PROPOSED STRATEGIES AND SOLUTIONS FOR IMPROVING BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION  

 

 

TECHNICAL/MANAGERIAL – INCLUDING MECHANISMS FOR INTER-SECTORAL COORDINATION

 

 

 

Proposed Srategies And Solutions For Improving Biodiversity Conservation Planning Into the Tourism Planning Sector:

 

The following are proposed strategies and solutions for improving biodiversity conservation and planning into the tourism planning sector:

 

POLICY – ORIENTED

Biodiversity is under continuous exploitation pressure. The rate of habitat destruction, coupled with the arbitrary exploitation of biological resources

 renders mono-specific management approaches inadequate.

Ecosystems management must be promoted as a measure to conserve not only species, but also critical habitats and their inter- and intra-specific relationships. The major threats to biodiversity in Yemen are either

directly or indirectly associated with agriculture and tourism. Efforts must be made to identify new areas that merit protective status, with the objective of ensuring their protection in-situ.

Concurrent approaches must be undertaken to reduce conflicts between tourism and biodiversity conservation through integration policy objectives for biodiversity conservation into policy statements for all sectors. This could be achieved by:

- Establishing a National Commission for Sustainable Development to integrate Yemen`s obligations under the Convention on Biodiversity (and other agreements) into the country’s policies.

- Organising ministerial workshops to discuss integration of biodiversity concerns into sectoral policies, and discuss their implications to plans, programmes and projects of all Ministries.

- Establishing interagency policy planning teams.

- Initiating a systematic review of Government policies, which affect biodiversity conservation and make policy interventions to ensure biodiversity concerns are addressed.

- Conducting an assessment to determine how institutions can be strengthened to enable development of an integrative policy process.

- Develop a clear policy process for adoption by Government entities (incl. National Budgets) and ensure that strategic action plans of these entities incorporate implications on biodiversity conservation and the environment as a whole.

 

The objective here would be to develop a Tourism Policy that is cognizant of biodiversity and environmental issues. To achieve this objective it is suggested that a revision of the Tourism Strategy Plan be done and

modified to address biodiversity and environmental issues, and monitor tourism carrying capacity for all sites visited by registered tour guides with tourists, in order to determine when visitation becomes a threat to

biodiversity.

 

ECONOMIC

Economic benefits obtained from tourism activities in protected areas should be used to improve the protection and administrative programmes

of these areas, including facilities for public use (roads, trails) and personnel, stimulating local development and the benefits to local communities. To provide better and specialized services to the visitor, the implementation of ecotourism projects may be carried out through concessions to the private sector. In this case, special consideration should be given to the rates and prices to be applied by the concessionaires, and also to appropriate mechanisms for making good use of the economic benefits. An important proportion should be destined to improve the services and facilities, and to maintain these ecotourism facilities.

 

The concessions mechanism should be carefully applied to avoid limitations to free access to the main attractions of protected areas. Tariffs in addition to the entrance fee should be applied only for lodging, food,

and for those ecotourist activities requiring important investments.

 

Environmental education is the typical programme that needs to be free of any charge, as it is one of the main management objectives of protected

areas.

This will be through the following actions:

 

- Strengthening tourism aimed at bettering standard of living of local communities (small and mid-sized entrepreneurs): better distribution of benefits, new options for participation in activity.

- Development of opportunity for donations as seed capital for smaller projects

- Development of investigation of economic valuation of sustainable tourism: economic quantification of tourism’s contribution towards conservation, and in general, betterment of the environment.

- Diversification of the tourist offer: increasing attention paid to segments in active growth, such as bird-watching.

- Development and strengthening of mechanisms for granting concession of tourist services in Protected Areas.

- Development and strengthening of participation by hotels and other tourist installations in the financing of conservation: e.g., hotels donate a set percentage of their earnings (obtained by requesting this from the

client) to the conservation area where they are located to be used towards conservation.

 

SOCIAL

- Although the SNRMP supported the creation of local NGOs, principally several women’s groups in Jabal Bura’a, Aden Wetlands and Hawf protected areas. Some employment opportunities have also been created

for women around the JBNP and AWPA, principally through the training and provision of equipment for income generation activities such as sewing, embroidery, handicrafts, livestock product processing.

However, their capacity for developing ecotourism activities as an alternative livelihood has been limited at both the JBNP and AWPA so far.

- There is a lack of multi-stakeholder community-based ecotourism management and community – based tourism organizations (CBO) in its ideal form initiated and operated by local communities in harmony with

their traditional culture and responsible stewardship of the land.

- Currently the many stakeholders affected by resource use and tourism in the targeted areas have no opportunity to participate in decision making about how resources are used and what kind of regulations imposed. This leads, however to a situation where many stakeholders break rules and regulations designed to conserve biodiversity and either bribe their way out if intercepted or they avoid interception.

- Most of the people at JBNP, AWPA and Hawf protected areas are landless especially the women groups who live close to or on these sites. This makes it very difficult for them to start any formalized/ government

approved enterprise since it is required to show land documents for a location before developing any enterprise upon it. This makes it particularly difficult to establish some accommodation services for tourists

and get them approved as tourist accommodation for example.

