Climate

 Justice  –    
Just  Tourism    

Climate  XL,  ECOT,  

EQUATIONS,  Kabani  
3rd  October  2009  
•   Global  climate  change  is  probably  the  most  
severe  threat  in  the  21st  century.    

•   Alarm  bells  have  started  to  ring  worldwide  -­‐  

access  to  water,  food  produc?on,  health,  
extreme  weather  condi?ons  and  abrupt  &  
irreversible  environmental  changes.  

•   Two-­‐way  rela?onship  between  tourism  and  

climate  change  –  each  one  affec?ng  and  being  
impacted  by  it.  

•   Relentless  expansion  of  tourism  is  a  major  

cause  for  concern  -­‐  con?nues  to  pervade  
coasts,  islands  mountains,  leading  to  
undesirable  impacts  on  ecosystems.    

•   Even  MEA  like  the  CBD  con?nue  to  promote  

tourism  as  a  market  based  conserva?on  
scheme  without  applica?on  of  the  
precau?onary  principle,  as  suggested  by  the  
Indigenous  Peoples’  Caucus  in  the  Eight  
Conference  of  Par?es  to  the  Conven?on.  
Today  the  impact  of  climate  change  is  already  being  
felt    
•   Coastal  areas  and  small  island  states  face  
serious  risks  due  to  sea  level  rise.    
•   Face  the  brunt  of  displacement  through  
expansion  of  tourism  facili?es  and  
establishments.    
•   Their  livelihoods  such  as  fishing  are  affected  due  
to  the  fact  that  ecosystems  like  coral  reefs  that  
support  fish  popula?ons  are  dying  as  a  result  of  
climate  change  impacts.  
•   Goa  -­‐  10  %  of  its  105-­‐kilometre  coastline  is  
falling  into  the  sea  –  a  total  of  21  stretches  
are  affected.  Flooding  due  to  coastal  erosion  
had  already  affected  trade  -­‐  the  situa?on  in  
the  coming  years  will  wreck  already  insecure  
livelihoods  
• Keyanan  coast  –  drying  of  the  mangroves  
and  the  erosion  of  coral  reef  
•   In  mountainous  regions  -­‐  mel?ng  of  glaciers  
pose  the  risk  of  floods  and  threatens  the  lives  and  
livelihoods  of  communi?es  which  are  dependent  
on  agriculture.    
•   Forest  diversity  is  threatened  by  climate  change  
which  in  turn  threatens  the  livelihood  of  forest  
dependent  communi?es.    
Un?l  now  there  are  no  commitments  for  
reduc?on  from  the  tourism  sector  –  why  –  
UNWTO  has  repeatedly  claimed  that  tourism  
contributes  to  poverty  allevia?on  and  that  
revenues  primarily  benefit  developing  countries    

This  is  a  claim  that  needs  to  be  challenged  head-­‐

on.    
•   Why,  alongside  tourism’s  celebrated  growth  has  
the  situa?on  of  the  world’s  poor  and  those  in  
India  only  worsened?    
•   Why  in  the  last  decade  has  there  been  a  steep  
rise  in  the  propor?on  of  undernourished  people  
in  rural  and  urban?    
•   Situa?on  of  scheduled  castes  and  tribes  is  more  
alarming  as  among  them  extreme  poverty  has  
resulted  in  over  three  fi]hs  moving  under  the  
lowest  levels  of  nutri?onal  intake  of  1800  calories  
in  urban  areas.    
•   Why  does  the  list  of  India’s  100  poorest  districts  
include  Bodh  Gaya,  Nalanda,  Darjeeling  and  
Sikkim,  all  popular  halts  on  India’s  tourist  map?    
We  as    civil  society  organiza?ons  following  the  discussions  
on  climate  jus?ce  as  related  to  tourism  are  gravely  
concerned  that  tourism  policy  makers  and  the  
industry  leaders  are  doing  to  li`le  to  late  to  counter  
the  looming  climate  crisis.  Considering  the  exploding  
growth  of  tourism  in  developing  countries  under  
neo-­‐liberal  regimes  we  are  upset  and  alarmed  that  a  
growing  number  of  local  communi?es  in  the  South  
are  suffering  four-­‐fold.  
1.  From  a  wide  a  range  of  tourism  induced  nega?ve  
impacts  that  have  been  visible  for  many  years  and  
have  s?ll  been  worsening  
2.  From  climate  change,  to  which  tourism  related  
industries  par?cularly  the  avia?on  industry  
significantly  contribute.  
3.  We  ques?on  corpora?ons  and  interna?onal  financial  
ins?tu?ons  like  the  World  Bank  who  promote  
market  based  measures  such  as  carbon  trading  and  
carbon  sinks  which  we  believe  are  totally  
unsustainable.  Offset  schemes  are  u?lised  by  
industries  whose  profit  margins  depend  on  delaying  
the  transi?on  to  the  low-­‐carbon  economy  for  as  long  
as  possible.    
4.  Addi?onally  and  increasingly  from  problema?c  
mi?ga?on  strategies  such  as  Carbon  Trading,  Carbon  
Offsets,  Clean  Development  Mechanism,  Green  
Cer?fica?ons,  some  of  which  tourism  policy  makers  
are  mistaking  it  as  solu?ons  

 We  demand  for  a  shi]  from  the  capitalist  approach  to  a  

people-­‐centric  approach  in  tourism.