Nature-based tourism presents a form of self relief for many adventure and relaxation seeking tourists around the globe. The combination of nature-based solutions and nature-based tourism presents an economic, livelihood, climate positive, and a non-formal method in promoting the multi-use and benefits of nature. This blog will discuss what nature-based tourism is, its benefits and our role as youth in promoting it.
What is Nature-based tourism?
Nature-based tourism (NBT) is defined as the number of outdoor activities performed by tourists in the natural environment. NBT activities represent high level adventure activities like jet boating, skydiving and mountain climbing as well as more relaxing activities like bush walking, wildlife and scenic tours and boat cruises (aucklandcouncil, August, 2009)1. It is the most known type of tourism which every country has (researchgate, March, 2019)2. Governments and international organizations, especially those related to nature and environmental protection, are always concerned about increasing community awareness of protecting and preserving nature and setting laws and regulations that keep nature safe. Birdwatching, photography, stargazing, camping, hiking, hunting, fishing and parks touring are some great examples of nature-based tourism (texas, n.d.)3.
Preserving nature, tourism and green jobs
There is a positive relationship between nature protection, tourism promotion and creating green jobs. Countries which have vast green spaces ranging from coastal ecosystems to dense forests rely on nature-based tourism as one source of income whereas some countries consider it the main source of income. Examples of green jobs created within nature-based tourism are nature tours guide, nature-photography, camping agents, tourism translators and so many others.
Addo Elephant National Park (AENP)
A great example of Nature-based tourism
The Addo Elephant National Park (AENP) is located in South Africa, specifically in the Eastern Cape Province, is a protected area and home to a significant array of biodiversity. Eastern Cape represents 5 out of 9 of South Africa's biomes areas. It is one of the least developed provinces in South Africa where 51% of families suffer from poverty with unemployment rates higher than 25%. As a result of that, pastoralism became a threat to biodiversity by higher desertification and the increasing number of elephants made a necessity of expansion to accommodate it.
To protect this biodiversity area, the South African government took these actions in 2004:
Granted a fund from Global Environment Fund (GEF) and French GEF, started a conservation and development project, and expanding the boundaries of AENP
Contributed to sustainable development by encouraging direct employment in nature conservation and nature- based tourism for the locals.
Issued contracts to small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) to establish the infrastructure for the park's expansion by analyzing the feasibility of SMME's and incubating them.
Developed marketing and promoted strategies for the park and tourism and issued concessions to attract private investors to the park for starting nature-based tourism ventures.
Outcomes of the project:
The project achieved 514 (cumulative) training days per year and 32 internships were delivered in tourism guidance, conservation guardianship and hospitality reception.
Achieved 83% of the targeted expansion of the park.
540 people were employed in AENP and 1842 people were employed outside the park.
Locals were employed in different activities related to infrastructure improvement like road-building, conservation activities such as the removal of alien vegetation (a biodiversity benefit!) and tourist services.
Created a total of 11 SMME consisting of more than 3 permanent employees.
- Increased tourists visiting the park to 95,000. 50% of them are foreigners which has been increasing at 8 % per year (worldbank, Nov, 2012)4.
Azraq Wetland, Jordan
Another great example from West Asia
The Azraq Oasis is a wetland located in Azraq town in the Zarqa Governorate of Jordan located between a limestone desert on the west and a basalt desert on the east. It is rich in biodiversity, history and culture because of its strategic location and water resources. It is home to several unique archaeological sites like desert castles. In addition, it is currently a source of income for 60 local families. It suffered from the abuse and overuse of water from the Azraq basin especially in 1980 which resulted in an environmental disaster. Those human activities affected its functioning and ecological value and resulted in its degradation. Furthermore, people were heavily pumping water from the oasis to large urban areas and the illegal drilling of artesian wells for farming purposes. As a result of that, water levels decreased significantly in 1981 and reached risky rates in 1993 eventually leading to high depletion of natural oases and drying up huge areas.
To protect it from destruction, the Jordanian government took these actions:
Received support from international organizations like the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM) and French Development Agency (AFD) to save the oasis.
Restored a significant part of the wetland and built special boardwalks and bird hides in order to enable visitors to sightsee the birds.
In 2020, The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) started rehabilitating three pools in the reserve.
During mid December, 2020, 650 killifish were collected from other pools and introduced to the restored environment.
Outcomes of the project:
The Kingfisher bird became a visitor to the pools because of the killifish which feed this bird.
Prepared different habitats for Azraq killifish and migratory birds which gave more natural landscapes for the reserve visitors.
Preserving and maintaining 10 % of the former oasis due to the reserve management plan.
