GS Paper III

News Excerpt:

The Central government has set out to promote tourism at Ecologically Sensitive Wetlands, better known as Ramsar sites.

About the news:

Alternative Livelihood Programme (ALP):

• It was launched by the Ministry of Tourism (MoT) in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC) under the Amrit Dharohar Capacity Building Scheme-2023 in Sultanpur National Park, a Ramsar Site in Haryana.
  • The two ministries are training facilitators, tourism service providers, and stakeholders for strengthening nature tourism at Ramsar sites in association with the State Tourism Department.
• Under this initiative, the Indian Institute of Tourism & Travel Management (IITTM), an autonomous body under MoT, in collaboration with MoEFCC, will build the capacity of local community members around different Ramsar sites in order to strengthen nature tourism at these sites and provide alternative livelihood to the local community, with the help of State Forest Department.

Objective:

• The aim is to enhance local communities' livelihood opportunities by harnessing the nature-tourism potential of the Ramsar Sites across the country.
• 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 is based on an area's natural attractions, like birdwatching, photography, stargazing, camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, and visiting parks.

Identification and capacity building:

• Currently, 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, and 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).
• A total of 30 participants have been trained at each of the Ramsar sites for 15 days each under the Alternative Livelihood Programme (ALP) at Sultanpur (Haryana), Yashwant Sagar and Sirpur (Madhya Pradesh).
• At Bhitarkanika and Chilika in Odisha, two training programmes of 15 days, namely the Alternative Livelihood Programme (ALP) and the Paryatan Navik Certificate (boatman certification for tourism), will soon be completed.
• A total of 60 participants (30 for each course) are being trained at these sites.
• A special conference is also being organised in the first week of February in Indore to formulate SOPs and guidelines for the States and other stakeholders.

Conclusion:

Wetlands are important for conserving global biological diversity and sustaining human life through the maintenance of their ecosystem components, processes and services. Hence, focusing on nature tourism at these Ramsar sites is important.

Mains PYQ

Q. What is wetland? Explain the Ramsar concept of ‘wise use’ in the context of wetland conservation. Cite two examples of Ramsar sites from India. (UPSC 2018)