Posts Tagged ‘United Nations’
NZx: the yellow brick road
Nau mai
This month we consider progress on NZ Inc’s drive towards sustainability.
One of the key drivers of wider sustainability goals is Tourism Aotearoa. Their most recent goals focus on four aspects: Visitor – Deliver outstanding visitor experiences Community – New Zealanders are welcoming hosts Environment – Aotearoa is enhanced by tourism Economic – Grow tourism’s contribution to New Zealand’s economy
“Since its release 18 months ago of the New Zealand Tourism Sustainability Commitment, now has more than 1000 tourism businesses signed up. Last year TIA and six other New Zealand organisations launched Tiaki – Care for New Zealand, an initiative that actively encourages international and domestic travellers to act as guardians of Aotearoa.”
Of course Tourism Aotearoa champions these achievements. However a close look at their performance suggests there is still a long way to go with the goal of minimizing tourism’s environmental footprint falling by 7%. Smaller falls are recorded in sustainable growth and community satisfaction. Overall the tourism industry’s scorecard sits at 8.1, well short of the 9.4 goal for 2025.
A quick look at the Ministry of Environments, Environment Aotearoa 2019, is sad reading. Key findings include:
Issue 1: Our native plants, animals, and ecosystems are under threat Issue 2: Changes to the vegetation on our land are degrading the soil and water Issue 3: Urban growth is reducing versatile land and native biodiversity Issue 4: Our waterways are polluted in farming areas Issue 5: Our environment is polluted in urban areas Issue 6: Taking water changes flows which affects our freshwater ecosystems Issue 7: The way we fish is affecting the health of our ocean environment Issue 8: New Zealand has high greenhouse gas emissions per person Issue 9: Climate change is already affecting Aotearoa New Zealand
And then we need to consider the this years UN Report. Its short and blunt stating “the most comprehensive and rigorous assessment on the state of the environment completed by the UN in the last five years has been published , warning that damage to the planet is so dire that people’s health will be increasingly threatened unless urgent action is taken.
The report, which was produced by 250 scientists and experts from more than 70 countries, says that either we drastically scale up environmental protections, or cities and regions in Asia, the Middle East and Africa could see millions of premature deaths by mid-century. It also warns that pollutants in our freshwater systems will see anti-microbial resistance become a major cause of death by 2050 and endocrine disruptors impact male and female fertility, as well as child neurodevelopment.
We could go on…..the point is we have all been here before. These issues are not new they have all been raised before, in fact since the late 1990’s.
New Zealand’s tourism industry was a world leader in the late 1990’s with the introduction of Green Globe 21, an environmental programme based on certified continual environment improvement. That was until political interference in the shape of Tourism New Zealand’s Qualmark programme, and poor leadership from Tourism Aotearoa’s predecessor (TIANZ) sunk this initiative.
Check this report out from 2004 in which Lincoln University questions:
How Clean and Green is New Zealand Tourism? Lifecycle and Future Environmental Impacts.
We have a lot to do and not a lot of time in which to do achieve real gains.
Nga mihi
Malcolm
NZx – September 30th : how to boost your social license to operate
Naumai
Last month we looked at some views on why NZ tourism needs to develop it’s social license to operate.
As previously noted, there are many definitions of how to obtain and maintain a social license to operate. At the micro level it’s about the concept of a project achieving ongoing approval of the local community and other stakeholders. That may be formal through processes such as the RMA or the DOC concession process or informal such as access agreements.
At the macro level it is how industry sectors work at a national level along similar lines, and particularly how they influence government.
The opportunity to achieve a social license to operate can be seen as an overall outcome. There is no rule book which defines the process, a method, tools or ways to achieve such an outcome.That is both an advantage and disadvantage.
Gavin Shepherd in the Te Awamutu Courier argues, that for the farming sector, “long-term profits on farm are more linked to these social perceptions than efficiency in production or scale at all costs”.
Dan Ormond, formerly partner at Ideas Shop, notes that, along with knowledge of who your market is and its size, “all aspects of engaging with stakeholders and developing sustainable business practices need to be communicated well in order to keep your business’s social license to operate”.
So how do we achieve such a license?
There seems to be general agreement on the following processes:
- identify key stakeholders (people affected by the project/sector) and continue to review these
- gain social acceptance based around legal, social,and cultural norms – both formal and informal
- gain credibility based on accurate and transparent information and importantly delivering on promises and representations that have been given
- gain trust from the local or national community based on being accountable, collaborative and sharing experiences
- deliver extensive and wide ranging communications across all channels that integrate all of the above.
In terms of a tourism perspective we note Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) comments that “globally tourism is today the 3rd largest export industry in the world after chemicals and fuels. Last year alone, 1.235 million travellers crossed international borders in one single year. By 2030, this 1.2 billion will become 1.8 billion”. Globally tourism has sustainable development as a key plank in all its 5 pillars:
- Economic: yielding inclusive growth;
- Social: bringing decent jobs and empowering communities;
- Environmental: preserving and enriching the environment and addressing climate change;
- Cultural: celebrating and preserving diversity, identity, and tangible and intangible culture, and
- Peace: as an essential prerequisite for development and progress.
As an aside the UN General Assembly declared 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. Who knew?
In NZ tourism faces some political issues and community fears. As Professor Chris Ryan noted immediately after the election, all major parties played lip service to developing integrated tourism policy. This remains an ongoing challenge for the industry but should not deter Tourism Aotearoa , Tourism New Zealand local Regional Tourism Organizations and tourism operators doing more in this space.
Regular snapshots of how NZ communities view tourism show a trend towards less acceptance at the current and particularly the projected levels of international tourism.
In summary, achieving and maintaining a social license to operate is a dynamic, long-term, holistic and vitally important process for both key industry sectors and individual operators. The difference being primarily the scale of the input.
As social scientist Kate Brooks states “Any industry, that operates, particularly using common resources like water or land, forests, has to concern themselves with social license to operate issues. It’s like somebody saying I want to come in and use your front yard (for my own profit).”
Ka kite ano
Cruise ship passengers Whangara Marae