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Chapter1Introduction1.1 Tourism and BiodiversityTourism is one of the world’s fastest expanding industries, perhaps the biggest on the basis of itscontribution to global gross domestic product (GDP), the employment figures it generates especiallyin developing countries and the number of clients it serves. The scale of the industry and the rate atwhich it continues to expand presents both opportunities and threats for biodiversity conservation andmanagement.Biodiversity is the key to human development. It is of paramount importance not only due to the goodsand services it provides, but also due to the fact that an estimated 45% of the global economy is basedon biological products and processes. However, on a global scale biodiversity is being lost at a ratemany times higher than that of natural extinction. This is caused by a number of factors, principallyunsustainable resource use, climate change, pollution, uncontrolled land use patterns, invasive speciesand unsustainable harvesting of natural resources. So great is the concern over the rate of decline anddegradation and its implications for human socio-economic welfare, that biodiversity was identified asone of the five priority areas for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development.Tourism is increasingly delivering some funds for conservation and providing local communities withan economic incentive to protect biodiversity. On the other hand, tourism also opens the way to newand potentially damaging forms of development such as over consumption of natural resources, lackof consultation with local communities, mining, logging, environmental degradation, exploitationof cultures and labour, human rights abuse, consumerist use of wildlife and high foreign exchangeleakages. Clearly, the relationship between tourism and biodiversity is not always positive particularlywhen tourism occurs without proper management standards and guidelines in place designed topromote biodiversity conservation and deliver tangible benefits to the local community.© 2010 World Tourism Organization – ISBN 978-92-844-1340-9