Biodiversity – Tourism is part of the solution #ForNature

On International Day for Biological Diversity (22 May), we are reminded that ‘we’re part of the solution’ #ForNature, where tourism can be a force for good.

From the air that we breathe, the water we drink, to the food that we eat, we all rely on biodiversity. It refers to the variety of life on Earth – beginning with the genes that define the millions of different species of plant and animal, and their communities, within a wider fabric of interconnecting relationships in a physical environment, which we commonly called ‘Nature’. As with all other animals, humanity is part of it, reliant upon it, and due to our global dominance, we are its problem, as well as its solution.

The travel and tourism sector already know the importance of nature and what it uniquely brings to many travel destinations across the world. Nature is integral to our prosperity and wellbeing, but it also supports human development and equality, our resilience to viral pandemics and climate change1, and supports the lives of millions of other species. In fact, The World Economic Forum estimates Nature’s economic value generation at US$44 trillion2 – over half of the world’s total GDP!

Ironically, it is the improved global economic growth, the rise in living standards and increased demand for natural resources over the last 50 years that has directly driven biodiversity loss3:

  1. Land-use change – the conversion of land cover (e.g. deforestation), a change in eco-system management (e.g. intensive farming), or changes to landscape configuration (e.g. fragmentation);
  2. Over-exploitation of natural resource – overfishing, hunting, and logging, including the harvesting of species for traditional medicine and the pet trade;
  3. Climate Change – global warming changing climate and weather patterns that then impacts on ecosystems;
  4. Pollution – nitrogen deposition through fossil fuels and fertiliser causing ecological changes;
  5. Invasive species – introduced species displacing native wildlife and disrupting natural ecosystems.

Poorly managed, and tourism contributes to all five of these direct drivers of biodiversity-loss. However, when better managed: seeking to minimise negative impact, and maximising the value given to nature and its biodiversity, tourism can ultimately be a force for good.

In fact, there is an opportunity for the travel and tourism sector to do much more than just count and reduce carbon output, there is an opportunity to better protect animals and regenerate the natural systems that naturally absorb carbon and bring back stability to life on Earth.

ANIMONDIAL, the specialist consultancy, supports the travel and tourism businesses to better protect animals and nature. Its impartial guidance and community-led conservation projects offer a means for the tourism sector to review and improve their activities and embrace the “silver bullet”4 to lessen biodiversity-loss and climate change, and save ourselves.

This “Endangered Species Day” (21 May), as we stop for a moment to consider the fact that more than 37,000 species are now threatened with extinction5– there is no more pressing a time to do what we can to better protect animals and nature.

What can I do to better manage my impact on animals and nature?

Reduce your company’s negative impact on nature

  • Adopt animal welfare and protection principles, advocated by ANIMONDIAL, and offer only responsible tourism activities with animals and respectful wildlife viewing practices that uphold good welfare standards. Receive a bespoke service from ANIMONDIAL.
  • Evaluate, or audit, all your tourism activities / experiences that involve animals to identify and measure risk, end inappropriate activity, and seek to improved standards in animal welfare.
  • Discourage your suppliers from sourcing animals from the wild; unless there is a demonstrable and justifiable conservation need. If in doubt, contact the national CITES Management Authority6.
  • De-list tourism activities / experiences that involve the hunting of wild-born or captive-bred animals for the purposes of sport, trophy, or entertainment.
  • Request that your suppliers do not commercially trade, breed or exploit their animals (this includes zoos, aquaria, animal sanctuaries, rescue centres and orphanages7).
  • Product procurement teams and Destination Management Companies should inform all suppliers to ensure they do not sell or promote the sale of any of these unsustainable wildlife products. Refer to the European Commission’s Wildlife Souvenir’s Guidevii and use tools to identify threatened species8,9.
  • Ask your customers not to pick up, collect or buy animals or parts of animals (including corals, sponges, shells, etc.) or plants (including orchids, seeds, seedlings, etc.) from the wild. Use online tools to identify the conservation status of the species involvedi, vii, viii.
  • Ask your airline partners not to transport live animals, trophies or products derived from animal or plant species that are listed under CITES Appendix I or classified as ‘Critically Endangered’ or ‘Endangered’ by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™.

Maximise your protection and restoration of nature

Select one of ANIMONDIAL’s trusted, community-based animal protection initiatives through its Animal Protection Network10. Such as Ape Action Africa, that protects gorillas and chimpanzees, supporting local livelihoods, and protecting primary forest. The following video features Alex Benitez, Sanctuary Manager at Ape Action Africa, Cameroon, and provides an introduction to the organisation.

