Nature is essential to Travel & Tourism. It is integral for sector growth and prosperity, from its vital ecosystem services to the uniqueness it provides global destinations. More than that, nature supplies clean air, fresh water and food, it supports human development and our resilience to viral pandemics and offers solutions to climate change. Life simply cannot do without it.
Yet, our collective ecological footprint now far exceeds Earth’s rate of regeneration. Cumulative human activity has resulted in widespread loss of natural habitat and biodiversity, with an average 68% decline in the abundance of wildlife and 1 in 4 species now facing extinction. The scientific community is calling on businesses to make “big systematic changes and fast” to address “the huge scale of the challenges we are facing.” The costs of action will be far less than the costs of inaction. Everyone will be affected unless everyone plays their part.
Travel & Tourism can contribute to biodiversity loss, but it can also advance nature conservation. Taking direct action to reduce impacts and restore nature, while encouraging supply chains and destination partners to do the same, can protect our planet and also boost tourism appeal. Managed well, Travel & Tourism can reconnect people with nature, invest in species protection through effective community-led partnerships and play a leading role in a nature-positive future.
As global governments consider the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (nature’s equivalent of the Paris Climate Accords), the private sector can play a defining role. Where Travel & Tourism has an opportunity to lead by example and integrate biodiversity safeguards by adopting a nature-positive approach. This involves halting and reversing damage to nature so that the whole living world can recover from its current depleted state by minimising ongoing harm and taking positive action to restore nature. In this way, Travel & Tourism can produce an overall benefit to biodiversity while ensuring a more sustainable and resilient sector and helping achieve Net Zero.
This report offers a starting point for Travel & Tourism to understand the need for a Nature Positive approach. It explains how businesses can embed these values into their operations and what measures are necessary to manage and mitigate risks while leveraging positive action. It includes a Nature Positive Toolbox which offers practical guidance, case studies and a glossary, as well as Recommendations to guide stakeholders towards Nature Positive Travel & Tourism.
The Business Case for Nature
• More than 80% of the value of Travel & Tourism goods and services is highly dependent on nature – from the demand for raw materials to the popularity of nature-based tourism.
• Nature plays an essential role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, with more biodiverse habitats typically storing more carbon and being more resilient to climate change.
• An Economist Intelligence Unit survey found that over 90% of people, across the world, are concerned about the loss of animal and plant species.
• Businesses around the world are likely to be required to assess and disclose the impact and dependencies on biodiversity and report on actions to avoid or minimise harmful practices and to protect biodiversity and restore nature.
• Travel & Tourism businesses are supportive of a Nature Positive agenda but there is limited understanding of the fundamental concepts and what actions are necessary to put a Nature Positive commitment into practice.
• Travel & Tourism should adopt the Nature Positive approach as an integral part of business, working with destination partners and suppliers to halt any exploitation or degradation of the natural world while undertaking and enabling additional actions to restore nature.
During this “make-or-break decade”, Travel & Tourism needs to adopt a Nature Positive approach and act in partnership with others to reach the global goal to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and help build a better world.
Nature is essential to Travel & Tourism. It is integral for sector growth and prosperity, from its vital ecosystem services to the uniqueness it provides global destinations. More than that, nature supplies clean air, fresh water and food, it supports human development and our resilience to viral pandemics and offers solutions to climate change. Life simply cannot do without it.
Yet, our collective ecological footprint now far exceeds Earth’s rate of regeneration. Cumulative human activity has resulted in widespread loss of natural habitat and biodiversity, with an average 68% decline in the abundance of wildlife and 1 in 4 species now facing extinction. The scientific community is calling on businesses to make “big systematic changes and fast” to address “the huge scale of the challenges we are facing.” The costs of action will be far less than the costs of inaction. Everyone will be affected unless everyone plays their part.
Travel & Tourism can contribute to biodiversity loss, but it can also advance nature conservation. Taking direct action to reduce impacts and restore nature, while encouraging supply chains and destination partners to do the same, can protect our planet and also boost tourism appeal. Managed well, Travel & Tourism can reconnect people with nature, invest in species protection through effective community-led partnerships and play a leading role in a nature-positive future.
As global governments consider the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (nature’s equivalent of the Paris Climate Accords), the private sector can play a defining role. Where Travel & Tourism has an opportunity to lead by example and integrate biodiversity safeguards by adopting a nature-positive approach. This involves halting and reversing damage to nature so that the whole living world can recover from its current depleted state by minimising ongoing harm and taking positive action to restore nature. In this way, Travel & Tourism can produce an overall benefit to biodiversity while ensuring a more sustainable and resilient sector and helping achieve Net Zero.
This report offers a starting point for Travel & Tourism to understand the need for a Nature Positive approach. It explains how businesses can embed these values into their operations and what measures are necessary to manage and mitigate risks while leveraging positive action. It includes a Nature Positive Toolbox which offers practical guidance, case studies and a glossary, as well as Recommendations to guide stakeholders towards Nature Positive Travel & Tourism.
The Business Case for Nature
• More than 80% of the value of Travel & Tourism goods and services is highly dependent on nature – from the demand for raw materials to the popularity of nature-based tourism.
• Nature plays an essential role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, with more biodiverse habitats typically storing more carbon and being more resilient to climate change.
• An Economist Intelligence Unit survey found that over 90% of people, across the world, are concerned about the loss of animal and plant species.
• Businesses around the world are likely to be required to assess and disclose the impact and dependencies on biodiversity and report on actions to avoid or minimise harmful practices and to protect biodiversity and restore nature.
• Travel & Tourism businesses are supportive of a Nature Positive agenda but there is limited understanding of the fundamental concepts and what actions are necessary to put a Nature Positive commitment into practice.
• Travel & Tourism should adopt the Nature Positive approach as an integral part of business, working with destination partners and suppliers to halt any exploitation or degradation of the natural world while undertaking and enabling additional actions to restore nature.
During this “make-or-break decade”, Travel & Tourism needs to adopt a Nature Positive approach and act in partnership with others to reach the global goal to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and help build a better world.
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