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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

21/01/24 09:58 AM IST

Wetland ‘nature tourism’

In News
  • The Central government has embarked on a mission to promote tourism at ecologically-sensitive wetlands better known as Ramsar sites like Odisha’s Chilika lake and Haryana’s Sultanpur bird sanctuary.
Features
  • The focus would be to shift these fragile wetlands from high-value tourism to nature tourism by directly supporting conservation action and letting local communities and economies take the lead.
  • India has 75 Ramsar sites. Odisha’s Chilka Lake and Bhitarkarnika Mangroves, West Bengal’s Sundarbans, Chitrangudi Bird Sancturary in Tamil Nadu are some of the well-known Ramsar sites in India.
  • The initiative to develop these sites has been taken by the Union Tourism Ministry and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change under the ‘Amrit Dharohar Capacity Building Scheme’ 2023.
  • The Amrit Dharohar scheme will promote unique conservation values of the Ramsar Sites in the country while generating employment opportunities and supporting local livelihoods.
  • The scheme is being implemented in convergence with various Central Government ministries and agencies, State wetland authorities, and a network of formal and informal institutions and individuals, working together for a common cause.
  • The aim is to enhance livelihood opportunities for local communities through harnessing the nature-tourism potential of the Ramsar Sites across the country.
  • The two ministries are training facilitators, tourism service providers, stakeholders for strengthening of nature tourism at Ramsar sites in association with the State Tourism Department.
  • The focus is to shift the high-volume tourism at these fragile wetlands to high-value nature tourism, directly supporting conservation action, local communities and economies.
  • Nature tourism on the other hand is tourism based on the natural attractions of an area like birdwatching, photography, stargazing, camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, and visiting parks.
  • These are experiential tourists who are interested in a diversity of natural and cultural resources.
  • As of now, 16 Ramsar sites have been identified out of which 5 have been taken up as a pilot project for skill development of the facilitators, tourism service providers, stakeholders in and around these sites.
  • These five wetlands are Sultanpur National Park (Haryana), Bhitarkanika Mangroves (Odisha), Chilika Lake (Odisha), Sirpur (Madhya Pradesh) and Yashwant Sagar (Madhya Pradesh).
  • At Bhitarkanika and Chilika in Odisha, two training programmes of 15 days each namely Alternative Livelihood Programme (ALP) and Paryatan Navik Certificate (boatman certification for tourism) will soon be completed. A total of 60 participants (30 for each course) is being trained at these sites.
Wetland
  • A Ramsar site is a wetland designated to be of international importance under an environmental treaty signed in February 1971 at Ramsar, Iran under the auspices of UNESCO.
  • Ramsar identifies wetlands of international importance, especially those providing waterfowl habitat.
  • It provides for national action and international cooperation regarding the conservation of wetlands, and wise sustainable use of their resources.
Source- The Hindu

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