Biodiversity and Sustainability

Biodiversity

• Describes the variety of biological organisms in a given habitat, area, or ecosystem
• Bio refers to life
• Diversity means variety

Biodiversity vs. Sustainability

• Biodiversity is a contraction of "biological diversity"
• Biodiversity maintains the health of the earth and its people
• Provides food and medicine
• Contributes to the economy
• Key indicator of the health of the biosphere
• A greater variety of species indicates a healthier biosphere

Sustainability

• Ability to maintain ecological processes over long periods
• Ability to maintain structure and function over time in the face of external stress
• Closely linked to ecosystem health
• The more sustainable an ecosystem, the healthier it is since it can deal with external stressors effectively
• Biodiversity contributes to the sustainability of an ecosystem

Midterms - Biodiversity and Sustainability

• Higher/more biodiversity equates to being more sustainable
• Lower/less biodiversity equates to being less sustainable
• High biodiversity signifies a great variety of species and genes in an ecosystem
• The more sustainable an ecosystem is, the better for the environment and people

Lake Winnipeg

• An ecosystem provides numerous resources:
• Fish for food and commercial use (revenue)
• Land and plants for food and revenue through agriculture
• Nutrients from biogeochemical cycles
• Water and landscape for tourism (beaches, etc.)

Types of Biodiversity

• Genetic diversity: all species on Earth are related through genetic connections
• Closely related species share more genetic information and appear more similar
• Members of a species share genes that determine how they look, behave, and live
• Species diversity: variety of species within a habitat or region
• Species are the basic units of biological classification
• Species richness refers to the number of different species in a given area
• Ecological Diversity: Intricate network of different species in local ecosystems
• Dynamic interplay among them
• Ecosystems consist of organisms from different species living together
• Connected through the flow of energy, nutrients, and matter
• The organisms of different species interact with one another
• The sun is the ultimate source of energy in ecosystems
• Solar radiant energy converted to chemical energy by plants
• Energy flows through systems as animals eat plants and are then eaten by other animals
• Fungi derive energy by decomposing organisms, releasing nutrients back into the soil

Benefits of Biodiversity

• Provisioning Services: food, clean water, timber, fiber, and genetic resources
• Regulating Services: climate, floods, disease, water quality, and pollination
• Cultural Services: recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefits
• Supporting Services: soil formation and nutrient cycling

Threats to Biodiversity

• Habitat Destruction: Protecting habitat is crucial for protecting biodiversity
• Increasing population puts pressure on habitat
• Global Climate Change: Changes in a biotic element of ecosystems lead to changed ecosystems
• Habitat Fragmentation: From human activity, and reduces a habitat's ability to support species
• Pollution: Pollutants such as nutrient overload or harmful chemicals are introduced
• Over-Exploitation: Illegal wildlife trade, overfishing, logging of tropical hardwoods
• Invasive Species: Introduced species that harms its environment
• Examples: lionfish, emeral ash borer, zebra mussel, kudzu
• Habitat Loss: An animal loses its home
• Every animal in the animal kingdom has a niche and community, and without their habitat they no longer have a niche
• Reasons of habitat loss by humans: agriculture and farming, harvesting natural resources, industrial and urbanization development

Threats to Biodiversity (cont.)

• Considered a primary cause of species extinction
• Solutions: Protect remaining habitat, reduce population, educate public
• Poaching: Hunting and harvesting of wild plants or animals
• Started in the Stone Age
• Continued through tribal natives
• Became a punishable offense in the Late Middle Ages

Conservation of Biodiversity

• Restoration of Biodiversity
• Importing Environmental Education
• Enacting, strengthening, and enforcing Environmental Legislation
• Population Control
• Reviewing agricultural practice
• Controlling Urbanization

Status of the Philippine Biodiversity

• Considered to be a mega diverse country
• Hosts more than 52,177 described species
• More than half are found nowhere else in the world
• A biodiversity hotspot
• Experiencing an alarming rate of destruction

Midterms -Philippine Biodiversity

• Has more than 52,177 described species, half of which are endemic

Tourism Impact

• An effect brought about directly or indirectly by tourism policies, establishments, infrastructure, and tourist behavior
• Impact is a change in a given state over time as a result of an external stimulus
• Can be categorized by scope, direction, type, scale, distribution, and duration
• Rarely one-dimensional
• A focus on tourism may make governments overzealous in nature at the expense of other factors

