The Conference, organised by the Ecotourism society of India (ESOI) and Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (MPTDC) and supported by the Union Tourism Ministry, the Bhopal International Conference on Sustainable Tourism (BICST) 2013, aimed to come up with a meaningful concept of ecotourism that meets policy requirements, reflects existing ground realities and strikes a balance between conservation, tourism and local livelihoods besides helping the government to create enlightened policies and execute best practices in the tourism industry.
Inaugurated by R Parasuram, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, the event welcomed eminent and national speakers such as Raghwendra Kumar Singh, Managing Director, MPTDC; Les Carlisle, Group Conservation Manager, AT & Beyond, South Africa, Hashim Tyabji, Member, Tiger Nation; Rohini Chaturvedi, UK (Cambridge), Guy Chester GSTC, Australia; Lynn Woodworth, Senior Manager of a Commercial Tourism Operation; Swathi Seshadri, Equations; Enrico Ducrot, CEO, Viaggi dell’Elefante and ECO Luxury, Italy; Richard Vigne, CEO, OL Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya; Heidi Bernsdorff from Germany; Manori Gunawadena from Sri Lanka; Mandeep Singh Soin, President and Founding Member, ESOI; Rakesh Mathur, Vice President, ESOI; Krishna Kumar Singh, Treasurer, ESOI and Former MLA & Environmentalist; Steve Borgia, Member, ESOI and MD, Indeco Hotels and Ravi Singh, CEO, WWF India, among others, who spoke on the theme ‘Tourism : An enabler for conservation, livelihood and sustainable growth’.
Parusram said that activities that attention should be given to comply with policies pertaining to existence of wildlife, nature and environment while promoting tourism. He informed that MPTDC, Madhya Pradesh Eco Tourism Board and the state’s Forest Department will work towards this goal. Infrastructure development for tourism will be reviewed at state level very soon, he added. According to him, this event can be made annual for Madhya Pradesh and ESOI should engage with Madhya Pradesh Tourism to work out the modalities. He further advised that the ‘urban dimension’ of ecotourism should be discussed as it poses a different set of challenges.
Soin, in his welcome speech, said that it is necessary to maintain a balance between conservation, tourism and local livelihoods while maintaining the cultural and environmental integrity of the host communities and enhancing protection of ecologically sensitive areas and natural heritages.
Raghwendra Kumar Singh, Managing Director, MPTDC opined that, in the present scenario, ecotourism is essential for human development and the environment, and the conference was a well thought step in evolving a new framework to promote environmental friendly tourism in Madhya Pradesh. K K Singh discussed the overall picture that concerns the whole country. “We will come out with a policy paper post conference,” Singh said and added that tourism was made look like a spoiler of the wildlife and local community which is not true.
All speakers were unanimous that tourism has been labeled as the world’s biggest industry in terms of its contribution to global GDP, the employment opportunities it generates and the number of clients it serves. They said that the relevance of tourism to economies of developing countries, and its potential for generating win-win outcomes for biodiversity and poverty has resulted in its advocacy as a conservation tool. The experts stated that tourism must be sustainable and contribute not only to poverty reduction but also to bio-diversity conservation. Indian conservation policy debates around ecotourism have become particularly salient as a consequence of recent orders of the Supreme Court of India and directions of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
The first technical session on ‘Eco-tourism Solutions and Strategies: Reflections on Global Experiences’ was moderated by Ravi Singh and the speakers were Carlisle, Woodworth and Ducort. Singh opined that many conferences on this issue in past remained unproductive and we hope this conference should come out with some concrete measures for sustainable tourism. Carlisle said that the issues on conservation faced by developing countries all over the world are almost the same. According to him, the land, people and animals are inextricably intertwined. “Just as wildlife conservation and ecotourism are vital for the future and the prosperity of many people who live in or around wildlife areas, so the support of those people is critical to protecting threatened ecosystems, endangered species and the precious biodiversity of the wildlife areas,” Carlisle said. He also advocated fencing of reserves and informed the audience about the reduction in man-animal conflict because of fencing. He opined that India has a lot of wildlife in agricultural areas while there are also sanctuaries that do not have too much wildlife. “The challenge is to move the wildlife from agricultural areas to wildlife sanctuaries. AT & Beyond helped the forest department in reintroducing Bison from Kanha tiger reserve to Bandhavgarh reserve and after that staff in the state forest department has become quipped to carry out similar operations on their own,” he added.
Woodworth shared that International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) and Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO) are existing examples of how tour operators can work with and for governing bodies to successfully manage and administer tourism for the long-term good of all stakeholders, including local people, businesses and wildlife. Ducrot talked about various Eco Luxury project that he undertook and how he implemented the sustainability criteria to maintain the fundamentals of the heritage structure.
The second session was moderated by Soin. Vigne, Chester, Bernsdorff and Gunawadena were the speakers for the same. Vigne shared his views on ‘how to use livestock to provide conservation space in support of ecotourism’. He shared his experience of OlPejeta in Kenya which had always been a cattle ranching area and now the OlPejeta Conservancy. “This Conservancy holds the single largest population of black rhino in East Africa and receives over 80,000 visitors per year. Our wildlife populations, including some of the highest predator densities recorded In Kenya, are fully integrated with a commercial and ‘profitable’ cattle operation. All profits are reinvested back into conservation and community development,” he said. Chester talked about the development of Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) how it helped in fostering increased knowledge and understanding of sustainable tourism practices and promoted the adoption of universal sustainable tourism principles and building demand for sustainable travel. “Ecotourism should be contributing to local community by employment and conservation,” he opined. Bernsdorff stated that sustainability is all about ‘balancing’ and ‘sustaining’. “There is a need to balance the use of environmental resources and the economic benefit of tourism,” she said and that regenerative tourism is the need of hour.”
The third technical session ‘Ecotourism Framework in India: Stakeholder experiences of challenges and opportunities, and the potential for collaboration,’ saw speakers explaining the opportunities and challenges of implementing an ecotourism framework in India, through an exploration of the macro and micro contexts within which this framework is situated. The conference concluded with a session titled ‘Ecotourism in Madhya Pradesh: a review of policy & practice and recommendations for a strategy for the future’ where Parasuram talked about the current issues that Madhya Pradesh is facing on ecotourism front.
