English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

2. Theoretical backgroundThe Remake of a StateCroall (1995) mentions that it was Krippendorf’s seminal book TheHoliday Makers of 1984 that introduced to tourism some of the basicideas inherent in sustainable development, first presented in the WorldConservation Strategy (IUCN 1980). However, it was not until 1987 thatthe WCED (1987) with its quoted definition of sustainable development,began to stimulate increasing concern and initiate change designed tomitigate some of the growing negative impacts of tourism (Croall 1995).The subsequent Rio conference in 1992 led to a wider dissemination ofthe concept of sustainable tourism (ST) development.Based on the results of the Rio Earth Summit, the travel and tourismindustry as the world’s largest industry has initiated a sectoral sustainabledevelopment programme. This programme, referred to as the blueprintfor sustainability of tourism sector both in developing and developedcountries, has come out after analysing the strategic and economicimportance of travel and tourism, realising its potential to bring aboutsustainable development of the communities and countries in which itoperates, possessing vested interest in protecting the natural and culturalresources as the core of its business, and recognising the enormousbenefits in making the industry sustainable. This action plan programmeentitled “Agenda 21 (an agenda for action) for the Travel and TourismIndustry: Towards Environmentally Sustainable Development” wasprepared jointly by the World Travel and Tourism Council, the UN WorldTourism Organisation (UNWTO), and the Earth Council in 1996 is anindustry-specific action plan based on Agenda 21 (Bagri 2003, p 157). Thisdocument not only provides guidelines for the travel and tourism industry,the government, and travel and tourism companies for sustainabilityof tourism sector as a whole, but also emphasises the importance ofthe partnerships among government, industry and non-governmentorganisations. The results of above conferences further guided the WorldConference on Sustainable Tourism held in Lanzarote, Canary Island, Spainin 1995 with its principles and objectives.The UNWTO has defined ST as early as 1988 as “... lead[ing] to managementof all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needscan be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecologicalprocesses, biological diversity and life support systems” (Kruk et al. 2007,p 33). Responding to Agenda 21, the declaration of the year 2002 as theInternational Year of Mountains by the UN General Assembly in 1998 also89