Speeches for ideas,
to quote, statistics
2) Suitable for economists,
policy makers, developers, environmentalists, country
lovers.
Theme ideas are in red
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
IN THE MOUNTAINS
Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan
We have been reminded that our primary concern
should be the greenhouse effect and in the actions we need to take at a
global level the behaviour of every individual for good or ill plays
a most important role. Tourism is part and parcel of these planetary changes
and changes are called for.
The 1999 report of the United Nations Commission
on Sustainable Development confirms that tourism
is the leading world industry. There is already a turnover of US$444
billion annually for international tourism alone, not counting the domestic
sector. Growth rates of over 4% have characterized the last 10 years and
are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Soon there may be
1.5 billion tourists, a quarter of the present world population. The Alps
have approximately a 10% share in this mass industry welcoming more than
120 million visitors every year along half a million kilometres of
roads, sleeping in 5 million beds.
These astonishing figures prompt us to ask
whether the earth can survive mass tourism especially
if everybody develops the taste for travel of the rich nations.
Tourism commercializes the public good that is
nature and culture, still relatively open, in many senses free, but of inestimable value.
But is mass commercial tourism destroying the very essence of the natural and cultural
heritage through the pressure on the landscape and the devaluation of ancient, authentic
traditions ?
The Alps is both
the most delicate ecosystem and the region of greatest density of both visitors and
infrastructure, especially for winter sports. Surely we are near saturation point. At the height of the winter season a million
and a half skiers are whisked away every hour on ski lifts ever higher and faster. Isolation
and inaccessibility is no longer a barrier against intrusive high technology and the new
thrill seeking cults like canyoning , bungy jumping, ski offpiste even on the remotest glacier
where the object is the sensational without considering dangers to life or the environment.
The Alps may soon reduced to an adventure playground. Already there
are estimated to be as many as 800,000 participants in extreme water sports like canyoning
and rafting, or on 3 million mountain bikes as well as the 12 million more contemplative types
in 1600 mountain huts at high altitude run by the alpine clubs.
Adventure, "fun", the mega everything are
part and parcel of the playboy mentality that creates such a hullabaloo, figurative
and literal in global tourism disturbing the peace and quiet of nature. Of
course there is a place for pleasure in the Alpine scheme of things but
is it the bottom
line?. The Alps are too precious to be toyed around with.
Even if tourism is the saving grace of
the alpine economy and perhaps the only way of stopping the haemorrhage of the
young to the plains. Even if the local people desperately want tourism and curse the ecologists,
we have to ask if an inappropriate and excessive tourism is as great a threat as
global warming and whether there have to be limits in time and space, whether there should be more
and better protection and a strict system of seasons.
Alp Action and its distinguished partners
have pioneered the idea of sustainable and soft tourism and I am delighted to see even
from such august bodies as the European Commission more and more manuals telling
us how to be environmentally friendly.
For more than ten years the challenging
mission of Alp Action has been to preserve one of the biggest natural regions in Europe
whilst maintaining economic viability, cultural integrity and recreative possibilities.
Parks and protected areas are at the centre of this
activity. 1.5 million visitors come very
year to Gran Paradiso in Italy, a million to Berchtesgarten in Germany or to Vanoise
and Ecrins in France, 700,000 to Adamello Brenta in Italy. If protected areas cover
something like 10% of the total area of the Alps, in less than 1% of the alpine space are humans
totally excluded. And only in protected areas
can the fauna and
flora flourish. A much more extensive system of protection is needed
even covering the whole mountain chain.
Something is being done. We applaud the efforts of Natura 2000 and transboundary enterprises
like Mercantour and Alpi Marittime in the Midi.
Although it is necessary to enlarge the
zone of protection and preserve intact the last areas of virgin wilderness it is also vital
to respond to the needs of the local communities. A middle way needs to be found between underdevelopment
and over development through reinforcing local and regional identity.
Tourism should become true to historical and cultural identity in order to best sustain
the local economy. Already there is a ready appreciation of regional products in holiday
resorts and much demand for folklore events
as well as an enjoyment of the ambiance
of chalet life. The extensive, organic nature of the traditional alpine economy based on a
close harmony with nature and tried and tested savoir faire, although not as profitable
as the intensive factory farming and mass
production of the plains, is a tourist
asset as well as being an optimum means of conservation of both the natural and cultural
heritage.
Alp Action, from its inception in 1990,
has remained true to this grass roots philosophy and has launched 140 projects in the six
alpine countries to reintroduce species, protect habitats, plant trees, restore alpages
and monuments, sustain mountain products, create
paths to discover alpine life and landscapes.
Thanks to the generous and far sighted support of its partners, including
40 corporations ,as well as governments, ngos and the media, the private sector has played an
essential role in the preservation of a way of life and the quality of life.
There are many hopeful projects which promise
to add value to local production in a soft and sustainable way like the labels we
are talking of today which attest to the quality and authenticity of products from the
Pays d’Enhaut and the cooperative of Etivaz. or an Alp Action project, now ten years old, in
Hindelang Bavaria where incomes were augmented in return for the careful maintenance of
the landscapes. We have created for those products a label of ecological quality. Consumers,
whether tourists or not, are prepared to pay that small supplement which ensures the health
of everyone and the environment.
I would like to invite you today participate
in another leading sustainable tourism project The Cultural Trail
- which we will inaugurate tomorrow. This walk, through valley,
pass and peak, across the kaleidoscope of alpine
cultures owes its existence to our friends the Masterbakers, to whom we express deep
gratitude not least for the delicious breads we have dined on today. Together since 1994
we have encouraged the use or traditional cereal varieties baked in one of the oldest village
ovens in Switzerland at Blatten in the Lotschental Valais, and have promoted the Bread of
the Alps baked by artisan labour from specially milled, local, rye , wheat and durum flours.
In raising consciousness amongst tourists,
the tourist industry and the public at large, the role of the media is vital. The
very future of the alpine ecosystem depends on the good
behaviour of the
millions of visitors who every year savour the manifold delights and the
awe inspiring beauty
of these mountains. I am delighted to see so many here today who share this vision and with whom
we will work together to meet and overcome the challenges of today and tomorrow.
ENDS
Mallory´s
body found, Knoydart
rescued, Himalayan
glaciers-alarm grows, Everest
Forests-a Sherpa's view,
The epic of Mt. Everest, The state of the world mountains, My first summer
in Sierra
Poems and Belles letters, The Yellow brick Road
- Polemic, Paradise fishing at Autannes, Traditional
Solar Science,Dogs on high, Obituary,
Esme Percy, Web-sites for browsing
Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan on sustainable
mountain tourism
P.B. Stone on mountains under pressure (general overeview of so-called Mountain
problematique
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