Manuel Antonio National
Park, Costa Rica, 21 January 2011. The push
for sustainable tourism was given a boost
this week with the establishment of the
Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism
that unites all stakeholders in the industry
in influencing policies, developing projects
and providing a global communication platform.
The new Partnership
was established at the first annual General
Meeting in Costa Rica, hosted by the Costa
Rican Ministry of Tourism and supported
by the French and Norwegian Governments,
together with the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization
(UNWTO).
During the meeting,
France was elected President of the Partnership
Steering Committee and Costa Rica as Vice-Chair.
The Secretariat to this innovative Global
Partnership will be housed with UNEP's Division
of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE)
in Paris, France and the emphasis will be
to shift tourism onto a sustainable pathway
worldwide.
"The Partnership
will be an up-to-date, dynamic forum where
countries that are interested in tourism
which is truly sustainable will be able
to learn from the successful efforts of
the other members and obtain technical assistance,
and which will promote constant dialogue,
the exchange of experiences, and seek solutions
to the problems that are common to the tourism
sector," said Gina Guillen Grillo,
Senior Advisor to the
Minister of Tourism of Costa Rica.
Tourism is one of the
world's largest industries and for developing
countries it can be a source of much needed
income. However, if not managed well, tourism
can also threaten a country's natural resources
as a result of higher demands on water and
energy consumption and waste generation
and lead to environmental degradation and
negatively impact local populations.
"The tourism sector
has been increasingly recognized as a key
engine for economic growth, especially in
developing and least developed countries.
It is not only responsible for a significant
share of world GDP (5%) and employment (6-7%),
but is also an important source of foreign
investment reaching as much as 30% of the
world service's exports. The number of international
tourist arrivals is expected to reach 1.6
billion by 2020," said Luigi Cabrini,
Director for Sustainable Development of
Tourism in the World Tourism Organization
(UNWTO).
Knowledge acquired through
the Partnership in Africa could be applied
in Latin America, Asia, Europe, or North
America, or vice versa. Few, if any, other
entities in tourism will so quickly be able
to transfer experience and put it into action.
The Partnership will
also focus on seven thematic areas: 1) policy
frameworks, 2) climate change, 3) environment
and biodiversity, 4) poverty alleviation,
5) cultural and natural heritage, 6) sustainable
tourism practices for the private sector
and 7) finance and investments.
"The broad geographic
scope of the Partnership, as well as the
depth of its members' expertise, will enable
it to adapt, replicate, and scale-up successful
projects initiated by any partner in other
regions; engaging the public and private
sectors and consumers, identifying and setting-up
project funding opportunities and informing
on policy which will benefit the development
and promotion of sustainability in tourism,"
said Gérard Ruiz, Chairman of the
Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism.
To date, the Global
Partnership is made up of 18 national governments,
five UN organizations, the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD), 17 international and business Organisations
as well as 16 non-governmental organisations
which will demonstrate their commitment
in advancing sustainability in the tourism
sector. Many of these organizations participated
in an International Taskforce initiated
five years ago by the French Government
as part of the Marrakesh Process and worked
successfully together on high impact sustainable
tourism projects.
"It is essential
to shift the tourism sector towards more
sustainable consumption and production patterns,
which help to improve environmental and
social conditions of a tourist destination.
The Global Partnership therefore aims at
facilitating a shift towards a 'Green Economy',
which offers substantial contributions to
the Millennium Development Goals, and the
opportunity to increase the industry's resilience
to a rapidly changing global outlook,"
said Arab Hoballah, Chief of UNEP's Sustainable
Consumption and Production Branch.
UNEP and other UN agencies
have been heavily involved in the Green
Economy initiative and prior to the launch
of the Global Partnership a workshop was
held in San José, Costa Rica, highlighting
the major contribution of sustainable tourism
in the transition to the Green Economy.
The tourism chapter for the Green Economy
Report is being finalized by UNEP and UNWTO.
Ban Calls For A Green Economy As Crucial
For A Sustainable Future
UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon has called for "revolutionary
action" to achieve sustainable development,
warning that the past century's heedless
consumption of resources is "a global
suicide pact" with time running out
to ensure an economic model for survival.
"Let me highlight
the one resource that is scarcest of all:
time," he told the World Economic Forum
in Davos, Switzerland, in a session devoted
to redefining sustainable development. "We
are running out of time. Time to tackle
climate change. Time to ensure sustainable,
climate-resilient green growth. Time to
generate a clean energy revolution."
