Page 151 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

134 M. Adomßent and U. Stoltenberg

Biodiversity and Tourism

The tourism and leisure industry is one of the fastest growing economic sectors
worldwide. For many emerging economies it offers an important source of hard
currency and jobs, as well as less dependence on other economic sectors. Natural
habitats with higher levels of biological diversity are increasingly important to tour-
ist activities and nature-related offerings have become a significant growth segment
of the tourist industry. Paradoxically through fast and more or less uncontrolled
growth, tourism can also have the effect of destroying the environment and so con-
tribute to the loss of local identities and traditional cultures (Wilde and Slob 2007).
However tourism, especially nature-related travel, has considerable potential
for contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.
Income can be used for the conservation of natural resources, with sustainable
tourism making a contribution to economic development particularly of remote
regions (Vancura 2008).

Biodiversity and Land Use

As one of the greatest threats to biodiversity is the use of land for housing develop-
ment and transport infrastructure, it is essential to make the conservation of biodiver-
sity an integrated task of urban development and comprehensive spatial planning.
Sustainability communication can make use of research findings on new meth-
ods of construction that take account of social, economic and cultural aspects. Other
concepts involve securing the survival of flora and fauna through the use of bio-
corridors, for example across highways, through cooperation in the spatial planning
of biotope networks and through the alternative use of green spaces. For urban areas
green axes and watercourses can be planned to run through built up areas. But also
the quality of urban green spaces must be reconceived, by cultivating neighbour-
hood gardens with agricultural plants or replacing biodiversity-poor park lawn areas
with domestic trees and shrubs (Müller et al. 2010).

Biodiversity and Wilderness

With the exception of five high-biodiversity wilderness areas world-wide, high
levels of biological diversity are not necessarily found in a given wilderness area,
and so the goals of biodiversity and those of wilderness conservation are not con-
gruent. However even if, following Mittermeier et al. (2003), barely 20% of plants
and 10% of terrestrial vertebrate animals are endemic in wilderness areas (such as
Amazonia, the Congo, New Guinea, the Miomba-Mopana woodlands and the
North American deserts), these refuges play an important role in a global pers-
pective, including as a control variable for measuring the health of our planet.