Best Practices for Tourism Concessions in Protected Areas: A Review of the Field

Abstract

Despite the importance of protected areas (PAs) worldwide to protect biodiversity, reduce poverty and promote sustainable development, throughout the world governments struggle to adequately fund PAs to meet conservation goals. Tourism is seen as a viable financial option for PAs, with tourism concessions through private sector partnerships gaining momentum that allows the overarching goal of preservation and conservation to remain with the state. However, without appropriate planning or best practices in place, tourism concessions can lead to such problems as waste, habitat destruction and the displacement of local people and wildlife. We analyzed tourism concession agreements in government documents from 22 countries to provide an overview of what best practices for tourism concessions are being established and what practices might need to be better incorporated into agreements. The greatest weaknesses of best practices appear to be with concession qualifications, legal, and financial responsibilities, while the strengths included environmental and empowerment/social responsibilities. This initial assessment of contract components will provide a baseline to further develop best practices and assist protected area managers, local communities, and conservation practitioners working with tourism in PAs to ensure that tourism has a positive impact on protected area management.

The Nature of Nature in Nature-based Tourism

“…For instance, in protected areas such as national parks or nature reserves preservation of the site and use by the local population are often prioritized over recreational and tourism use, especially since the UNCED Rio Earth Summit on sustainable development in 1992 (Zachrisson, Sandell, Fredman, & Eckerberg, 2006). Nature-based tourism companies are in many places dependent on permits to use access land or concessions for certain activities, and thus become under the control of someone else's decision rules (Wyman, Barborak, Inamdar, & Stein, 2011). If the tourism operator has no exclusive rights to the land, he or she has very few possibilities to manipulate or change the physical environment in order to develop new or improved products and services.…”

Evaluation of the private participation in the implementation and management of ecotourism in cavernas do Peruaçu national park, Brazil

“…Consequently, partnerships between government and private enterprise are increasingly seen as a possible solution for managers to reduce the need for public subsidies (Wyman et al 2011;Buckley 2004). Also, management entities would be better able to manage daily issues of environmental preservation and conservation, such as fire control, wildflower management, trail maintenance, and other functions (Eagles et al 2002;Buckley 2004).…”

The Commercial Use of Drones in U.S. National Parks

“…In many occasions, national park concessions are perceived as contributors to the park's conservation and management plans. As park authorities usually lack funds and human resources, the intent of granting concessions is to produce surplus returns to better support protected areas 17 and conserve the biodiversity contained within these properties 18,19 .…”

“…The tourism concession process is concerned with three aspects: legal frameworks, business opportunities and contracts management 17 .…”