Panel of speakers at ATC discuss transboundary conservation

The importance of sustainable tourism was emphasised on Tuesday at the ASEAN Tourism Conference (ATC) held during ATF 2010 in Brunei Darussalam.

Giving a presentation entitled Sustainable Tourism in Transboundary Conservation Areas, keynote speaker Hitesh Mehta, one of the world’s foremost leading authorities on eco-tourism, stressed the need for ASEAN to collaborate on making all tourism within the region sustainable.

Mehta said ASEAN needed to address several issues which included foresting and the poaching and trafficking of animals which is destroying other habitats around the world.

He urged governments to recognise that “a forest left standing is more important than one cut down” and that countries could make more money from its forests through conservation rather than chopping them down and selling it.

“Travellers want to do things that will make a difference” he said.

Mehta advised ASEAN to create transboundary conservation areas which would see rainforest habitats stretching across borders to have a single set of rules and regulations in order to reduce ecological damage.

However a panel discussion which followed pointed out that the main challenge of developing transboundary conservation areas within ASEAN was not having the motivation to do so, but how to do it.

Panel speakers included Mehta, Principal of Tony Charters and Associates Tony Charters, Group Managing Director of Asian Overland Services Tours & Travel Sdn. Bhd. Anthony Wong and Brunei’s Tourism Minister Dato Paduka Hj Hamdillah Hj Abd Wahab.

“The challenge is how, who is going to pay for it?” said Minister Paduka, adding that the government would not be able to pay for it alone and would need financial input from the private sector and stakeholders.