Beyond Greening - Tourism Watch

Beyond Greening: Reflections on Tourism in the Rio-Process | Positioningpaperresorts at the expense of local communities whose agricultural and occupational land will beused to develop accommodation, entertainment facilities and tourism infrastructure. Land isturned into recreational space for tourists. None of these concerns are adequately reflected inthe current discourse, which relies on market-based self-regulatory mechanisms andpropagates more growth.Threats to food sovereignty and access to waterTourism can threaten food sovereignty by affecting fisheries resources, access to the beach orto hunting grounds, and subsistence agriculture. Tourism and conservation have becomekissing cousins, displacing people, especially indigenous communities, from the forest andtheir resources. The "commoditization" of natural resources and biodiversity for tourismaccelerates this process. The main actors in this business are big conservation groups,international financial institutions, donors and state agencies.Local communities lose out to tourism in terms of access to water, especially in water-scarceregions. Water grabbing by hotels and resorts violates people's right to water, which is afundamental human right.Climate changeTourism contributes significantly to globalclimate change, which threatens the livesand livelihoods of hundreds of millions ofpeople. Based on current growth forecasts,by 2035 tourism will grow by 179 percentand its contribution to greenhouse gasemissions (GHGEs) will increase by 188percent, mainly as a result of increased airtraffic. Although the International Panel onClimate Change is calling for a 50 percentreduction of current GHGEs by 2050,tourism industry lobbies includingUNWTO have been obstructing progresstowards binding regulations of aviationemissions. Propagating and introducing market based mechanisms is further delaying orundermining progress. The efficiency gains in the aviation sector have been far too small andfar too slow to get the industry onto a sustainable path. The impact of unsustainableconsumption patterns by the rich on the lives of the poor is strikingly evident in the context ofclimate justice.Whether it is the impacts of climate change or false solutions, the prime victims are poor andmarginalised communities. New climate mitigation initiatives such as carbon trading andexperiments with biofuels are accelerating this victimisation. Climate change is not just anissue of mitigation and adaptation. It demands a complete paradigm shift from the currentform of neo-liberal capitalist development to a people-centric approach.ParticipationAt all levels, the participation of local communities involved in or affected by tourism stillleaves much to be desired: in international negotiating processes, in national policyformulation as well as in and around the development and management of touristdestinations. Civil society organisations have been stressing the need for their greaterparticipation in these processes, in particular in the work of the UNWTO, which although a12