Kaingin System

• A system of intermittent clearing and burning of forests for cultivation, followed by a long fallow period

Direction of Change (Tourism)

• Impacts can be seen differently depending on a group's point of view

Objective vs. Subjective Impacts

• Actual/Objective impacts: backed by hard data
• Perceived/Subjective impacts: based on opinion

Midterms - Perceived Impacts

• Refers to someone’s opinion about impacts
• Influenced by social status, worldview, education, cultural views, and whether a person works directly/indirectly in tourism

Direct Tourism Impacts

• Actual expenditure by tourists

Indirect Tourism Impacts

• Secondary effects of tourism
• What happens as money flows through the economy

Temporal Dimension

• Cumulative: Changes to the environment caused by past, present, and future activities
• Immediate: Begins/valid immediately or from the stated time

Tourism-Induced Impacts

• Irreversible: About protecting threatened entities
• Reversible: Effect that mitigates over time if the cause is removed

Income Distribution

• Most income accrues to local elites
• Poor people are not able to take advantage of opportunities

Tourism Attraction System

• An attempt to view tourism as a system with an operational structure made of interacting components
• 1. Tourist generating region
• 2. Transit route region
• 3. Tourist destination region

A's Framework (Cruz, 2009)

• Access
• Accommodation
• Activities
• Attractions
• Amenities
• Atmosphere
• Attitude
• Administration
• Assistance
• Awareness

Strength of the Economy and Linkages

• Leakage: When products are imported or if you pay for expatriate managerial expertise
• How to minimize leakage? Buy local products and services

Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI)

• Factors and policies enabling tourism’s sustainable development
• Development and competitiveness of a country
• High TTCI scores attract tourists and economic benefits
• Based on four sub-indices and 14 components

Stakeholder's Power and Capacity

• Social Representation: How people construct knowledge about tourism
• Social Representations Theory: Where there is limited experience with tourism, a community develops its own understanding
• Environmental Discrimination: Environmental policies create unintended consequences
• Environmental Racism: Policies differentially affect groups based on race

Tourism Policy

• Embodied in laws, decrees, or local ordinances
• Defines tourism prioritization and spells out key strategies

Volume, Density, Or Ratio

• Tourism Density: Tourists at a given time in relation to the destination area
• Tourism ratio

Tourist Markets Served

• Tourist markets served determine impacts on host destinations
• Institutionalized Tourists: Organized Mass Tourist and Individual Mass Tourist
• Non-institutionalized Tourists: Explorers and Drifters
• Demonstration effect: How observing/imitating tourists influences behavior

Technology

• New aircraft reduce noise and greenhouse gas emissions
• Water pollution is abated by installing wastewater treatment facilities
• Tourist resorts install solar panels

Tourism Carrying Capacity

• Level of human activity an area can accommodate without deteriorating
• Maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination without causing destruction

Other Factors

• Factors as found be Ryan (2003): the emergence of bureaucrats, the rise of unlivable industrial cities which drove people to escape the physical crowding of the cities, and women's liberation as driving force for tourism development.

Direct Effects (Tourism)

• Occur when tourist spend
• Main source of tourism related spending are domestic tourism and spending, business sector spending, etc..

Indirect Contribution (Tourism)

• Comes in the form of investments in tourism, government spending, etc..

Dynamic Effects (Tourism)

• Refers to longer-term macro-level effects such as skill enhancement

Beneficial Impacts of Tourism on the Economy

• Jobs: Creates jobs and employment through the tourism value chain: suppliers of inputs and other entities benefit indirectly
• Livelihood Generation: Provides opportunities for other industries
• Farming communities can venture into agritourism offering farm related experiences
• Hometown's Share of Tourism Income: The tourism place of origin take shareable chunks of tourism revenue
• Taxes and Fees: Tourism industry generates collected taxes

Negative Impacts of Tourism on the Economy

• Leakages: Tourism can create high consumption so money leaves the local economy for products that could not be sourced locally and it makes its way to other industries
• Poor Quality of Jobs: Jobs suffer from low pay, poor security, and these practices are somewhat tolerated
• Price Increase: Tourist can generate demands which generates prices can increase
• Can suddenly effect the local economy because can augment of goods and services
• The price of goods and services increases including housing makes prices very expensive
• Overdependence: Tourism can cause a vulnerable climate to shocks
• Opportunity Costs: Requires cost to invest for tourism