Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve - Equitable Tourism Options

Organisation. The Convention was formally adopted by the member states
on 22 May 1991 in Nairobi and it was opened for signature at the United
Nations' Conference on Environment and Development (Rio Summit) held at
Rio de Janeiro between 3fd and 14th June 1992. The Convention was first
signed by 157 states at the Rio Summit and then by another nine states. As
per Article 36 of the Convention, thirty ratifications, acceptances, approvals
or accessions were needed for the Convention to be enforced and this took
place on 29 December 1993. By 31 January 1995, 179 states had signed the
Convention and 102 states have ratified, acceded or approved it. India
ratified the Convention in 1994.The objectives of the Convention on
Biological Diversity are:
a. The conservation of biological diversity
b. The sustainable use of its components
c. The fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of utilisation of
genetic resources
The Convention on Biological Diversity and Tourism
The tourism topic was discussed at the Ministerial roundtable at the Fourth
Conference of the Parties COP-4 to the Convention on Biological Diversity in
May 1 998 at Bratislava for the firsttime. Considerable debate existed on how
seriously tourism would feature in future negotiations on biodiversity.
However, uptake on tourism issues by the UN Commission on Sustainable
Development in 1999 injected new clarity to the process of strengthening
international standards for the tourism industry. The first substantive
discussion on tourism and biodiversity occurred during the Fourth meeting of
the CBD's SubSidiary Body on Scientific, Technical & Technological Advice
(SBSTTA-4) in Montreal in June 1999. Here, Parties to the CBD began to
exchange views on how to integrate biodiversity into national policies,
programmes and activities for the tourism sector.
A major event concerning tourism in the interval between COP-4 and
SBSTTA4 was the declaration by United Nations of 2002 as the 'International
Year of Ecotourism.' While this announcement promised to focus more
attention on tourism, it was to be assumed to promote biodiversity
conservation. Organisations working on the ground i.e., at the ecosystem
level continue to document the devastating social, cultural, and ecological
losses linked to most types of ecotourism, without any real opportunity or
authority to convey this information to the government
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