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CSD-7 Follow-up: Multi-Stakeholder Working Group Meeting on Tourism
Heredia, Costa Rica, 20-21 January 2000

Summary

This report refers to the first meeting of the Ad-hoc open-ended informal working group on tourism, held in Heredia, Costa Rica, on 20 and 21 January 2000.

This Working Group on Tourism (WGT), was established as a result of the 7th meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-7, April 1999), which in its decision 9:

Invites the United Nations Secretariat and the World Tourism Organization, in consultation with major groups and other relevant international organizations, to jointly facilitate the establishment of an ad hoc informal open-ended working group on tourism to assess financial leakages and determine how to maximize benefits for indigenous and local communities, and to prepare a joint initiative to improve information availability and capacity-building for participation, and address other matters relevant to the implementation of the international work programme on  sustainable tourism development.

WGT Decision 9

Further to CSD-7, the Inter Agency Committee on Sustainable Development (IACSD) meeting in Vienna in September 1999 entrusted the World Tourism Organization (WTO) with the task of convening this WGT prior to its next meeting, scheduled for 24th of January 2000, and reporting to it on the results achieved.

Participation

The WTO Secretariat sent invitations, in October 1999, to all major groups (stakeholders) represented at CSD-7, as well as to all UN agencies/members of the IACSD. The government sector was to be represented by the WTO Committee on Sustainable Development of Tourism, made up by 9 Member States plus France - on behalf of its Executive Council - and one representative from the WTO Business Council.

The meeting was kindly hosted by the Government of Costa Rica and was chaired by the President of the Costa Rica Tourism Institute. The complete list of participants is appended to this report.

The UN Division on Sustainable Development was asked to further stimulate the participation in the WGT activities of two important major groups, namely, the local authorities and the trade unions, both of which did not send representatives to this first meeting.

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Agenda

The agenda of the meeting was set up by WTO and it evolved around the constitution of the WGT, its membership, the way in which it would undertake its tasks, its internal communications procedures, its funding and other such operational and logistic aspects.

The actual work and study themes stipulated in the CSD-7 decisions' document were deliberately excluded from the first WGT meeting agenda, since it was thought important to sort out first the nature and composition of the working group.

Participants were also invited to pay a technical visit to the Costa Rican Institute for Biodiversity (INBIO), a non-governmental research organization that has been promoting biodiversity conservation, its sustainable utilization, education and, more recently, recreation activities for local residents and tourists.

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Deliberations and Resolutions

After initial introductions by representatives of the UN Division of Sustainable Development and WTO, all participants exchanged views on the role and functioning of the WGT.

It was noted that CSD-7 had decided on a long list of tasks but had made no funding provisions to undertake them. It was further recognized that several of the institutions present in the WGT as well as others had already carried out research or had ready-made information on the topics to be covered. Therefore, such information could be put at the WGT's disposal in order to avoid duplication, save time and resources, and show evidence of some progress being made.

The WGT deliberations lead to the adoption of the following resolutions:

• The composition of the Working Group will remain as established by CSD-7, namely governments, the four major groups (private sector, local authorities, NGOs and trade unions) and international organizations. Each stakeholder will have two representatives on the WG, however, the NGOs will have four representatives that will include two from its North sector and two from its South sector.
• The government representatives will be the members of the WTO's Committee for Sustainable Development of Tourism, i.e. ten Member States.
• The Secretariat of the WG will rotate between stakeholders for periods of six months each. The first period will be held by WTO, followed by UNEP. After the initial period, WTTC and NGOs will take turns.
• There will be an Executive Steering Committee (ESC) consisting of one representative of each of the stakeholders. This ESC will be chaired by WTO with the UN Division for Sustainable Development as Deputy-Chair and it will provide continuity and direction to the efforts and activities of the WG.
• The attached programme of activities has been agreed upon, within the four priority areas established by the resolutions of CSD-7:

• Assessment of financial leakage,
• Methods of maximizing benefits for local people,
• Information availability and dissemination, and
• Capacity-building for participation.

And utilizing the following criteria for establishing priorities:

• Does the activity fit within the four priority areas?
• Is there a responsible stakeholder that could lead the work?
• Is there sufficient documentation, human and financial resources, to carry it out?
• Can it realistically be implemented before the Rio + 10 summit in 2002?

The programme of activities could be extended and priorities decided upon according to the above criteria and resources available.

• Stakeholders will take responsibility (as lead agency) for activities in which they have expertise and can make a significant contribution to the work of the WG. Each lead agency will prepare a budget for each activity and submit it to the ESC.
• Organizations or institutions outside the membership of the WG can be invited to participate in the work by taking responsibility for, or contribute to a programme in an area where they have particular expertise.
• Consultations and communications between members will take place through e-mail and other technological means. Meetings will be reduced to a minimum.
• All members will continue to search for additional sources of manpower and finance for the Secretariat and the various programmes of the WG.

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Priority issues to be addressed by the WG from February 2000 through to the Rio + 10 Conference in 2002

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Acronyms & Abbreviations

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