What can tourism concessions do for protected areas

Andy Thompson

To help determine the most important objectives for a concession system and how to prioritize their importance, government leaders must consider what is important to them. The more focused a concession system is on its objectives; the more likely it is

USNPS Parks Canada New Zealand Department of Conservation

Ministry of Environment and Tourism

Namibia

Great Barrier Reef Marine

Park Authority Australia

No concessions: 600 contracts plus 6000 commercial use authorizations

2752 leases, licenses, business licenses

3700 concessions of which 43% are tourism related

45 940 (approx) tourism

Income concessions: US$74m US$7.4m US$12m (from tourism and other concessions)

US$1.7m US$7.3m (approx) through environ. mgmt charge

Staff (FTE): 200 (40 in HO) 30 25 3 22

Structure (centralised or decentralised):

Centralised admin for contracts over the value of US$5m

Centralised for large issues, decentralised for smaller contracts, relationship mgmt & monitoring

Regionalisedprocessing centres

Centralised Centralised processing & contract mgmt, field staff do compliance

Preferred allocation mechanism:

Tender for contracts, application for commercial use authorizations

Tender Receive applications from the private sector

Direct award to communities, tender, auction and some direct awards in special circumstances

Application on a first come, first served basis. Capped opportunities through EOI

Benefits Income Visitor services & facilities Managing overuse & impacts Economic (USA) & rural development Interpretation (Tasmania) & conservation advocacy, marketing &

promotion Regional security (Columbia) Economic empowerment of people living near the protected area

(Namibia) Biodiversity conservation (wilderness safaris)

To help determine the most important objectives for a concession system and how to prioritize their importance, government leaders must consider what is important to them. The more focused a concession system is on its objectives; the more likely it is

4 key elements to success

Element 1: Principles of good process

1. Well defined, transparent and consistent processes

2. Explicit, clear and transparent criteria

3. Decision-makers must be identifiable and independent from the process

4. Conflicts of interest need to be avoided

5. Natural justice principles need to apply

6. Processing and decision-making separation

Element 2: Systems approach

Organisational support

Transparency

Clear & fair decision making

Continuous improvement

Law & Policy

Database

Web info applicants

/public

EIA, monitor,

compliance

StaffStandard contracts

Planning

Process & procedure

Fees, cost recovery, incentives

Element 3: PAM

Plan Allocate Monitor

Element 4: Concession lifecycle

Application or tender

Assessment

Decision

Management

Expiry

conclusion

Income

Visitor services & facilities

Managing overuse & impacts

Economic & rural development

Interpretation & conservation advocacy, marketing & promotion

Regional security

Economic empowerment of people living near the protected area

Biodiversity conservation –individual concessionaires