Describing sustainable
development the growth agenda for the 21st
century, Mr. Ban recited a litany of development
errors based on a false belief in the infinite
abundance of natural resources that fuelled
the economy in the last century.
"We mined our way
to growth," he said. "We burned
our way to prosperity. We believed in consumption
without consequences. Those days are gone.
In the 21st century, supplies are running
short and the global thermostat is running
high."
All this now needs rethinking
to secure the balanced development that
will lift people out of poverty while protecting
the planet and ecosystems that support economic
growth, he told the assembly of heads of
State and government, international economists,
business and industry leaders and civil
society at the meeting in Davos.
"Here at Davos
- this meeting of the mighty and the powerful,
represented by some key countries - it may
sound strange to speak of revolution,"
he said. "But that is what we need
at this time. We need a revolution. Revolutionary
thinking. Revolutionary action. A free market
revolution for global sustainability.
"The ancients saw
no division between themselves and the natural
world. They understood how to live in harmony
with the world around them. It is time to
recover that sense of living harmoniously
for our economies and our societies,"
said Mr. Ban.
"Not to go back
to some imagined past, but to leap confidently
into the future with cutting-edge technologies,
the best science and entrepreneurship has
to offer, to build a safer, cleaner, greener
and more prosperous world for all. There
is no time to waste," he warned.
"It is easy to
mouth the words 'sustainable development,'
but to make it happen we have to be prepared
to make major changes - in our lifestyles,
our economic models, our social organization,
and our political life," Mr. Ban told
the meeting in Davos.
And he called on governments
both in Davos and around the world to send
the right signals to build the Green Economy.
"Together, let us tear down the walls,"
he declared. "The walls between the
development agenda and the climate agenda.
Between business, government and civil society.
Between global security and global sustainability."
The business and industrial
community will clearly have a key role in
the transition to a Green Economy. Mr. Ban
called on business leaders to join the 11-year-old
United Nations Global Compact, the world's
largest corporate responsibility initiative
committing businesses to aligning their
operations and strategies with 10 universally
accepted principles in the areas of human
rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
At a separate event,
he also launched the Global Compact Lead
with a group of 54 global companies as founding
members, who have committed to be at the
cutting edge of environmental, social and
governance issues, joining forces to translate
sustainable development principles into
business operations and deepening partnerships
with the entire UN system.
"When companies
like yours drive sustainability issues deeper
into your operations and strategy, year
after year, you send a powerful signal.
Indeed, you change the world," he told
the business leaders. "In this century
far more than the last, we need business
to achieve our fundamental purposes at the
United Nations.
Mr. Ban's message on
the Green Economy at Davos has become a
pillar of his global message on how the
world must generate energy and manage its
natural assets to ensure sustainable development
for future generations.
Last month at a meeting
in New York on the Green Economy, Mr. Ban
stressed that while the past two decades
has seen considerable economic growth, it
has come at the cost of depleting the Planet's
natural resources.
"Will the 9 billion
people who will inhabit this planet in 2050
have the opportunity to thrive? Or will
vast numbers merely struggle to survive
... or worse, see their world descend into
chaos? This is the fundamental question
of sustainable development," he warned.
"A country can
cut its forests and deplete its fisheries,
and it shows only as a positive gain in
GDP, ignoring the corresponding decline
in assets," Mr. Ban told participants,
including economist Professor Jeffrey Sachs.
"We need to revise our accounting and
embrace a low-carbon, resource-efficient,
pro-poor economic model," he added.
Mr. Ban stressed that
it is the Green Economy that can help to
unlock the door to a safer, more peaceful
and prosperous world and will be the core
of his priorities in the runup to the preparations
for the 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development
in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
Twenty years earlier
in Rio, the Earth Summit provided the concept
for sustainable development. "Then
we were just glimpsing the emerging challenges
of climate change, desertification, land
degradation and the loss of species,"
recalls Mr. Ban. Today, however, many of
those concerns have become urgent and have
yet to see comprehensive action or results,
he added.
Mr. Ban announced that
this month the UN Environment Programme
will unveil its latest Green Economy report
which will show how green economic thinking
can unleash the government policies and
business opportunities that will power green
growth, reduce poverty and bring the benefits
of sustainable development to all.