Collaborate with others to make a difference

Changing our relationship with nature is too great an issue to be left to the scientists and policymakers. We must all take responsibility, end destructive activity, and strive to return what we have lost. Business (no matter the size) has a crucial role to play, by putting nature at the core of their activity and decision-making, assessing, mitigating, and managing animal and nature-related risk.

ANIMONDIAL is here to help you identify tangible actions that are right for your business. Contact us today.


REFERENCES

Daniel Turner, Director ANIMONDIAL

Save nature; save ourselves

Last week I set about drafting the monthly blog for ANIMONDIAL with a focus on “Endangered Species Day” (15 May), to acknowledge its 15th Year Anniversary, but it wasn’t working for me. As I pondered how to bring together so many interconnecting streams of thought, I soon became embroiled in a complexity of message – as opposed to practical application. The protection of threatened species, ecosystems, and global biodiversity sounds good on paper, but advice and guidance to help the spectrum of different businesses to fulfil such broad objectives is often lacking.

In the travel and tourism sector, various policy incentives exist, but few include supportive guidance and viable actions that would be applicable to small to medium-sized businesses. I hope that this blog will go some way in helping travel businesses play their part.

On “Endangered Species Day”, we are reminded of the importance of protecting species, particularly those classified as ‘endangered’. These are species whose population has declined between 50 and 70% with the decline measured over 10 years or three generations of the species, whichever is longer. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a global authority that determines species’ conservation status, there are more than 31,000 species threatened with extinction1. That’s almost a third of all assessed animal and plant species on Earth! Moreover, with each species having relevance within a wider fabric of interconnecting relationships (commonly referred to as ‘Nature’), a loss of a species could well result in a greater loss of biodiversity. Since the inauguration of “Endangered Species Day” (2006), the number of threatened species has doubled!

Biodiversity loss is primarily a result of two factors: the loss of natural habitat and a loss in genetic variance. Both occur naturally, but it is the relentless intensity of human activity that continues to have the greatest impact. The removal of vast areas of native habitat for industry, housing and agricultural development, soil degradation from overuse and pollution, to the overhunting and poaching of wildlife, are all considered major drivers in species displacement and extinction.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranks biodiversity loss in the top five threats humanity will have to face in the next ten years. In a recently published report2, it acknowledges that “Nature underpins our prosperity and wellbeing by providing economic value and security, supporting human development and equality, and increasing our resilience to climate change.” In economic terms, Nature is believed to have an estimated economic value generation of US$44 trillion (that’s over half of the world’s total GDP). However, despite this, humanity’s negative impact on other species, ecosystems, and global biodiversity is not only contributing to the Climate Change Crisis but, also increasing the occurrence of animal-to-human (zoonotic) infectious disease (e.g. COVID-19)3. This demonstrable connection between the health of animals, natural ecosystems and the health and welfare of humans was a focus of my March 2020 blog.

Humanity appears to be destroying the very resource we should value the most. We must therefore act now to save nature; to save ourselves.

Many people are wondering when life will get back to ‘normal’ after the COVID-19 crisis. Can we not use this opportunity to learn from our mistakes and build something better?

I realise these are already difficult times for the travel and tourism sector but, perhaps there is no better time to take stock and review previous operations – to return more efficient and effective. Importantly, ‘sustainability’ can no longer be regarded as an ‘aim to have’, but an integral component of all that we do. Tourism needs to review its relationship with animals and nature. Specifically, to identify, measure and better manage (or even to minimise) negative impact.

Simply adopting an in-office policy to “recycle, reuse and reduce” should no longer be considered enough to reverse nature’s demise and ensure our future security. Instead, this kind of initiative must be one of many within a multifaceted, strategic approach to optimise output. Involving all departments within your business as well as stakeholders across the supply chain.

Knowing that something needs to be done is the first step towards success, but knowing what to do and how to do it, is often the issue. ANIMONDIAL, the global tourism consultancy specialising in responsible animal tourism, is here to help cut through the complexity to identify tangible actions that are right for your business.

What can I do to better manage my impact on animals and the natural world?