- Established a sustainable basis for the exploitation of the water resources of the Azraq Basin (medwetmanagers, March 23, 2021)5.
Nature-based tourism and nature-based solutions
Living in nature brings about a beautiful, optimistic and open soul for life. Through NBT this spirit is shared with new people who visit these special places in nature. In reflection, the tourists feel they are responsible to protect their home country’s nature and have the same feelings which strengthen their relationship to it.
Nature- based solutions use tools that already exist in nature to resolve issues resulting from poor land, climate change, resource use and societal challenges. Those solutions improve existing natural or man-made infrastructure and contribute to economic, social and environmental benefits. As a result, those naturally solved locations became recognizable attractions for tourism activities, so they are being visited by tourists from everywhere and this is Nature-based tourism.
Some examples of Nature-based solutions which contribute to the promotion and increase of Nature-based Tourism are:
Manchester, UK saves approximately £150million/year in healthcare costs because of its nature-based solutions like, accessing green spaces and tree planting activities to improve mental health and physical benefits.
New York City saved US$1.5 billion when investing in the protection of the upstream Catskills watershed to secure the water supply for the city, so it avoided expensive water treatment plants.
- Senegal initiated the biggest world mangrove reforestation project which encouraged investors to contribute half million tonnes of carbon offsets over its 30 years.The Sine-Saloum Delta now protects agricultural lands from salt contamination, rice farms are restored, and fishing replenished by up to 18,000 additional tonnes per year (iucn, n.d.)6.
- The Kingdom of Bahrain is one of the smallest countries in the world and the smallest in the Middle East. Bahrain, along with some other GCC countries, is rich in palm trees. What distinguishes Bahrain is being the most GCC country which spread of Palm trees on roadsides and skyline. This led it to being called " The land of a million palm trees ". Currently the palms are under threat and a start-up called '' Nakheel '' Home is on a mission to save them. This start-up is fighting the spread of "Red Palm Weevil'' in the kingdom. Nakheel uses state of the art technology like artificial intelligence to detect the injury before it spreads to the rest of the tree and destroys its lifetime early. This technology can save thousands of palm trees around the kingdom and contribute to maintaining the trees across farms in Bahrain (bahrainedb, Feb 6, 2020) 7 .
The role of youth in promoting Nature-based tourism
The global youth population is more aware of nature conservation than before because of the climate crisis.
Our role to conserve nature can be through:
Joining nature protection unions which perform campaigns to restore nature, preserve wildlife and spread society engagement with us. An Example of these unions is The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) of Jordan and Wild Jordan.
As youth, we are now more engaged in the use of social media which we can use to produce films and guiding media to deliver our messages. I believe youth nowadays play an important role in improving or discouraging nature-based tourism. This is our generation’s chance to make significant changes in our government’s actions for nature.
With the support and existence of the international community and global youth organizations, youth from different backgrounds can exchange knowledge and experiences on global environmental issues which will enhance the protection of nature in order to increase nature-based tourism. For example, COY16 is a yearly youth summit gathering young changemakers all over the world to strengthen the stance on the matter of climate in UN negotiations.
Conclusion
At the end of this blog, we learnt about nature-based tourism, some real examples of it, its relation to nature-based solutions and our role as youth in promoting it. Nature-based tourism has valuable outcomes on a country's nature, improving livelihoods, economy and tourism promotion locally and globally and governments can work on and exchange ideas from each other. Those outcomes are achieved when nature is protected, governments and locals are cooperated to achieve a common vision and most significantly the role of youth is included.
References:
aucklandcouncil, August, 2009, TOURIST ACTIVITY, retrieved on August 03, 2021, from TOURIST ACTIVITY | NATURE-BASED TOURISM
researchgate, March, 2019, Nature-Based Tourism, retrieved on June 20, 2021, from (PDF) Nature-Based Tourism, Nature Based Tourism Destinations' Attributes And Nature Based Tourists' Motivations
texas, n.d., What is Nature Tourism?, retrieved on July 8, 2021, from TPWD: What is Nature Tourism? - Texas Parks and Wildlife
worldbank, Nov, 2012, Biodiversity, Nature-Based Tourism, and Jobs, retrieved on July 16, 2021, from World Bank Document
medwetmanagers, March 23, 2021, A success story, retrieved on July 18, 2021, from A success story: restoration of the Azraq Wetland, Jordan
iucn, n.d., Nature-based Solutions, retrieved on July 16, 2021, from About - Nature-based Solutions
bahrainedb, Feb 6, 2020, Nakheel – The startup, retrieved on July 22, 2021, from Nakheel – The startup that is saving palm trees across the Middle East
This blog was written and submitted by Y4N Global Ambassador, Saber Sufyan.