The Darwin Initiative is a UK government grants scheme that helps to protect biodiversity and the natural environment through locally based projects worldwide.
May 22nd was the International Day for Biological Diversity, and the theme for 2017 was Biodiversity and Sustainable Tourism”. To tie in with this, in our most recent newsletter we invited articles from Darwin projects on the theme of Sustainable Tourism.
Underpinning the success and sustainability of many aspects of tourism internationally is the natural environment, from the landscape to the species level. Conservation of nature and biodiversity is therefore crucial to many tourism ventures. Revenue from tourism can help support communities living in poverty near protected areas or reliant on a depleting natural resource, and may offer a potential solution to conservation funding gaps.
However, there is a risk that high levels of, or uncontrolled practices in, tourism can do more harm than good to the natural environment. Projects must therefore ensure that they consider the sustainability of new tourism ventures so that the potential benefits can continue into the future.
In the newsletter we heard from projects working across the world – including Myanmar, Madagascar and St Helena. Although their context and approaches to sustainable tourism may differ, we hope that their stories and lessons will resonate with everyone.
We’ve picked out a few of the articles to share on our blog, and we’d encourage anyone who is interested to read further!
Written by Lisa George (SUDIA) and Rebecca Klaus (Cousteau)
In July 2016, Sudan’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) – Sanganeb Atoll Marine National Park and Dungonab Bay and Mukkawar Island National Park – were inscribed as a UNESCO Natural World Heritage site. This is the first natural World Heritage site in Sudan and the first marine World Heritage site in the Red Sea and wider Arabian region. The Darwin Initiative (DI) project team supported the national nomination process by providing data and organising a workshop at UNESCO headquarters. The new international status will likely attract more interest in Sudan as a potential tourist destination and more visitors. To prepare for this, our DI project has been helping Sudan to plan ahead and promote sustainable and fair tourism for the MPAs.
Sudan is not a high-profile tourist destination but the country has a special reputation among the international SCUBA dive community. Between 2,500 and 4,000 divers come to Sudan every year from Europe and occasionally the USA. The special reputation of Sudan as an elite destination among the dive community started in the early 1960s when the legendary Captain Jacques Cousteau filmed the documentary “The World Without Sun” and launched the Conshelf II experiment in Sudan to test whether humans could endure living underwater for extended periods of time. Sudan has managed to sustain this reputation due to the quality of the diving experiences, the abundance of marine wildlife, but also partly due to the small number of live-aboard dive boats operating in this challenging location.
A taste of what divers in Sudan’s Marine Protected Areas might experience, Credit – B. Neeser
In recent years, the number of live-aboard boats has started to increase; from the 8 locally based boats that were operating in 2000 there are now 15 boats, including 7 boats that visit seasonally from outside Sudan. While this number is still low compared to other destinations, the increase is proving to be a source of tension and poses a real threat to biodiversity conservation and the sustainability of this sector. The small number of locally based dive boats has been operating under a long-agreed informal set of guiding principles. However, newer boats bringing clients to Sudan are not obligated to follow these rules. To address this issue, the DI project has been working to support the dive operators to establish a formal code of conduct. As part of this process, the DI project has designed a series of Best-Practice Guidelines for encounters with marine wildlife for both the dive boat operators and their clients.
The DI project also identified a need to increase the link between the dive operators and the local communities. As international tourism is mainly boat-based, and the local communities are not easily accessible, there are limited opportunities for them to benefit from this potentially lucrative stream of foreign income. Establishing appropriate mechanisms through which the dive boats can interact with the local communities is challenging but paramount to ensuring that the communities benefit from tourists visiting their areas. To deepen understanding of the concept of sustainable tourism among national stakeholders, the DI project provided a 3-day “Sustainable Tourism Training Workshop” at the Red Sea University in Port Sudan. The workshop enabled participants to learn more about principles of sustainable tourism, including ecotourism. It highlighted the importance of ethical and responsible tourism and how these concepts can bridge development and conservation. Currently we are preparing for an expert to visit the communities to engage local fishermen in low impact ecotourism activities, such as manta watching.
While international tourism in the Red Sea State revolves around the live-aboard dive boats, Port Sudan and Dungonab Bay and Mukkawar Island National Park are also becoming increasingly important destinations for national tourists, particularly for people coming from the capital Khartoum. However, there is a lack of awareness of the marine environment and conservation issues among the general population as demonstrated by the stalls along the seafront in Port Sudan. These stalls target national visitors and sell marine mementoes including shells, corals, turtle carapaces, and dried baby shark and other fishes. To sensitise the general public about the wealth of marine biodiversity and flagship species in Sudan, the DI project prepared a poster exhibit jointly with our local partner SUDIA. The exhibit has been displayed at various events and has been very well received.
Marine biodiversity poster exhibit, Credit – SUDIA
You can find out more about Sudan’s marine parks on their website and read about how, on World Ocean Day on June 8th, Children from Sudan’s UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site called on world leaders to save the Ocean for future generations at the UN General Assembly.
2017 marks the 25th Anniversary of the Darwin Initiative! Since it was first announced in 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit, Darwin has gone from strength to strength. This year saw us passing the 1000th project mark, bringing the total number of funded projects to 1,055 – a fantastic legacy!
We are now inviting articles for our next newsletter celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Darwin. Are you involved in a Darwin project, or have you been in the past? If so – we’d love to hear from you! Click here for article ideas and guidance, and get in touch at Darwin-Newsletter@ltsi.co.uk.