Coastal Tourism Has Negative Impacts on Environment -Mande
Environment
By Dan Ede
The Honourable Minister of Environment, Colonel Bala Mande (rtd.), has inaugurated the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Environmental Impacts Reduction from Coastal Tourism Project through Introduction of Policy Changes and Strengthening Public-Private Partnerships, a project recently approved by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The minister remarked on that occasion that countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, were increasingly turning towards tourism as a viable option for economic growth, but noted that tourism activities could have negative impacts on the environment if not well managed.
In his words: "We are concerned in the sense that we welcome economic growth in all its ramifications, but would want the environment to be protected equally."
He observed that the negative impacts of tourism on environment were worsened by a combination of factors such as inadequate policy/legislative framework; inadequate institutional capacity; and low sensitivity/low level of awareness of resource users.
The minister pointed out that "the coastal resource degradation invariably results from a mixture of public sector inadequacies and the activities of industries, developers, groups and individuals". He therefore concluded that public-private partnerships are of utmost importance in addressing tourism impacts on the coastal and marine environment.
Col. Mande recalled that at the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002, member states were requested to improve social and environmental performance in the tourism industry through voluntary initiatives like Environmental Management System (EMS), certification, and public reporting on environmental and social issues.
"Let me add furthermore that, in most of Africa, the tourism product is largely dependent on the natural resource base; and this of course is the physical environment. This explains why in some cases, sand, sea and sun are marketable items for tourists.", he said.
Continuing, the minister noted that tourism facilities like hotels, restaurants and other infrastructure constructed near or along coastlines thrive economically. But they can at the same time have direct adverse environmental impacts notably through discharge of untreated waste water and solid wastes into the coastal and marine environment.
"The consequences of these to revenue generation should be clear to us since a polluted or degraded environment will attract less tourist attention", he added.
In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Mr. Samuel Adekunle, noted that tourism and environment are inter-related. "Without a conducive environment, tourism activities will not take place. In other words, the relationship between environmental degradation and tourism is inverse", he said.
He, therefore, urged the committee members, in the course of their deliberation, to remember that "the coastal areas are full of activities that also impact negatively on the population of the farthest interior".
He further said that "we also need to remind ourselves that a lot of wealth is derived from the oceans and coasts, hence the need for sustainable development of our coastal areas".
The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Environmental Impacts Reduction from Coastal Tourism is one of the series of activities planned under the Environment Initiative of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
Stakeholders represented on this committee include those from government agencies, hotels, public utilities, tourism establishments, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the oil companies.
One of the responsibilities of the committee is to identify, design and develop viable project proposals that will address the negative environmental impacts of tourism.
It is also expected that implementation of such projects will ensure protection of the environment, create employment, promote gender responsiveness, and provide adequate care for the vulnerable group in the local communities.
Being a NEPAD project, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on NEPAD, Chief (Mrs.) Chinyere Asika, was on hand at the inauguration of the committee.
She remarked that one of the primary objectives of NEPAD was
to eradicate poverty and to place Africa, including Nigeria, on the path to sustainable development.
She, however, argued that "to achieve sustainable development, we require effective environmental protection and proper conservation of our living resources (both flora and fauna) found in the various eco-systems", adding that it was in recognition of this fact that in the conceptualization and development of NEPAD, special emphasis had been placed on environment.
This also informed the decision of NEPAD/UN Joint Committee to make environment, urbanization and population one of the five main clusters of the NEPAD/UN programme areas.
"It must be pointed out here that the Action Plan of the Environment, Initiative of NEPAD was one of the first Action Plans of NEPAD programmes to be developed and finalized with full participation of major stakeholders at both national and international levels", Mrs. Asika hinted.
Dr. David Tommy, UNIDO Representative in Nigeria, in his goodwill message, said UNIDO commended Nigeria for blazing the trail in being the first of the eight countries participating in this important projects to inaugurate the inter-ministerial committee to be responsible for providing guidance in the implementation of project activities in Nigeria.
He noted that the objective of this coastal tourism project was to strengthen the capacity of the participating countries, including Nigeria, to engage the private sector and thus enhance public-private partnerships for the implementation of appropriate national and regional polices and strategies for sustainable tourism development in coastal and marine areas, including a policy and strategy framework to guide and promote ecotourism development.
The project will also enable the countries to, among other things, implement pilot sustainable coastal tourism demonstration projects; provide appropriate policy and strategy frameworks to enable sustainability of the implemented demonstration projects and facilitate mainstreaming of sustainable coastal tourism development in country policies; build/enhance national capacities to sustain continuous implementation of activities implemented under the demonstration projects, as well as strategies for sustainable coastal tourism development.
The pilot demonstration projects to be implemented will facilitate the adoption and implementation of Environmental Management Systems and voluntary implementation of eco-certification schemes by tourism facilities, among others.
The environment minister also used the forum to disabuse the minds of critics who felt he was slow in his activities in the Niger Delta.
"I don't believe in jumping into ad hoc measures in solving the problem of pollution in the Niger Delta",he said, adding that this coastal tourism project would further improve the viability and productivity capacity venture in the Niger Delta.
He also recalled that a workshop on a national policy on erosion control was held recently in Enugu, observing that Nigeria never had a policy on erosion control.
"We never asked what causes erosion? What are the various tiers of government going to do? We need to put all these together in a national policy, otherwise we will never be able to grapple with the problem of gully erosion", he said, hinting that the National Policy on Sanitation was already available.
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