phase

A good architect will help you to reduce impacts on the environment and might for example include the natural surroundings, standing trees, shrubs etc. in the planning, making use of natural air conditioning and ventilation. The use of long-lasting, locally produced renewable or recycled building material not only saves resources and money while strengthening local economy, it also leads to a modern, high quality design highly appreciated by customers.

Where negative impacts are inevitable they could (and should) be compensated for. A variety of compensating schemes already exists - biodiversity experts could help to find the right one.

Operational Phase

While operating a hotel or resort establishing procurement regulations (for food, furniture, consumables…) that assure the exclusion of products that have excess negative environmental impacts in all stages of the product life should be installed. Whenever possible food should be from regional sources, seasonal, and either organic certified or from known sources that support biodiversity. Other products should be of high quality (extending time in use), recyclable or circular.

Those areas of a premise that are not built on give the opportunity to support biodiversity on site. Even small entities can be transformed into little insect habitats. Insects need food plants and nesting sites. A variety of indigenous plants improve the habitat for a variety of different species that can help regulate the natural food chain and even prevent the overpopulation of some of them (mosquitos or rats etc.).

Bird feeders do not only help birds through harsh times (such as winter in temperate regions) but might also give guests the opportunity to observe wildlife.

Training of staff is an important part to make any biodiversity friendly business work. Staff in charge of procurement, facility management, cleaning, guest-care, and cooking need to be trained to understand and support your biodiversity strategy. E.g. a chef who is aware of over-fishing, deforestation for soy and palm oil production, and climate change effects of food waste will deal differently with food, put other dishes on the menu, and hence help to protect biodiversity and safe you money (due to less waste).

Locals offering guided tours into nature and natural sights are the best ambassadors for the idea of appreciating, preventing and enjoying natures wealth. Involving them and their knowledge as much as possible in planning and operation should be a matter of course.

Where tourism and hospitality are managed consciously it can not only prevent major harm to biodiversity it can be an important guardian. The profits tourism generates make “nature conservation” an economically reasonable strategy and stabilize local community. There is no need to hunt down rhinos when tourists pay to see the living ones. And strolling (sustainably) through National parks tourists fulfill the job of rangers. (Unfortunately, we see this in drastically growing numbers of poaching in National Parks where tourism came to a break due to Covid-19.)

All this makes the harmonization of biodiversity and tourism not only an obligation but a very promising business case for our future passion for travel.