UN agencies help world’s tourist resorts adapt to climate change

By UN News Center

With climate change posing a potential threat to tourist resorts, the South Pacific islands nation of Fiji has been selected as a pilot country for a series of United Nations-backed projects aimed at helping the tourism sector to adapt to the effects of climate change, ranging from more frequent cyclones to beach-eroding higher sea levels.

Island destinations are particularly prone to the effects of climate change with many of them relying on warm waters and long hours of sunshine to attract tourists to their beaches, and a similar plan is being prepared for the low-lying Indian Ocean island nation of the Maldives, which could be threatened by rising sea levels.

Alterations in weather patterns can have a serious impact on the programming of trips, the comfort of tourists and their health. Extreme climatic events can affect natural attractions, with storm surges and rising sea levels eroding beaches and higher sea temperatures bleaching coral. There is also the increased risk of drought and the possibility of physical damage to both people and property.

The projects will be coordinated by the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in conjunction with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and financed by the Global Environment Facility, an independent financial organization that provides grants to developing countries for projects that benefit the global environment and promote sustainable livelihoods in local communities.

“Addressing the impact of climate change on Small Island Developing States has become a priority, given the heavy dependence of their economies on tourism, their high level of vulnerability and their relatively low adaptive capacity,” the Programme Officer in UNWTO’s Sustainable Development of Tourism Department, Gabor Vereczi told an Agency workshop in the Fijian capital of Suva earlier this month.

“Climate change should not be seen by tourism administrations and businesses as a distant phenomenon, but one that is already affecting destinations and the daily operation of the tourism sector.

“Basic adaptation measures, such as early warning systems and preparedness for cyclones, or the better use of climate information provided by national meteorological services can make a huge difference in preventing and mitigating climate-related risks and hazards,” he added.

Urgent action needed to conserve deep seas and open oceans: joint UN report

Swift and wide ranging actions are needed to conserve the world’s entire marine environment amid fears that humankind’s exploitation of the deep seas and open oceans is rapidly passing the point of no return, according to a United Nations-backed report issued today that calls for urgent measures to conserve areas where more than 90 per cent of the planet’s living biomass lives.

The new study, ‘Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Deep Waters and High Seas’, which was issued jointly by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN), argues that the many lessons learnt on conserving coastal waters should be adapted and applied right across the marine world, including in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

“Humankind’s ability to exploit the deep oceans and high seas has accelerated rapidly over recent years. It is a pace of change that has outstripped our institutions and conservation efforts whose primary focus have been coastal waters where, until recently, most human activity like fishing and industrial exploration took place,” said Achim Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director.

“We now most urgently need to look beyond the horizon and bring the lessons learnt in coastal water to the wider marine world,” he added at the report’s launch in New York, which took place as countries and experts are holding talks on the law of the sea.

With more than 90 per cent of the planet’s living biomass – the weight of life – found in the oceans, the report underlines the value of the deep seas and open oceans and highlights how science is only now just getting to grips with the wealth of life, natural resources and ecosystems existing in the marine world.

“Well over 60 per cent of the marine world and its rich biodiversity, found beyond the limits of national jurisdiction, is vulnerable and at increasing risk,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, Acting Director General of IUCN.

“Governments must urgently develop the guidelines, rules and actions needed to bridge this gulf. Otherwise we stand to lose and to irrevocably damage unique wildlife and critical ecosystems many of which moderate our very existence on the planet.”

The report, launched at the UN Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (UNICPOLOS) which feeds into the UN General Assembly, also highlights the way fisheries, pollution and other stresses such as those arising from global climate change are impacting and affecting the marine world.

Less than 10 per cent of the oceans have been explored with only one millionth of the deep sea floor having been subject to biological investigations but the report states that over half – 52 per cent – of the global fish stocks are fully exploited. Overexploited and depleted species have also increased from about 10 per cent in the mid 1970s to 24 per cent in 2002.

“Once limited largely to shipping and open ocean fishing, commercial activities at sea are expanding rapidly and plunging ever deeper. Deep sea fishing, bioprospecting, energy development and marine scientific research are already taking place at depths of 2,000 m or more,” says the report’s author, Kristina M. Gjerde, High Seas Policy Advisor to IUCN’s Global Marine Program.

Taking into account the discussions in various international meetings, she also outlines several options aimed at the conservation and sustainable management of the deep seas and open oceans. These include among other things, actions and measures that reflect an integrated approach to oceans management based on ‘ecological boundaries’ rather than just political ones and giving higher levels of protection to vulnerable species like deep sea fish.

Other steps include the creation of a “precautionary system of marine protected areas” along with improved impact assessments that reflect the full range of possible human activities across the total marine environment.