November 2010: The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has released a publication titled “Tourism and Biodiversity: Achieving Common Goals Towards Sustainability.” It considers the relationship between tourism and biodiversity, and assesses how tourism can contribute to protecting biodiversity and enhance biodiversity’s role as a main resource for tourism destinations.

According to UNWTO, the publication will support its activities on tourism and biodiversity in relation to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), which has a focus on a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication.

The publication includes chapters on: the value of biodiversity for tourism; understanding the economic value of biodiversity for tourism; the positive and negative impacts of tourism on biodiversity; biodiversity and sustainable tourism; the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Guidelines on Tourism and Development; the role of tourism in protecting biodiversity; links between tourism, poverty alleviation and biodiversity; and recommendations for actions on biodiversity and tourism by governments, international organizations, the tourism private sector and nongovernmental organizations. [Publication: Tourism and Biodiversity: Achieving Common Goals Towards Sustainability]