 

TECHNICAL/MANAGERIAL – INCLUDING MECHANISMS FOR INTER-SECTORAL COORDINATION

 

 

Poor coordination and collaboration have been quite notorious between agencies with mandates for the management of Yemen`s biological resources, resulting in duplication of efforts, unjustified spending and

reduced efficiency and effectiveness. However, The key to develop ecotourism development is to ensure that every one will be well represented, without the cooperation and support to local community, any attempt to develop tourism in general and ecotourism in particular on the protected area is likely to fail.

 

This will be through the following actions:

- Establishment of multi-stakeholder committee for 'Strengthening the management of the wetlands biodiversity should be established. Once active and able to reach consensus the committee should be endowed by the government with decision-making authority about the management of the area.

- Encourage policy coordination and co-operation between key government institutions to develop and implement ecotourism strategy;

- Identify and incorporate tourism and other non-governmental associations, private sector participation matters related to ecotourism development in the area;

- Define the role ecotourism will play for local communities;

- Finalize protected area management plans that facilitate and promote - sustainable nature tourism;

 

- Strengthening of inter-sectorial through clear mechanisms for participation of the Public and private sectors for biodiversity planning tourism development.

- Better follow-up of incentives granted and of assented touristic declaratives; revision and betterment

 

HUMAN RESOURCES (INCLUDING EDUCATION AND TRAINING):

 

Training needs to be addressed to the different sectors, public, private, local communities, NGOs etc. The aim of training programme is spreading

the concept of ecotourism and its practical operation. They should also

contribute towards an environmental awareness campaigns fighting  pollution, untreated rubbish (especially due to discarding plastic containers and envelops).

The implementation of ecotourism/conservation of biodiversity requires strengthening national institution responsible for protected areas. Concession mechanisms need strong regulations and control to maintain

desired management objectives. Human resources should be appropriately trained for the administration of concessions to assure biodiversity protection and provide a regular cash flow. Career development and

training are important needs among the personnel in protected areas.

Efforts are needed to overcome this situation:

 

- Develop training skills for ecotourism guides to gain further experiences and knowledge to conservation issues, tourism awareness and community management;

- Establish ecotourism guides programme together with on the job training for community members and English/ second languages courses.

- Training programmes in business operation

- Establishing ecotour itinerates and circuits, observation and identification of animal and plant species;

- Developing group guiding skills and accounting material skills;

- Establish an adequate means of sharing information, training and experiences amongst agencies and their stakeholders.

- Develop advocacy tools for building consensus on biodiversity issues at the highest political levels.

- Strengthen NGOs and CBOs to play a greater role in the conservation and management of biodiversity towards sustainable livelihoods.

- Strengthening of training in quality of service: development of more training opportunities in all fields, with an emphasis on the small and mid-sized entrepreneur in the tourism industry and on topics such as tourist

safety, service culture and the biology of conservation.

- Developing of courses for park rangers and members of local committees and environmental committees by conservation area.

 

BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION (AT ALL THREE LEVELS: ECOSYSTEM, SPECIES AND GENETIC)

 

One of the main concerns when promoting tourism in the protected areas relates to protecting the environment and setting up environmental – trend opportunities and mechanisms, likely to preserve natural resources from

degradation, also through conservation and sustainable use of territory and its renewable resources.

Uncontrolled heavy infrastructure and investment may be destructive if not properly managed. Conversely, precisely because ecotourism builds intensively but not extensively on the use of natural resources, ecotourism may play a more proactive role in protecting environment. To enhance national capacity in monitoring biological resources utilization, it needs to create an operational monitoring and assessment system, specific need in this area including knowledge management system and enhanced staff capacity in preparing and implementing of ETS. Efforts should be made to integrate aspects of biological diversity.

Of priority needs in this context:

 

- Strengthening of zoning for land use of the PAs: participative management plans based on scientific-technical investigation that defines areas to be used for tourism. Carry out evaluation of results.

- Development of methods for measuring environmental impact of visitation to the Protected Areas: application and evaluation of these.

- Greater and better utilization of the information available in the national inventory of biodiversity, including the mapping of ecosystems for decision-making on zoning, as well as for dissemination of tourist draws and the shaping and developing of public awareness.

- Utilization of sustainable tourism as an activity of priority in developing of biological corridors: generation and making use of supporting investigation.

- Strengthening of agroecotourism in the protected areas and biological corridor buffer zones, as a means of disseminating and reinforcing local culture and traditions, sustainable agriculture and of generating economic benefit for the communities involved. Developing of relevant investigation and defining mechanisms for its dissemination and utilization in decision-making.

- Strengthening of ex situ conservation which; within their activity contemplate tourism as a means for obtaining financial resources and support for conservation in situ

 

EDUCATION AND AWARENESS

- Build Education and Awareness Programmes in biodiversity conservation on existing initiatives and fill gaps in formal approaches.

- Foster greater collaboration between conservation and education agencies and other stakeholders.

- Promote the sensitization of communities to biodiversity concerns through shared planning and management of these resources.

 

LEGISLATION AND ENFORCEMENT

- Make legislation and regulations more effective management tools, through harmonization, and by incorporating the use of new technologies and stakeholder involvement.

- Improve law enforcement success rate and utilize it as an important tool for management and sensitization on biodiversity conservation.