Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve - Equitable Tourism Options

decision makers. The questions that were raised by local groups in relation
to th is were:
Action Required for Sustainable To urism as suggested by the ongoing
process on CBD
Basic inventory questions that need to be asked by Parties to the CBD,
include;
• Degree of Transparency: whether Indigenous peoples and other
local communities are being pushed into a reactive or defensive
position vis-a-vis the tourism industry
• Effectiveness of Dialogue: whether the dialogue process itself
infringes on the traditional resource rights of IPs and local
communities
• Level of due diligence: does the existing dialogue framework
promote outcome that are consistent with the CBD, i.e. a
precautionary approach
• Quality of Interim Measures: is industry self-regulation impacts on
cultural and biological diversity that are common to consumerdriven
tourism (Johnston, 2000)
Against this background, at the International Conference of Environment
Ministers on Biodiversity and Tourism, 6th - 8th March 1997, Berlin, Germany,
the participants met to share experiences and to work together on the
subject of Tourism and Biodiversity, the result of which was the Berlin
Declaration.
Followed by this, were the formulation of recommendations and objectives
for the CBD COP-5. In paragraph 2 of its decision V/25, adopted at its fifth
meeting, in May 2000, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on
Biological Diversity accepted "the invitation to participate in the
international work programme on sustainable tourism development under
the Commission on Sustainable Development process with regard to
biological diversity, in particular, with a view to contributing to international
guidelines for activities related to sustainable tourism development in
vulnerable terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems and habitats of
major importance for biological diversity and protected areas, including
47 Nil4giris : Ftuling Glory .
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