Ngarra Limestone Bay, Flinders Island, Tasmania
We all know there are many threats facing our remaining wilderness areas. As the world’s population grows and our standard of living increases and our footprint also continues to grow. Some of this is direct footprint, ie our urban areas, but the vast majority of the footprint comes from our demand for agricultural or forestry commodities. This demand for commodities, is currently by far the biggest threat to our remnant wilderness zones. At present most of our food and fibre are produced in an unsustainable manner.
So what to do? To date, most countries have countered these pressures by establishing conservation zones and reserves, however these areas are tiny in scale and most conservationist agree that these areas alone will not be enough in the greater scheme of things. In Australia for example the vast majority of our remaining biodiversity is on private land, which is unprotected, areas where deforestation is still occurring at a concerning rate[1].
Another tool that governments and NGOs are attempting to harness are what’s known as market based conservation mechanisms. I have personally spent the better part of the last decade working with civil society organisations to establish effective market based conservation tools. These tools aim to establish counter markets to the existing destructive ones ie markets that protect nature rather than destroy it. Examples of such approaches include: establishing markets for responsible produced commodities (ie FSC for Timber); setting up payment for ecosystem services schemes; establishing carbon and water trading markets. These approaches offer huge potential, due to their scalability and ability to influence very remote locations.
Responsible tourism is such a market and is proving itself effective in delivering positive outcomes for areas of cultural and environmental significance and the communities that inhabit them. Responsible tourism does this by directing peoples’ desire and willingness to pay for un-spoilt natural experiences, towards protecting natural/cultural assets and empowering/developing local communities. There are now many examples of how, when done properly, responsible tourism can lead to positive sustainability outcomes. Governments, private entities/citizens and civil society groups are increasingly collaborating and investing in programs that encourage the development of responsible tourism markets.
In Tanzania, on a 350,000 acre parcel of private land adjacent to the Serengeti National Park, is an area critical to the wildebeest’s annual migration. The land and biodiversity here was under significant threat from agriculture and hunting, but is now managed by the Grumeti Fund, a private philanthropic fund that protects the valuable natural landscapes and enhances responsible local livelihoods. To date this pioneering initiative has secured the migration route, put in place poaching and wildlife units, established a local education centre, incubated 48 local enterprises, reduced wildlife conflict and deployed over 300 camera traps for research purposes. All of this is made possible by conservation levies derived from Singita, a boutique safari operator that runs 2 lodges on the property.
The global conservation organisation WWF is also actively working with governments and private enterprises to promote responsible tourism across the Asia Pacific region[2]. One such project involves working in Nepal in partnership with Intrepid Travel and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), to establish sustainable community-lead eco-tourism in the Madi Valley of Nepal. These operations are located in the Chitwan National Park, a World Heritage Site, home to wild rhinos, tigers and elephants. The main objective of this project, is to generate revenue from tourism for members of the Madi Community an underrepresented group (especially women in the communities) and to subsequently reduce the instances of human-wildlife conflict that have occurred around the park.[3]
For a country as vast as Australia, it’s surprising how few private initiatives there are aimed at protecting our wilderness areas. Groups like AWC, Bush Heritage and the Australian Nature Conservancy have done some incredible world already in this space, with large areas of land under protection, but this still only equates to just over 1% of our land mass[4]. We started Ngarra with the intent to promote responsible development and tourism and play our own small role in these efforts.
Whilst Flinders Island is a world away from the Serengeti or the Himalayan foothills, Ngarra’s Limestone Bay project, was conceived with similar intent, to contribute positively to the unique local biodiversity, environment and community. The direct outcomes of the project are pretty straight forward, a 1000 acre conservation zone, beautiful buildings developed to the highest level of sustainability and direct economic uplift ie investment and jobs. It is the other indirect benefits, that in many operations get overlooked, where much of the potential lies: establishing responsible supply chains for food and services; training/upskilling and the regional conservation opportunities. Whilst these outcomes don’t come overnight or without attention, the combination of these direct and indirect outcomes, have the potential to significantly magnify the positive impacts of the project.
Will ecotourism alone solve the worlds challenges? Of course not. But it will definitely play a role. Further, remote tourism operations need to establish most of the services that an urban area needs, water, energy, food, supply chains. Responsible tourism provides a fascinating opportunity to establish, study and evolve, true “green” micro economies.….. if done responsibly, these developments can be models/exemplars that urban areas might also learn from.
[1] WWF Tree Clearing Australia
https://www.wwf.org.au/what-we-do/species/tree-clearing#gs.9f9ynt
[2] WWF Coral Triangle EcoTourism
(https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/where_we_work/coraltriangle/solutions/tourism/)
[3] WWF Heart of Borneo Ecotourism
[3] WWF Tiger Nepal - Tourism Partnerships
(https://www.wwf.org.au/about-us/partners/intrepid-travel#gs.9f32we)
[4] Private Conservation in Australia, Deakin University
http://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30079835/fitzsimmons-privateprotected-2015.pdf