INTEGRATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

Happy World Tourism Day and welcome to the tourism, culture and wetlands edition of the newsletter!  

This newsletter presents several excellent case studies from around the world, and provides some engaging stories about the interaction between tourism development, communities and the livelihoods associated with wetland ecosystems. We look forward to your feedback on this.

Sustainable tourism is envisaged as tourism that meets economic and social needs while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems. Sustainable tourism in this sense is not a type of tourism but all forms of tourism that make an effort to adhere to sustainable development principles. The Brundtland Report, which offered one of the most widely used sustainable development definitions in 1987, has inspired stakeholders to address the wider environmental implications of the tourism industry. Thirty years later, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) declared 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development (IYSTD).

Tourism development, whether in rural or urban areas, drylands or wetlands, has progressively expanded worldwide, becoming one of the most significant contributors to economic growth. As of 2015, UNWTO estimated that tourism generated a total of US$ 1.5 trillion worth of exports globally, which roughly translates into 10% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product. Around the same time, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were promulgated worldwide. Tourism is anticipated to contribute, directly or indirectly, to all of these goals. Its contribution is particularly reflected in Goals 8, 12 and 14 on inclusive and sustainable economic growth, sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and the sustainable use of oceans and marine resources, respectively. Furthermore, in the past ten years, a majority of countries globally have invested in their tourism sectors as part of achieving their overall cultural, economic and social policy goals.   

Cultural diversity has been acknowledged as a mainspring of sustainable development in the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005) and in Agenda 21 for Culture (2004). This concept provides a springboard for new paradigms regarding the integration of culture, the natural environment and tourism. Participatory planning and multi-stakeholder partnerships can foster links between cultures and landscapes in the context of tourism development. Cultural heritage should therefore be central to developing environmentally sustainable tourism in all its forms.

In 2015, the UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture: Building a New Partnership concluded by endorsing the ‘Siem Reap Declaration on Tourism and Culture’. One of the main messages was that sustainable tourism can be a driver for the promotion and protection of cultural heritage, given that this heritage is a fundamental asset for sustaining tourism. 

Culturally-themed tourism is a growth market that has been popularised with the development of social media tools and applications. Social media allows instant communication, making the world appear smaller and multiplying the possible connections between people, places, products and ideas. Tourism in wetland areas features prominently in the rise of information distribution in social media. Wetland landscapes are known for their outstanding beauty, density and diversity of fauna and flora, as well as their rich cultural diversity. These different elements provide a recipe for growing interest in the development of cultural and experiential tourism.

This newsletter features several excellent articles, such as the case study on Gabon which highlights the positive benefits of ecotourism for communities around the river and lakes of the largest Ramsar Site in the country, the Bas Ogooué. Efforts to combine cultural tourism with nature-based tourism in this area (with a focus on wetland systems) have supported the restoration of both wetland habitats and fish stocks. We also highlight the compelling story of Maria Galaeone in the Nagacadan Rice Terraces, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Philippines. She explains how the process of enhancing local tourism capacity has increased the numbers of tourists visiting the region, which has in turn translated into visible economic and social benefits for the community. The common theme here is the integration of cultural heritage values into tourism activities as a means of inspiring and motivating people to conserve wetland habitats.

Worldwide, the interactions between culture, recreation, wetland management and tourism are crucially important both for the conservation of biodiversity and for the promotion of human cultural diversity, including the maintenance of cultural values and practices. Collaborative programmes for environmentally sustainable tourism can offer support for livelihoods as well as  beneficial management of wetland ecosystems, and these should be encouraged. Further strengthening the positive links between culture and tourism is essential both for the future of the tourist industry and for safeguarding vulnerable aspects of culture. One way or another, tourism will continue to be a prominent and influential feature of modern civilisation.

By Dr. Jacqueline Kariithi,Tourism Lead, Ramsar Culture Network

Dr. Kariithi is an environmental scientist passionate about conservation, tourism and development issues. Her current research interests focus on developing strategies for reconciling livelihood patterns in protected area landscapes. She earned an honours degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia and during this time her passion for tourism was nurtured as she wrote her undergraduate research project on Ecotourism development on the Norfolk Broads one of the largest wetland habitats in the United Kindgom. She has also had several years’ experience in the non-governmental organisations and private sector specialising in natural resources management, sustainable tourism in protected areas, working in projects that interrogate the relationship between cultures, sustainable livelihoods and conservation in protected area tourism. Jacqueline further advanced her research interests and joined academia as a lecturer at the School of Environmental Studies, Kenyatta University, Kenya. During time she decided to pursue a doctoral degree in the department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town on the topic of responsible tourism. Upon completion of her doctoral degree, she took an interest in coordinating and advocating for the Ramsar Culture Network’s Tourism Thematic Group and has enjoyed this assignment immensely. Towards the end of 2016, she started a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University and her research explores the linkages between cultural heritage, biodiversity conservation and their impact on livelihoodse in the Mount Elgon ecosystem.