Reduce your company’s negative impact on nature

  • Adopt animal welfare and protection principles, advocated by ANIMONDIAL and the ABTA Animal Welfare Guidelines4, and offer only responsible tourism activities with animals and respectful wildlife viewing practices that uphold good welfare standards. Receive a bespoke service from ANIMONDIAL.
  • Evaluate all your tourism activities / experiences that involve animals to identify and measure risk, end inappropriate activity, and seek to improve standards in animal welfare.
  • Discourage your suppliers from sourcing animals from the wild; unless there is a demonstrable and justifiable conservation need. If in doubt, contact the national CITES Management Authority5.
  • De-list tourism activities / experiences that involve the hunting of wild-born or captive-bred animals for the purposes of sport, trophy, or entertainment.
  • Request that your suppliers do not commercially trade, breed or exploit their animals (this includes zoos, aquaria, animal sanctuaries, rescue centres and orphanages6).
  • Product procurement teams and Destination Management Companies should inform all suppliers to ensure they do not sell or promote the sale of any of these unsustainable wildlife products. Refer to the European Commission’s Wildlife Souvenir’s Guide7 and use tools to identify threatened species7,8.
  • Ask your customers not to pick up, collect or buy animals or parts of animals (including corals, sponges, shells, etc.) or plants (including orchids, seeds, seedlings, etc.) from the wild. Use online tools to identify the conservation status of the species involved1,7,8.
  • Ask your airline partners not to transport live animals, trophies or products derived from animal or plant species that are listed under CITES Appendix I or classified as ‘Critically Endangered’ or ‘Endangered’ by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™.

Invest in protecting and restoring nature

  • Audit all of your tourism activities / experiences that involve animals or that take place in Nature to mitigate risk and ensure compliance with your adopted animal welfare and protection principles. ANIMONDIAL partner, Preverisk9, provides endorsed animal protection auditing.
  • Adopt a fresh approach to managing associated risk and addressing persistent challenges by investing in solutions as an alternative to the ‘stop sale’ that modify product and tackle poor animal welfare standards. Contact ANIMONDIAL if you are interested in supporting our initiatives to better protect Asian elephants, cetaceans, turtles, and more in tourism.
  • Support financially or in-kind projects and organisations that genuinely protect animals and or Nature. Contact ANIMONDIAL to access its list of trusted, community-based animal protection initiatives10.

Collaborate with others to make a difference

  • Sign up and contribute to the United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce11; the WTTC BA Declaration on Illegal Wildlife Trade; and the IWT Zero Tolerance Policy12, and work with ROUTES’13 support to implement your commitments.
  • Sign up to the World Economic Forum’s Business For Nature initiative, working with governments to reverse nature loss by 2030.

Changing our relationship with nature is too great an issue to be left to the scientists and policymakers. We must all take responsibility, end destructive activity, and strive to return what we have lost. Business (no matter the size) has a crucial role to play, by putting nature at the core of their activity and decision-making, assessing, mitigating, and managing animal and nature-related risk.

ANIMONDIAL is here to help you identify tangible actions that are right for your business.

To help ANIMONDIAL help your business better protect threatened species, ecosystems, and global biodiversity, we want to hear from you! Please complete this 2 minute survey and receive a FREE Animal Protection Health Check. Looking forward to hearing from you.


  1. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ https://www.iucnredlist.org/
  2. World Economic Forum (2020) Global Risk Report https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-risks-report-2020
  3. World Economic Forum (2020) COVID-19 and nature are linked. So should be the recovery.
    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/covid-19-nature-deforestation-recovery/
  4. ABTA Animal Welfare Guidelines 2019 https://www.abta.com
  5. UNEP-WCMC & CITES Secretariat, providing information on C US Fish and Wildlife Service, CITES permits and certificates https://www.fws.gov/international/pdf/factsheet-cites-permits-and-certificates-2013.pdf
  6. ANIMONDIAL (2019) Animal sanctuaries: more than just a name
    https://animondial.com/animal-sanctuaries-more-than-just-a-name
  7. European Commission, The Wildlife Souvenirs Guide https://ec.europa.eu/environment/cites/info_souvenirs_en.htm
  8. CITES-listed species https://speciesplus.net/
  9. ANIMONDIAL (2020) Preverisk https://animondial.com/partners
  10. ANIMONDIAL (2020) Animal Protection Network https://animondial.com/animal-protection-network
  11. United for Wildlife Declaration https://www.unitedforwildlife.org/the-buckingham-palace-declaration/
  12. WTTC (2018) BA Declaration on illegal wildlife trade https://wttc.org/Initiatives/Sustainable-Growth/illegal-wildlife-trade
  13. The USAID Reducing Opportunities for Unlawful Transport of Endangered Species (ROUTES) Partnership https://routespartnership.org/

Daniel Turner, Director ANIMONDIAL